Hi, people! I've been often thinking about the "I hate / love it when..." constructions... in a native-speaker's mind, doesn't it sound like a redundancy? For example: I hate / love it when people laugh. it = when people laugh (the neutral pronoun is related to the next sentence itself). A quick search on Google shows that phrases with the "it" bit occur much more times than without it, so... that redundancy may be only on my mind, right? Please Register or Log in to view the hidden image! cheers
First thought: it is a little clearer with the 'it'. I love when people laugh. could mean that when people laugh I love (something else). For example, when it rains I love (to be with my boyfriend.) Unless the context gives us something the 'it' could be referring to we apply it to the second part of the sentence.
People do say "I love..." something, when they actually mean that they hate it. That is merely a textbook example of sarcasm: saying the opposite of what you mean as a strange form of humor. It's like people saying "I could care less," when what they really mean is "I couldn't care less." Sarcasm works best when accompanied by a tone of voice characteristic of the form, helping the listener understand the intention. It's very difficult to do in writing.
I'm not sure about that. "It" could be substituted with "life", as in : "I love life when X happens". Or maybe try: "I hate a situation when X happens". What about, "I love the outcome when X happens"? And to Fraggle,while I agree that "love" gets used in place of "hate", I'm not sure I see a relation at all to sarcasm in the OPs question. Also, I think most people who say "could care less" just don't understand or think about the phrase and intend no sarcasm. Of course "I couldn't care less" is a simple declarative statement that requires no sarcastic intent.
People often substitute "love" for "hate" in sarcastic comments. "Don't you just love it when they close the gate and raise the bridge right after the last car in front of you got to drive across?" The opposite is not nearly as common, and I can't even think of a good example. Yeah, I think you're right. It's just become an idiom, so it would be invalid to break it apart and analyze it grammatically. It still bothers me though.
