Meaning
The phrase it dawns on someone that… means that a person suddenly realizes or understands something—often after not noticing it before.
Structure
The typical sentence structure is:
It dawns on [someone] that [clause].
Example: It dawned on me that I had left my keys at home.
Examples
- It finally dawned on her that he wasn’t coming back.
- It dawned on the team that they had misunderstood the instructions.
- It never dawned on him to check the weather before leaving.
Notes
- This expression often implies a delayed realization.
- It’s commonly used in past tense (dawned) but can appear in present or future contexts too.
- The “it” is a dummy subject—the real focus is the clause after “that.”