Impersonal verbs (unpersönliche Verben) are verbs that don’t have a true subject, in that they describe actions that “just happen.” In German, impersonal verbs use the “dummy” subject es meaning it and are always used in the third person singular form. For example:
Weather verbs like regnen are classic impersonal verbs, however impersonal verbs can be used to describe situations that are not weather-related as well. Let’s learn more!
Personal vs. impersonal verbs
Most verbs in German are personal verbs, meaning that they can be used with a variety of different subject pronouns in different “persons” (e.g. first person, second person, third person, etc.).
Impersonal verbs, on the other hand, can only take one subject: the pronoun es meaning it. This is parallel to the English “dummy it” pronoun. These verbs cannot be used with a noun as their subject or with any other pronoun besides es.
What are “partly personal” verbs in German?
“Partly personal” verbs in German are a subgroup of impersonal verbs that sometimes take third person subjects other than es meaning it.
Like normal impersonal verbs, though, these still describe situations that “just arise,” so the third person subject usually does not do anything intentionally to cause the situation being described. Also, these verbs still cannot be used with “I,” “we,” or “you” subjects.
You can find a list of verbs like this in our impersonal verbs reference sheet.
Which German verbs are impersonal?
In German, a few different types of verbs can be used as impersonal verbs, including:
weather verbs
verbs for emotions and feelings
verbs for sounds and noise
other impersonal verbs
Of these, only weather verbs are “purely impersonal,” meaning that they can only be used as impersonal verbs, while the other types are impersonal in some uses but not others. Let’s have a look!
If you’d rather skip to a list of verbs, though, check out this list of impersonal verbs in German!
Weather verbs
Weather verbs are the most common impersonal verbs and the only ones that are exclusively used in the 3rd person singular — they don’t have a personal use. They are used in sentences describing weather phenomena like raining (regnen), snowing (schneien), storm (stürmen) or thunder and lightning (donnern, blitzen).
In all these examples, es stands for a situation or state to which no concrete subject can be assigned. Note that es falls in the same position as any other subject. It is classically at the beginning of the sentence, but not always.
A very common impersonal construction in describing weather comes in this form:
weather phenomenon
You can use this to say that it’s sunny (sonnig), windy (windig), cloudy (bewölkt), foggy (neblig), hot (heiss) or cold (cold)!
Verbs conveying emotions and feelings
Verbs pertaining to emotions, feelings, or bodily sensations can often be used as impersonal verbs, though they generally also have personal uses. Many of these fall into the “partly personal” category, in that the subject can either be es or in the third person.
For example, if your skin is itchy, you might use an impersonal sentence to say:
But you could also use a personal sentence, to describe the same situation:
In impersonal sentences like this, the person experiencing the sensation is given in the accusative case:
Other verbs like this include weh tun meaning to hurt, schmerzen meaning to hurt, kribbeln meaning to tingle or bluten meaning to bleed. Note that verbs expressing bodily sensations primarily take body parts or experiences as their subject!
Verbs of sound and noise
Verbs of sound and noise can be impersonal, when you want to express simply that the noise is being made:
But if you’re describing what’s making the noise, they’re personal verbs:
Other sound related verbs behave in a similar way, e.g. läuten meaning to ring, klopfen meaning to knock, poltern meaning to rumble, dröhnen meaning to roar, pfeifen meaning to whistle etc.
Other personal verbs with impersonal uses
A few other personal verbs have some uses that are impersonal. We’ve already seen how sein meaning to be can be impersonal when discussing weather.
Another common verb like this is geben, which can mean “to give” but it can also be used much like the English phrase “there is” or “there are.” In this second use, it is impersonal:
Another example is gehen meaning to go, which is personal when used for movement, but can also have impersonal senses.
Another example is riechen meaning to smell, which is used impersonally to describe the general state of a room or space.
A few other verbs like this include ziehen meaning to pull, gehen meaning to go, laufen meaning to run, brennen meaning to burn, and spuken meaning to haunt. Check out this list of verbs with personal and impersonal uses for more examples!
Summary
Today, you have learned about impersonal verbs in German. We discussed that:
Impersonal verbs can only have es meaning it as their subject, and they typically describe situations that just happen or arise on their own, without volition.
The most impersonal verbs describe weather.
Some verbs have both personal and impersonal uses. These include verbs pertaining to sensations and sounds, but also some other verbs like geben meaning there is, there are, gehen meaning to go, riechen meaning to smell, and more.
German verbs are full of surprises: today we have learned that they even have a personality (or a lack thereof)! Now you're well equipped to tackle a few German impersonal verb exercises and to use the weather as your next German conversation starter!
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