Impersonal Verb

Understanding Impersonal Verbs

An impersonal verb is a verb that does not have a specific grammatical subject that performs the action. Instead, it often uses a dummy pronoun like ‘it’ to fill the subject position, particularly when referring to weather phenomena or general states.

Key Concepts

• No specific subject: The action isn’t performed by a person or thing.
• Dummy subject ‘it’: Commonly used in expressions like ‘It is raining’.
• Often weather-related: Verbs like ‘rain’, ‘snow’, ‘hail’, and ‘dusk’.

Deep Dive

Unlike transitive or intransitive verbs, impersonal verbs don’t express an action performed by a noun. The ‘it’ in sentences like ‘It is cold’ or ‘It seems late’ is a placeholder, not a true subject. This contrasts with sentences where ‘it’ refers to a previously mentioned noun.

Applications

Impersonal verbs are essential for describing natural events and general conditions. They allow us to communicate about the environment without needing to specify an agent. For example, ‘It appears to be working’ uses an impersonal verb construction.

Challenges & Misconceptions

A common misconception is that ‘it’ is always a pronoun referring to something. In impersonal constructions, ‘it’ serves a purely grammatical function. Another point of confusion is distinguishing between impersonal verbs and verbs used intransitively with a specific subject.

FAQs

• What is an example of an impersonal verb? ‘It rains.’
• Does ‘it’ always refer to something? Not in impersonal verb constructions.
• Are all weather verbs impersonal? Most are, but context matters.