the one time during the week

[keannu]

Can it be paraphrased to "That my father insisted I should be around was the one time during the week"?
In Korea, we call this structure "true subject-false subject sentence".

35. Sunday dinner was a huge event in my household. It was the one time during the week that my father insisted I should be around. My older brothers and sisters would come over with their kids, everyone would sit around the dining room table, and there would be huge plates of food in the middle of the table.

 

[The Maltese Falcon]

No, you really do need all the words in the original sentence.

 

[MikeNewYork]

The original sentence is fine. In AmE you could drop the word "should". That would leave "insisted that I be around". That construction is the mandative subjunctive.

 

[emsr2d2]

That works in BrE too. You can also omit "that".

It was the one time during the week my father insisted I be around.

 

[MikeNewYork]

Good point.

 

[tzfujimino]

Hello.
The 'it' in your sentence refers to 'Sunday dinner' - it's not a 'preparatory it'.
:-D

 

[keannu]

Do you mean like this? So is "the one time= Sunday dinner" treated as an adverb phrase?

ex)My father insisted I should be around "the one time during the week".

 

[keannu]

I don't think "it" here refers to "Sunday dinner", but the underlined "that" clause. What do you call this structure in Japan?

It was the one time during the week that my father insisted I should be around.

 

[MikeNewYork]

"It" does refer to Sunday dinner.

 

[tzfujimino]

I don't think "it" here refers to "Sunday dinner", but the underlined "that" clause. What do you call this structure in Japan?

It was the one time during the week that my father insisted I should be around.

Hello, keannu.:-D
Well, if I translated the Japanese equivalent into English, it would be something like a 'formal subject construction'.

Example sentences using the 'preparatory it':

1. It is not surprising that he doesn't want to come.
=That he doesn't want to come is not surprising.

2. It is not necessary to repeat the whole thing.
=To repeat the whole thing is not necessary.

However, your sentence in the original post doesn't use this construction.
If it were "It (=Sunday dinner) was the one time during the week [when my father insisted I should be around]", it might have been easier for you to understand the construction. [when my father insisted I should be around] is the relative clause that modifies the one time.

I hope you'll understand what I mean.