Impersonal construction in English. Personal, indefinitely personal and impersonal sentences in English

The British love precision, so English language the main thing is to maintain a clear sentence structure. Everything must be ordered: first the subject, then the predicate, then minor members sentences, etc. However, in English there are such sentences that are called impersonal. It is difficult to compare them with chaotic impersonal sentences devoid of a subject in the Russian language like “Vecherelo”, “Svetalo”, since in these structures there is still a subject. But first things first.

3 types of offers you need to know about

In English, as in Russian, there are 3 types of sentences: personal, indefinitely personal and impersonal.

In personal sentences, the subject expresses a person, thing or concept. Everything is simple here: The child began to cry.

In indefinite-personal sentences, the subject is expressed by an indefinite person. The functions of the subject of an indefinite-personal sentence in English are performed by the pronouns one, you or they.

• One must be graceful to his parents. - You need to be grateful to your parents.
• You never guess what she may bring next time. (— One never guess...) — You’ll never guess (it’s hard to say) what she might bring next time.
• You may walk along the street without meeting one. — You can (you can/you can) walk along the street and not meet anyone.
• They say that a new mall will be built here next year. - They say that in next year A new shopping center will be built here.

In Russian, a sentence that lacks a subject is called impersonal: Winter. Light. Cold. It's frosty. Dark. It's time to leave. Impersonal offers in English, as noted above, are not devoid of a subject. However, it does not express the person or object performing the action. The function of the so-called “formal” subject is performed by the pronoun it, which, as a rule, is not translated into Russian.

Cases of using impersonal constructions

• When indicating time, distance, natural phenomena, weather conditions, emotional state person.
  • It is 3 o'clock. 3 hours.
  • It is late. Late.
  • It is ten miles from here. (It is) ten miles from here.
  • It is summer. Summer.
  • It is frosty. It's frosty.
  • It is raining (snowing). It is raining (snowing).
• In the presence of such impersonal phrases as it seems (it seems), it appears (obviously, apparently), it happens (it turns out).
  • It seems that I’ve forgotten my identity card at home. — It seems that I forgot my passport at home.
  • It appears that he will win. - Obviously he will win.
  • It happened that nobody had made homework. — It turned out that no one had done their homework.

2 types of impersonal offers

In English they come in two types: nominal and verbal. The first got their name due to the presence of an adjective in their structure. Their structure includes the verb to be and they are formed according to the following scheme:

subject + linking verb to be + nominal predicate + object

Let's look at examples of nominal impersonal sentence structures in the table.

Examples of verbal impersonal sentence structures.

Construction of interrogatives and negative forms verbal impersonal sentences occur according to general rules ordinary verbal predicates: taken into account grammatical tense, used in a sentence, and auxiliary words necessary to pose a question are used.

Beginner mistakes

The most common mistake beginners make is trying to translate impersonal sentences verbatim. Even the simplest sentences can be translated correctly by understanding the following rules:

• do not rush to translate if in Russian the sentence begins with indirect pronouns: me, him, her, them, us. Think carefully about how to say this in the English manner;
• remember that in English a sentence always begins with a subject, and if this subject is a pronoun, then it must certainly be in the nominative case: he, she, it, I, you, they, we, but not us, them, me, him , her.

Below are examples of designs in which beginners most often make mistakes.

• I don't like this novel = I don't like this novel. — I don’t like this novel. (Me not like this novel).
• She has a son. = She has a son. - She has a son. (Here be a son.)
• I'm Katya. = My name is Katya. = I am Katya. — My name is Kate. I am Kate. (Me is Kate).
• They live well. = They live well. - They live well. (Them lives good).

Exercises for consolidation

To better understand all the listed rules, the impersonality of the sentence and consolidate your knowledge, try doing a simple translation exercise:

1. It will be hot …
2. It's stuffy...
3. It was raining and snowing on Monday...
4. Three days ago it was warmer...
5. It will be cold in March...

In Russian, we can easily construct sentences consisting of one word: “It’s cold. Hot. Difficult. Late".

But how to do this in English?

After all, English has its own word order, and the sentence must contain the main thing actor.

Therefore, according to the rules of the English language, we cannot translate these sentences “in Russian” in one word: “Cold. Hot. Difficult. Late."

To build them there is a special construction It is, which I will tell you about in this article.

From the article you will learn:

• How to construct impersonal sentences in English

What are impersonal sentences?

Impersonal sentences are those sentences in which no main character . Let's look at this with an example.

