Impersonal Verb in Various Languages
In some languages such as English, French, German and Dutch, an impersonal verb always takes an impersonal pronoun (it in English, il in French, es in German, het in Dutch) as its syntactical subject:
- It snowed yesterday. (English)
- Il a neigé hier. (French)
- Il risque de pleuvoir. (Title of a novel by Emmanuelle Heidsieck)
- Es schneite gestern. (German)
- Het sneeuwde gisteren. (Dutch)
Occasionally an impersonal verb will allow a noun to appear in apposition to the impersonal pronoun:
- It is raining diamonds.
Or as an instrumental adjunct:
- It was pouring with rain. (British)
- Весь декабрь заливало дождём.
In some other languages (necessarily null subject languages and typically pro-drop languages), such as Portuguese, Spanish, Occitan, Catalan, Italian, Romanian, in Hungarian and all the Slavic languages, an impersonal verb takes no subject at all, but it is conjugated in the third-person singular, which is much as though it had a third-person, singular subject.
- Nevó ayer. (Spanish)
- Nevou ontem. (Portuguese)
- Ha nevicato ieri. (Italian)
- Sniježilo je jučer. (Croatian)
- Havazott tegnap. (Hungarian)
- Вчера вееше снег. / Včera veeše sneg. (Macedonian)
Other languages, those which require a subject, may permit an adjunct to assume that role.
- Unfortunately the next day poured with rain.
Read more about this topic: Impersonal Verb
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