What are the impersonal verbs

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The verb is one of the most important classes of words when forming a complete sentence since, as its definition says, the verb is a class of word that expresses actions, processes, states or existence that affect people or things and that has a variation of time, aspect, mode, voice, number and person. Of course, not all verbs are personal.

What is an impersonal verb? And what are the verbs that make up that list of impersonal verbs? Next, in this lesson from unPROFESOR.com, we are going to know the definition of impersonal verbs, the most common and some examples so you can have some references. Do not miss it!

Index

1. What is an impersonal verb
2. What are impersonal verbs?
3. Reflex impersonal sentences
4. Impersonal sentences with an unspoken subject
5. Examples of impersonal verbs

An impersonal verb, also known as a defective verb, are those that are conjugated only in the third person singular, and almost all describe atmospheric phenomena.

Example: It hardly ever rains in Almería.

In this sentence, for example, we cannot conjugate the verb "Rains"in other verb forms. He could never tell Pedro rains in Almería, so it is an impersonal verb.

The impersonal verb, by not incorporating a personal pronoun, they lack a subject in a sentence, hence its name of impersonal. It is important not to confuse sentences with impersonal verbs with those sentences that do have a subject but this is omitted.

For example: You are dancing in the rain.

In this case the subject of the sentence is dancing, not the rain, so it does have a subject that, in this case, is omitted (he or she).

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Impersonal verbs, which are the ones that build impersonal sentences, are mainly those that have meteorological data. But are not the only ones. There are other verbs that can become impersonal at any given time. Let's get to know them.

• Meteorological impersonal verbs: rain, snow, thunder, dawn, dusk. This thundering out there.
• To have: with the expression 'hay' it becomes an impersonal verb form. There are many things to visit in Siena.
• Make. Today makes very cold.
• To be. Already it is very late
• To be. Yesterday was sunny.

In most cases, verbs become impersonal either due to atmospheric phenomena or due to temporal issues. Likewise, there are expressions that follow an impersonal verbal structure and that are categorized as 'impersonal expressions'.

Impersonal expressions

In Spanish there are numerous impersonal expressions, although the most common are the following:

• Being + name. It is a pity that we can't see each other.
• Ser + adjective. It is important Finish the job.
• Estar + adverb + que / infinitive. It's wrong that fool people /It's wrong to cheat to the people.
• Suffice / remain. Enough / leftover with going late.
• Seem. Seems at night.
• Give. Gives nice to see you play the clarinet.
• Be treated. It is about to think of something nice.

Those prayers that are formed with the pronoun I know, they are called reflex impersonal sentences. These sentences are constructed with a verb conjugated in the third person singular, as in the previous cases. They are formed with different verbs. Let's see it.

• With the verb to be. It is better in summer than in winter.
• With intransitive verbs, that is, those that lack a direct object. In summer falls asleep worse because it is very hot.
• With transitive verbs: it must be taken into account that transitive verbs are accompanied by a noun element that indicates a person or a thing. In the case of impersonal sentences, the transitive verb will always be accompanied by the preposition to. He interviewed a well-known modernist painter.
• In case the direct object that accompanies the transitive verb refers to a thing, we would not be dealing with an impersonal sentence, but rather a reflex passive sentence. In the passive reflex, the subject of the sentence, called the patient subject, accompanies the verb and agrees with it in number. Nothing to do with impersonal sentences. Cars for sale secondhand.

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There are also impersonal sentences where the subject is tacit, that is, it is about a generic subject which is not expressed in any of the cases for different reasons. Why is the subject omitted? Let's see it.

• Unawareness: in these cases the subject is omitted because it is not known. They stole my wallet.
• Volunteer: You may not want to reveal the subject, so it is skipped directly. They gave me tickets to the circus.
• Indeterminacy: for lack of determination or resolution of a person. They say the dance teacher is on leave.

Likewise, impersonal sentences with an unspoken subject they can be of various types regardless of the omission of the subject:

• Eventual impersonal: they are always formed with the verb in the third person plural. They call to the door.
• Impersonal in the second person singular: Despite being formulated in the second person singular, it is a generic sense, so there is no explicit subject. In this job, if not do you have a good attitude, you don't survive.
• Impersonal with 'one / one': they accompany the verb in the third person singular and are used in either a generic or neutral sense. One you get used to the facilities quickly.

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Here are some examples of impersonal verbs that you have to always keep in mind:

• Nightfall early in winter.
• It is said that that the mayor will give a speech today.
• Makes much that we do not see each other.
• It's raining since this morning.
• Never snows In our city.
• Can be I'm late
• Flashes with great force during storms.
• There are a lot of traffic on this street.
• ¡It's raining a lot of!
• In the past week hail for three days in a row.
• Today dawned very late.

If you are interested in grammar, do not forget to visit the grammar and linguistics section of unPROFESOR.com to continue knowing the Spanish language in depth.

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If you want to read more articles similar to What are impersonal verbs: examples, we recommend that you enter our category of Grammar and Linguistics.

• Martínez Jiménez, José Antonio; Muñoz Marquina, Francisco; Sarrión Mora, Miguel Ángel (2011). Word classes (III). The verb. Spanish Language and Literature (Akal edition). Madrid: Akal Sociedad Anónima
• Gómez Torrego, L.: Grammatical impersonality: description and norm, Arco Libros, Madrid, 1992.