We use impersonal offers:

1. To describe weather and natural phenomena
For example: It's cold. Dark.

2. To indicate time, date, day of the week, etc.
For example: 6 hours. Monday.

3. To indicate distance
For example: Far. Close.

4. To express the speaker's opinion
For example: Fun. Difficult.

Attention: Confused about English rules? Find out how to easily understand English grammar.

To construct such sentences in English, you need to use it is construction.

Let's look at it in detail.

Rules for the formation of impersonal sentences in English

Such sentences are formed very simply: using the pronoun it and the verb to be at the right time. Offer outline:

It + verb to be + other parts of the sentence

It does not indicate a person and is not translated into Russian, but in the formation of a sentence it takes on the role of the main character.

Verb to be - special kind verb. We use it when we say that someone:

• Located somewhere (He's in the park)
• Is someone (She's a nurse)
• Is somehow (The cat is gray)

Depending on the tense in which we use this verb, in combination with the pronoun it, it changes its form:

In present time Present Simple- It is...= It’s….

It is hot.
Hot.

It is 5 o'clock.
5 o'clock.

In the past time Past Simple- It was...

Itwas dark.
It was dark.

It was easy.
It was easy.

In the future tense Future Simple -Itwill be…

It will be difficult.
It will be hard.

It will be fun.
It will be fun.

Negation in impersonal sentences in English

Sometimes we need to say negative sentences: "Not difficult. Not windy. Not far." To form such sentences, we need to add a negative particle not to the verb to be.

The outline of such a proposal:

It + verb to be + not + other parts of the sentence

We can construct such negative sentences in the present, past, and future tenses.

In the present tense Present Simple - It is not…= It’s not...

It's not important.
Doesn't matter.

It’ snot cold.
Not cold.

In the past tense Past Simple - Itwasnot…

It wasn't funny.
It wasn't funny.

It wasn't dark.
It wasn't dark.

INfuturetimeFuture Simple - It will not be… = It won’t be…

Will it be windy?
Will it be windy?

So now you know what impersonal sentences are. Let's get to practice.

Reinforcement task with the It is structure

Translate the following sentences into English. Leave your answers in the comments:

1. Friday.
2. It will be difficult.
3. Was it interesting?
4. 6 hours.
5. Not far.
6. Will it be fun?

But here, in the same way, there is a clear difference in the constructions of the Russian impersonal and the English impersonal. And the first thing you need to do is focus yourself on this difference, understand what it’s about.

In Russian impersonal sentences there is no subject of action at all. In the indefinitely personal he is, this subject, the one who acts. His name and place of residence are simply unknown. “Do they like Shakespeare in your country?” - this is a vaguely personal turn of phrase. “Yes, in our country they love Shakespeare very much.” Who? Well, someone loves, since he claims. But who exactly? – we don’t know. That is, in indefinitely personal phrases there is a character, he is only not defined. And what kind of Russian impersonal sentences do we say that there is no character at all? “It’s getting light,” “it’s getting dark,” “it’s getting colder,” “it’s getting warmer” - these are all Russian full-fledged sentences of the impersonal type for Russian grammar. Or, for example, now we will read in Retman: “Today it is very warm, yesterday it was much colder” - both parts of this sentence are impersonal for Russians. See, “It’s very warm today.” Where is the character here? "Today"? No, this is a circumstance of time - when? And then comes the “warmth”. “It’s warm today” - that’s all. There is nothing at all in impersonal Russian sentences except the information itself. And that suited us. And when we take this proposal to English translation, they say: “No, guys. Here we are again forced to argue. We are prohibited from putting such proposals into practice.”

And therefore, the British build their impersonal sentences using not just an artificial subject, but with the help of an artificial construction from a subject and a verb. And these designs are: it is, it was, it will be. First of all these three. They are not translated into Russian. Well, the verb can be translated, but the subject is never translated into Russian.

Example: " It is cold today" - "it is cold today". " It was much warmer yesterday" This sentence is in Present Indefinite Tense because today, and therefore is. This sentence is in Past Indefinite Tense - yesterday, and here it is was. And it needs to be translated from the end: “Yesterday it was much warmer.”

