What type of "it" is used in this sentence:
It had been agreed that they should all meet in the big barn as soon as Mr. Jones was safely out of the way.
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As the sentence can be reformulated (rather inelegantly) into << That they should all meet in the big barn as soon as Mr. Jones was safely out of the way had been agreed. >>, it is an it-cleft (cleft sentence). As Nordquist states: << An it-cleft begins with nonreferential it (the "cleft pronoun") >> – Edwin Ashworth Mar 25 '24 at 15:04
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Does this answer your question? How to distinguish it-cleft and extraposition? 'It was Ben that found it' v 'It was clear that Ben found it' Or ... It's my children who want me to ...? 'dummy it') – Edwin Ashworth Mar 25 '24 at 15:07