Back অকর্তৃক ক্রিয়া Bengali/Bangla Verb dic'hour Breton Verb impersonal Catalan Impersonal German Απρόσωπα ρήματα Greek Umbisikuline tegumood Estonian Verbe impersonnel French Személytelen ige Hungarian Ópersónuleg sögn Icelandic Verbo impersonale Italian
In linguistics, an impersonal verb is one that has no determinate subject. For example, in the sentence "It rains", rain is an impersonal verb and the pronoun it corresponds to an exophoric referrent. In many languages the verb takes a third person singular inflection and often appears with an expletive subject. In the active voice, impersonal verbs can be used to express operation of nature, mental distress, and acts with no reference to the doer.[1] Impersonal verbs are also called weather verbs because they frequently appear in the context of weather description.[2] Also, indefinite pronouns may be called "impersonal", as they refer to an unknown person, like one or someone, and there is overlap between the use of the two.
- ^ Loureiro-Porto, L. (2010). A Review of Early English Impersonals: Evidence from Necessity Verbs. English Studies, 91(6), 674-699.
- ^ tex's French grammar. Retrieved on 12 March 2012.