The British have a lot of such proposals. And sometimes they are understandable to a Russian, like these. And sometimes Russians start to grab their heads. See example: " ItwaslatespringwhenStevefirstmetJane" Translation into Russian: “There was late spring when Steve first saw Jane." You will say: “Well, this is no big deal, it’s completely incomprehensible.” Why spring is not the subject here? After all, for the Russians “It was spring,” what did spring do? - was. Here's the subject, here's the action. Friends, no, this is not a subject. Spring- this is a circumstance of time. When did Steve first meet Jane? - when it was spring, late spring. And this sentence can be easily remade, then everything will really become clear: “He met her in late spring.” Or " in early spring he met her.” Then it is 100% clear that this is not a subject. You will say: “Well, okay, okay, let’s not argue with this. But here's what's due to you Steve and action met" Yes, everything is really correct here. Steve actor, met- his actions. And if this sentence were rewritten starting with the word Steve: « StevefirstmetJanewhenwas... or simply… inlatespring… or … lateinspring”, then this proposal would become personal. Because we would have focused everything on Steve. But since we started the sentence with this word, and made it the subject, then everything that follows it is forced to be included in general game. This sentence is considered impersonal.

Sometimes it is difficult for us to understand each other with Russians. See an example from our famous American, we have already quoted him. His novel “For Whom the Bells Toll.” There is a phrase there: “ It was drizzling rain when our plane landed in Madrid" Who is author? ErnestHemingway. For Russians, the sentence will be translated correctly as follows: “It was lightly raining when our plane landed in Madrid.” This sentence can be translated in another way: “drizzled light rain when our plane landed in Madrid." But no matter how you translate it into Russian, and no matter how it turns out to be personal for the Russians, I don’t know, in English it is here. And in English this is an impersonal type.

(Wed.) Itwas is a sign that it is impersonal?

(Ex.) Yes, although it maybe 100% in personal version. « Itismyfriend" - "this is my friend" - it is considered in in this case personal. " Itisatable" - "this is a table" - this is a personal case. We translated it into Russian in this case the word it- This. And here is the same one it, it would seem, but we didn’t translate it into Russian. We didn’t say, “It was raining.” We said: “There was a light rain/drizzle.”

(Art.) That is, it won’t be a mistake if we translate it not in an impersonal form, but in a personal form? Wouldn't that be a mistake? Let's say that when constructing an English sentence it is impersonal, but in translation it was translated as a personal sentence.

(Ex.) Try it.

(Art.) You yourself said, “It was raining lightly.”

(Ex.) I walked... I found a pie. The English don't rain at all. For them, rain works either as a noun - rain(rain), or itself becomes a verb – torain. That's all. And in Russian torain, look into normal good dictionary, there should be a translation like this: to go (about rain). And if you say rain went, everyone will move five meters away from you, looking at you warily. They will say: “You can expect anything from such a person if it rains ( went)».

(St.) No, I understand writing in English. And when translating into Russian, is it necessary to dodge and translate it, too, impersonally, or can it be translated personally?

(Ex.) I just said this. I said that it often happens that for them it is impersonal, but for Russians it becomes personal - “It was raining.” Although I’m also not very sure that “It Was Raining” is personal. “It was drizzling lightly,” maybe.

(Art.) It can be translated as “It was rainy when our plane...”.

(Ex.) “It was rainy”, if you want to use it, they will take a slightly different transfer scheme. They'll say " Itwasrainy" Here it is literally: “It was rainy.” But this is not in Russian, by the way. You can't say that in Russian.

In short, I say again, “It was lightly raining when our plane landed in Madrid.” This is how it should be written. And for the British this is a 100% impersonal offer. There is no actor. And the fact that it was “raining” for the Russians doesn’t bother the British.

(Art.) A drizzling This?

(Ex.) We will soon pass the “weather” and take it all there.

English impersonal phrases also include the following: “ It'sveryfarfromheretomynativecity" One complains to the other, feels not very comfortable in some kind of new country, environment and says: “ It'sveryfarfromheretomynativecity" Translation: "From here to mine" hometown very far". Often instead of a word native they will take myhomecity. This is also a normal image for them: “the city of my home.” For the Russians, I don’t know what it is, it’s clearly impersonal. “Far away” there is not even a character, there is nothing, there is no subject, there is not even a predicate. They have a subject, and a predicate, but both are actually artificial.

To the impersonal English sentences sentences with the following phrases also apply: itseems(it seems) it can work in Past’e. I don’t remember from which author, but there is a phrase like this: “ Itseemednobodynoticedherleave- “no one seemed to notice how she left.” This is a purely English literary phrase from the original text, not one bit simplified to suit the Russian mentality. You can translate it a little differently: “no one seemed to notice her leaving.”

(Art.) Leave how can a noun work?

Let's move on. This was the first. Second - ithappens. This is an impersonal turn. There is no longer a verb here is, but it's still an impersonal version. Translation into Russian: “it turns out.” There are a million sentences from Russians like this: “It turns out that it was he who helped us.”

