Giving a text its structure

Entry thirty-five is importa referir que, and it is built on a verb with nothing in front of it. Importa has no subject, and none is missing: Portuguese lets a verb stand alone whenever what counts is the statement that follows rather than the person making it. The same shape returns one entry later in resta dizer que, and it runs through the whole written register — convém sublinhar que, basta lembrar que, trata-se de. English cannot copy any of it, because a finite English verb must have a subject even when there is nobody to be one. So the sentence is built round a placeholder: « it should be noted that nothing has changed », « it remains to be said that the cost is high », « it is worth recalling that ». That « it » stands for nothing whatever; it is there because the grammar will not start a clause without a subject, and it is the same « it » as in « it is raining ». Two consequences follow. The connector gains two words on the way into English, which makes it heavier and worth spending less often; and the shortcut that suggests itself, « matters to note that », is not a sentence at all.