Impersonal sentences are the rules in English. Impersonal sentences in English: the construction It is

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 are we saying, that there is no actor? “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? Suppose, when constructing English sentences 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.

Impersonal English sentences also include sentences with the following phrases: 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 such Russian sentences: “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 is cold, there is 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.

Impersonal constructions ( Impersonal constructions) V English language are a fairly common way of constructing sentences. In these sentences we do not indicate the person performing the action. It remains behind the scenes because there is no information about it, or we simply don’t care who performs the action. In Russian, such sentences are organized very simply: “Autumn. Twilight. It's getting colder." These words are impersonal sentences consisting of just one subject or one predicate.

In the English language, we build impersonal sentences on a different principle, because the rules of grammar do not allow such free use of the main members of the sentence as in the Russian language. And a sentence in which there is no subject or predicate is generally considered grammatically incorrect and is translated into Russian in the style of “You don’t understand mine.”

The thing is that the order of words in the English language is fixed, and it is this that makes the sentence meaningful. For affirmative proposals Direct word order is typical, that is, the subject comes first, then the predicate. Interrogative sentences have reverse order words, that is, we first put the predicate, and then the subject. Therefore, when we build a sentence in English, first of all we find those words that take the place of the subject and predicate, and then we put in whatever we want.

• Don't forget to check out our article "".

In cases where the subject is not found in any way, we use the impersonal pronoun it. It does not indicate the person and is not translated into Russian, but it retains the entire structure of the English sentence, working, of course, in tandem with the predicate. In most cases, the predicate in such sentences is the verb to be in present, past or future tense. By filling in the subject and predicate positions using it And to be, we followed the rule direct order words based on the principle: put formal subject it and predicate - verb to be or another verb. Essentially, we have created a grammatically correct sentence.

Such impersonal sentences in English are used in the following cases:

1. To describe natural phenomena.
   

   It is dark. - It's dark.

2. To describe the state of the weather.
   

   It is windy. - It's windy.

   At the same time, often impersonal constructions are built with verbs to rain, to snow, to hail, to drizzle.

   It was raining for the whole day yesterday. – It rained all day yesterday.

   It often snows in winter. - It's snowing frequently in the winter.

3. To answer the question: “What time is it?”
   

   It is 8.20 p.m. – It’s 8:20 now.

4. To indicate time and distance.
   

   It is 8 a.m. - It's 8 o'clock now.

   It is far away from here. - Far away from here.

   When we reach the city, it will be 2 a.m.. - When we reach the city, it will already be it will be 2 am.

5. To translate adverbs: perhaps, difficult, late, easy, early, far.
   

   It is late for the child to go for a walk. - To kid late to go for a walk.

   It is easy for me to study English. - To me easily learn English language.

   It is very far for us to walk there. - There very far go.

6. To indicate the amount of time it takes to complete an action. Here we use the construction It takes... to... (corresponds to Russian: “I need... time to do something”; “it takes me... time to...").
   

   It takes me about an hour to do my morning exercise. – It takes me about an hour to exercise in the morning.

   It will take her 20 min. to do her make-up. – She will need 20 minutes to apply makeup.

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

   It is believed that English is easy to study. – It is believed that English is easy to learn.

   It is expected that he will arrive soon. - He is expected to arrive soon.

   It is reported that the election was a success. – They report that the elections were successful.

The interrogative form of an impersonal sentence in English is formed by changing the places of the main members of the sentence. Verb to be we put it in first place, and the pronoun it- on the second.

Is it easy for you to speak English? – Is it easy for you to speak English?

The negative form of impersonal sentences is formed using a negative particle not, which is added to the verb form to be.

It is not difficult to play tennis. – Tennis is not difficult to play.

Be sure to use these wonderful designs! They will help you dive into deep structure English language and understand the mentality of the British.

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Test

Impersonal offers in English

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Fill in the gaps using the given word and impersonal construction.

Windy, spring, was snowing, 6 a.m., far (question), midnight, difficult (negative), me (present), him (future), easy (question).

Exercise 1.

The weather is awful. .

Task 2.

I like this time of year. now.

Task 3.

during the night.

The English language differs from the Russian language in that a sentence must have a subject and a predicate, the main clauses of the sentence.

Construction of impersonal sentences

However, often sentences lack an actor and a verb denoting action. Thus, the sentence becomes impersonal, but a subject and predicate are formally necessary to maintain the structure of the sentence. In this case, the place of the subject is replaced by an impersonal pronoun, if it can be called that, it. And the function of the predicate will be performed by a copular verb to be.

For example, It is hot today. Today it's hot.

The most common impersonal sentences in English are sentences about the weather, seasons, time, distance, etc. Today we will look at suggestions about the weather and seasons. In Russian, impersonal sentences sound like this.
It's cold outside. Winter. It's getting dark.

In English, such sentences can be constructed using general scheme: it + to be + adjective, noun.

Dictionary “Weather, seasons” (listen)

In order to learn to talk about weather and seasons, we need an active vocabulary.