And third - itappears(obviously, apparently). There are a little more of them, these revolutions, but you should know these three, because they work everystep.

Your questions, ladies and gentlemen?

(Art.) Sentences with only personal pronouns?

(Ex.) Why? “Mr Pickwick came later than usual” - personal. There must be a person, and what it is expressed by is a person, a pronoun, or a surname, or a proper name (table) - these are all personal. “The window was dirty and you couldn’t see anything through it.” "Window" character. This is a personal offer.

Attention, if everything is clear, we take Retman, because this is exactly where he started.

Do you agree that this is alternative question ? Do you agree that it is impersonal in both its parts? Do you agree that its first part is built in Present Indefinite (Simple), and the second in Present Continuous Tense(Progressive)? Could this be possible? Yes, of course, here's your confirmation. By the way, the Russians “ it's raining", and we have "isitraining" This is “rainy”, “rainy” for that matter.

You laugh, but in Alaska we were clearly taught exactly the same way as gold miners did in the 19th century. They go out into the street and spit in front of them, and if the saliva reaches the ground liquid, it’s normal, you can work on the street. And if already in flight it begins to crackle in these few seconds, a fraction of a second, and falls like ice, you can’t work that day, you can catch a cold in your lungs. They have a very interesting situation in Alaska. They have mountains in the middle of the state, very high 7000-meter mountains, the highest in the entire North American continent. In the South, the Cordilleras and Andes are high. And in America there are mountains, although the Rocky Mountains, all this is in the southern States. When you fly, say, from San Francisco towards Dallas, you fly through this entire territory. That's what they're called -RockyMountains(Rocky Mountains). But they are not that tall. And there are 7000 nicknames. Even though it’s cold, there’s always eternal snow at the top, even in summer. So, up to these mountains from the south the weather is very decent, somewhat reminiscent of Vologda, Pskov, cool, but very decent. It happens until 23-25 ​​in the summer. There are heaps of berries, fish like this are caught in mountain rivers. All of America comes there, fishes and generally relaxes. But as soon as you cross the mountains, that’s it, there’s already the Arctic Ocean, and even in summer it never gets more than 5 degrees. Well, in winter there is complete revelry.

Open the 66th for a second, find the drawing. Everything there is already on fire, it seems, but he says “it’s hot”, not just warm, but hot. All.Friends, let's stop there.

In English, as in Russian, there are many types of different sentences. From simple and complex, which are divided into complex and complex, to impersonal. In speech, we quite often use sentences such as: “Spring. It was getting dark. It’s getting colder,” etc.

Such sentences are called impersonal (“ impersonal sentences"), since the sentence does not indicate the person performing the action, and often the action itself is missing.

We suggest you dive a little into grammar and find out all the details in this section of English. Go!

What are impersonal sentences in English?

Impersonal offers(impersonal sentences) - a special type of sentence in which the character cannot be clearly identified: (he?) is getting colder, (she?) is getting colder, (it?) is getting colder.

In Russian, compared to English, everything is much simpler, since we can freely use only one word, which will already be a whole sentence.

The grammatical structure of sentences in English is quite strict. In order to correctly construct an impersonal sentence, you need to remember that you can’t get by with just one English word. Therefore, an impersonal English sentence is essentially a sentence with formal subject « it", since the specificity of English requires the use of a holistic grammatical framework.

Thus, if in Russian we say: “Rainy”, then in English it will be: “ It's rainy" We will examine in more detail the nuances of using impersonal sentences in English below.

When to use impersonal sentences

There are quite a lot different cases the use of the pronoun “it” in impersonal sentences in English, but one of the most common examples is the weather, because the weather is the favorite topic of conversation for any self-respecting Englishman.

A few examples for clarity:

It's rainy. - It is rainy.
It's foggy. - It's foggy.
It's sunny. - Sunny.

As you can see from the above examples, "it" is always subject to, albeit formal. With the weather we can use the verb " to be» in the present tense (Present Simple), followed by adjective; or instead of simply using temporary form"Present Continuous", namely:

It's getting better.- Getting better.
It's getting foggy. - It's getting foggy.
It's getting hotter. - It's getting hotter.

Important to remember! The Simple & Continuous tense line is used in the present, past and future. Respectively:

• is - was- will be(for simple tense);
• is getting - was getting - will be getting(for a long time).

The English impersonal sentence also occurs when we mean years, days or dates. Since time is an inanimate noun, we never use pronouns such as: “ I», « you», « he" or " we" The only companion is " it" Examples:

Hey,Samantha!What time is it?-It's 2 o'clock, Sam.
Hey Samantha! What time is it now? - Two hours, Sam.

