Introductory it as Subject

The 'amaze' and 'sadden' group

These verbs indicate how a situation or question makes someone feel. This includes making them feel puzzled because they cannot understand something or do not know how to answer a question. The noun group always indicates a human being.

This is a productive use and occurs occasionally with a large number of verbs indicating the emotional effect of something, such as anger, astonish, astound, baffle, confuse, fascinate, infuriate, interest, intrigue, shake, startle, and trouble. The verbs listed below are those for which this pattern is frequent.

It amazed me how many plastic shopping bags were given out by cashiers in large supermarkets.

It beats me why sales, particularly in a recession, are still running at £300 million a year.

You believed in something bigger: your own sense of morality. It didn't concern you whether a thing was illegal or dangerous but whether it was right.

For years afterwards it puzzled me why the television always used to break down when sport was on.

It saddened me how these children have accepted life in detention as normal.

amaze

amuse

annoy

beat

bother

bug

comfort

concern

depress

grieve