Adjectives (weather)

Cold cold

Warm warm

Hot hot

Cool cool

Windy [ʹwındı] windy

Cloudy [ʹklaʋdı] cloudy

Sunny [ʹsʌnı] sunny

Rainy [ʹreını] rainy

Snowy [ʹsnəʋı] snowy

Frosty [ʹfrɔstı] frosty

Nouns (seasons)
Summer [ʹsʌmə] summer

Autumn [ʹɔ:təm] autumn

Winter [ʹwıntə] winter

Spring spring

Read all the words carefully and make sure they are pronounced correctly.

Learning to talk about the weather

To describe the weather outside, we just need to put the pronoun at the beginning of the sentence it, linking verb to be and a necessary adjective. We know that in the present tense the verb to be has three forms (am, is, are). Let's remember what happens with the pronoun it we use form is.

It is cold today. It is cloudy today. It is cold today. Today is cloudy.

If we want to describe what the weather was like yesterday, we will need past form verb to be. We know that this verb has two forms in the past tense (was, were). With a pronoun it we use form was.

It was sunny and warm yesterday. Yesterday it was sunny and warm.

When talking about the time of year, we construct a sentence in a similar way.
It is spring now. Spring is now.

An interesting fact is that in the UK the favorite topic of conversation is the weather. Any conversation, be it a meeting of friends, colleagues or relatives, begins with questions:

It is a nice day today, isn’t it? Nice day, isn't it?

The answers to these questions that we discussed above are assumed.

Now you know that when traveling to the UK, according to the rules of etiquette, the conversation should begin with a question about the weather. In response, they will definitely ask you about the weather of the city or country where you live.

Lesson assignments

Exercise 1. Answer the question.
What is the structure of an impersonal sentence in English?

Exercise 2. Answer the following questions.
1. What is the weather like today?
2. What season is it now?
3. What is the usual weather like in winter, summer, spring, autumn in Russia?
4. What is the usual weather like in winter, summer, spring, autumn in Great Britain?
5. What is your favorite season?
6. What weather do you like?

Exercise 1.
It + to be + adjective/noun Exercise 2.
1. It is...
2. It is... (spring, summer, autumn, winter)
3. In winter it is usually cold and snowy in Russia. In spring it is usually warm and sunny in Russia. In summer it is usually hot and sunny in Russia. In autumn it is usually cloudy and rainy in Russia.
4. In winter it is usually cold in Great Britain. In spring it is usually warm and sunny in Great Britain. In summer it is usually hot and sunny in Great Britain. In autumn it is usually cloudy and rainy in Great Britain.
5. My favorite season is…
6. I like …(cold, warm…) weather.

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 have a main character.

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 construction it is.

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 (Gray cat)

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?

We all remember the immortal lines of the poem: “Night. Street. Flashlight. Pharmacy." I wonder if anyone has thought about translating these words? Maybe, "Night. Street. Streetlight. Drugstore?"

In fact, such a translation will not be entirely correct. We remember Golden Rule In English there are no sentences without a verb. And in our translation, it turns out, it happens. What to do when there is no verb? Many people don’t bother for long and translate Russian thought word by word into English without thinking about grammar. It is then that we deal with the so-called Russian-English language. It is precisely such “actions” that reveal both the origin of the user and his, unfortunately, low level of language knowledge.

The situation with the formal absence of a verb is resolved as follows:

If there is no doer (subject) and action (predicate), then we are dealing with an impersonal sentence. An impersonal sentence is a sentence that conveys a state, not an action, and does not have a person to whom this state is characteristic.

In Russian, we often encounter such sentences: “It’s cold outside,” “It’s five o’clock,” “Today is Thursday.” Please note that all these sentences convey a certain state - weather and temporary. In addition, we will not be able to answer the question “Who does this?” and identify the subject. Therefore we are dealing with impersonal sentences.

There's another one little trick, how to find the “missing” verb and thereby recognize an impersonal sentence. Put it in the past tense: “Cold” - “It was cold.” Here is our verb that surfaced! This means that it exists and we need to use the impersonal sentence structure for translation.

In English, these sentences are constructed according to the scheme It + be at the right time . In accordance with this scheme, our examples will be translated as follows:

• It is cold outside.
• It is five o'clock now.
• It is Thursday today.

In general, there are generalized semantic categories of sentences, which are most often impersonal.

Table. Impersonal sentences in English

Category	Example
	It's 4 p.m. It's 3 o'clock. It's half past nine.
	It's windy. It's cloudy.
Distance	It’s 5 kilometers to my country house.

However, the scheme It + be in the right tense works only if it is followed by nominal parts of speech: nouns, adjectives, adverbs, numerals. Please note that in all our examples this rule is followed. But what about, for example, such options as “Burns”, “Hurts”, etc.?

In the last examples we have the opposite situation: there is a verb, but there is no producer of the action. Then you just need to put the impersonal pronoun it before this verb.

• It stings
• It hurts

The fact is that it is the pronoun it (it) and gives impersonality to sentences, while maintaining the normal word order - subject, predicate and other members of the sentence.