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I was about to write in a mail addressed to an important person "I find hard to believe that I'm speaking to you".
I had a doubt though, so I tried looking for it on a search engine.
I thus found out that it has apparently never been used on the web.
I tried also "I find it hard to believe that I'm speaking to you", same result.
I was rather sure that it was correct, but it seems unlikely after these findings.
Can you confirm me if it's incorrect, and if so why and what alternative might I use?
"I find hard to believe that I'm speaking to you". incorrect
"I find it hard to believe that I'm speaking to you". correct
"I can't believe I'm (actually/finally) speaking to you." correct
have opinion/feeling
I find it amazing that they're still together.
find something + noun She finds it a strain to meet new people.
http://www.oxfordlearnersdictionaries.com/definition/english/find_1
Cathy's right in that "it" is required.
To add to cathy's answer, I'm not totally sure, but I believe the "it" is required because the verb "find" is transitive(meaning it is a verb that requires an object).
Without "it", the sentence is incomplete. The first clause, expressing a belief, lacks a direct object describing what is difficult to believe. Isolating that clause (because I believe it functions as an independent clause) looks like:
"I find [] hard to believe"
This has an obvious hole to a native speaker without an additional word, and a dependent clause doesn't help because it won't function as a direct object for "find". "It", as a pronoun, fills this hole and from context refers to the dependent clause as the antecedent.