It's Monday.It is time to get up and make breakfast.
Monday. It's time to get up and make breakfast.

It"s the 24th of March. My man and I have a wedding anniversary today.
Twenty-fourth March. Today is my husband and I's wedding anniversary.

When we talk about time, or rather about a specific period of time that is required to achieve a specific goal, it is not uncommon to use the connective “ it takes / it lasts", which may be followed by an infinitive.

Conclusion

In general, impersonal sentences in English should not present much difficulty. The main thing is to understand whether the topic of the situation really requires the use of such a sentence; use the pronoun “it” and the desired form of the verb depending on the tense and type of sentence: affirmation, negation, question.

Believe you can speak English and you're halfway there!

Big and friendly EnglishDom family

Studying foreign language- a rather complex process that requires concentration, a lot of time and regular practice. This is important if you want to become fluent in the language at a conversational level. Learning to assemble famous words into one sentence may seem very simple, but this is only at first glance. This is especially noticeable for those who study on their own. To do this, we advise you to understand the classification of structures.

If we talk about the types of sentences based on the subject, they are divided into:

• personal;
• vaguely personal;
• impersonal.

In our article we will dwell in more detail on impersonal sentences: we will explain why they are used, when they are appropriate or necessary, and consider the features of construction and types.

Impersonal constructions – this topic is one of the most important in English grammar. Proposals of this type are widespread. Their peculiarity lies in the absence of indication of the person who performs the action. If we talk about the Russian language, the following constructions can serve as an example: “Winter. It was getting dark. It's getting colder." Distinctive feature, with the help of which impersonal sentences are defined - it consists of only one word, which is the subject or predicate.

Unlike our native language, in English they are constructed differently, corresponding certain rules. Constructions without the main members of the sentence are not allowed here and will be perceived by foreigners as a set of unrelated words. In order for the text to carry a semantic load, it is important to follow the rules of word order. When the subject comes first and the predicate comes after it, it will be an affirmative sentence. When asking a question, the reverse word order is used: the predicate, and then the subject. Therefore, when writing or in colloquial speech set your priorities correctly. First of all, find the main members of the sentence, and only then add secondary words.

So, where to start to get it right? The pronoun it and the verb to be (sometimes other verbs are used) - here keywords, which create the basis of an impersonal grammatical construction. The phrase is built according to the principle direct order. At the same time, it is not translated in any way.

What are impersonal sentences used for?

You cannot learn something without understanding why it is needed. Here is a classification of cases in which you cannot do without impersonal structures. These include:

· Description of natural phenomena:

• It is light. – It’s light.
• It is held. - Cold.

· Weather description:

It is rainy. - It is rainy.

More complex sentences are often used in English:
It is snowing for the whole night. - It snows all night.
It often rains in autumn. - It often rains in autumn.

· Answering the question: “What time is it?”:

• It is 6.30 p.m. - It's half past seven now.

· Indicating time and distance:

• It is 9 o’clock - It’s 9 o’clock now.
• It is close from here. - Close to here.
• When we reach the peninsula, it will be 1 p.m. – When we reach the peninsula, it will already be one in the morning.

· Translation of adverbs: difficult, easy, possible, early, late, far:

• It is late to go to the store. - It's too late to go to the store.
• It is easy to do sit-ups. – It’s easy to do squats.

· Indicating the amount of time required to complete an action:

• It takes me 40 minutes to go to school. – The journey to school takes me 40 minutes.
• It will take him 2 hours to repair his the car. - He will need 2 hours to fix the car.

· With the verbs believe, know, understand, expect, say, report, think, consider, used in the passive voice:.

• It is believed that the author’s cakes are difficult to prepare. – It is believed that designer cakes are difficult to prepare.
• She is expected to leave soon. “She is expected to leave soon.”

For creating interrogative sentence the pronoun and verb must be swapped.

For example: Is it interested for you to watch a movie? – Are you interested in watching the film?

To build a negative construction, use the particle not by adding it to the verb to be: It is not complicated to swim brace. - Swimming breaststroke is difficult.

Now that you are familiar with impersonal constructions, we suggest you consolidate the material you have covered yourself. Make up phrases using your lexicon. You can try to write short story with minimal inclusion of pronouns. For the first time, we recommend taking a simple topic, for example, “Seasons.” Don't forget that competent text creation is the foundation of spoken English. This is why it is important to pay Special attention rules for forming sentences and not to ignore questions that arise during lessons.