Impersonal verbs

‘It is snowing’ is an example of an impersonal verb. There is no subject – ‘it’ is the subject, but you don’t really know what ‘it’ refers to.

‘Es gibt’ is the most important impersonal construction. It means ‘there is’ or ‘there are’.

Sentences using ‘Es gibt’

• Es gibt ein Kino in der Stadtmitte -> There is a cinema in the town centre.
• Es gibt nicht viel zu tun in Horley -> There is not much to do in Horley.
• Es gibt 32 Schüler in der Klasse -> There are 32 pupils in the class.

In the past, ‘es gibt’ becomes ‘es gab’:

• Es gab gestern eine Party -> There was a party yesterday.
• Gestern gab es ein Gewitter -> Yesterday there was a storm (note the verb second rule in action).

Other verbs that take ‘es’

Common verbs that take ‘es’ include:

• Schneien (to snow) -> Es schneit. (It’s snowing/It snows)
• Regnen (to rain) -> Es regent (It’s raining/It rains)
• Donnern (to thunder) -> Es donnert (It’s thundering/It thunders
• Frieren (to be freezing) -> Es friert (It’s freezing/It freezes)
• Schmecken (to taste) -> Es schmeckt (It is tasty)
• Weh tun (to hurt) -> Es tut weh (It hurts)
• Gehen (to go/to be fine) -> Es geht (It’s ok)

Perfect tense

• Pronoun/noun – The impersonal ‘es’ is the pronoun.
• Auxiliary verb – As usual, ‘haben’ or ‘sein’. But as you only have ‘es‘ as the subject, it has to be ‘hat’ or ‘ist’.
• Past participle – Formed in the normal way.

Examples

• Es hat gestern geregnet -> It rained yesterday.
• Es hat geschmeckt -> It was tasty.

Imperfect tense

Some verbs would be more commonly used in the imperfect, such as ‘leid tun’.

Examples

• Es tut mir leid (I’m sorry) -> Es tat mir leid (I was sorry)
• Es tut weh (It hurts) -> Es tat weh (It hurt)

Common mistakes made by English speakers

• Using ‘der ist’ (which sounds like ‘there is’) instead of ‘es gibt’.