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 vaguely personal terms actor there is, it is just 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 for Russian grammar impersonal type. 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: “It 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 join the overall 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: “It was drizzling 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 the 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 original text. 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 the first part of it was 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 these are caught in mountain rivers. All of America comes there, fishes and generally relaxes. But as soon as you cross the mountains, everything is already there 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.
The English language is rich in idioms and interesting phrases, but not only them. Often we need to say simple sentences that seem easy to speak, but for some students are problematic in construction. For example, how do you say in English about the weather “sunny”, “evening” or “winter”? As you noticed, there is no person in such sentences, they are impersonal. Impersonal offers in English language, these are sentences in which not only the person who performs the action is often missing, but also the action itself is missing. Confused? Just! Let's consider the features of the formation of impersonal sentences, get acquainted with striking examples and shed some light on frequently asked questions.
To learn impersonal sentences, you first need to understand the construction features simple sentences, gradually taking on more complex ones. As examples, we use the above sentences ‘’Sunny’’. ‘It’s getting evening’. ''Winter''. In English it will be like this => It is sunny. It is getting dark. It's winter.
On a note! Most often, impersonal sentences in English are used to indicate weather phenomena And natural conditions.
What does the construction of an impersonal sentence consist of if there is no active person in it? Pronoun it+ verb to be- the main active members of the proposal.
But! Remember that the verb to be can be used in different times– past, present and future. Exact time can be learned from the context. For example, it is, it was, it will be – verb variations tobe in different times (present, past and future).
Here are some examples:
Verb to be plays the role of the predicate, and the role of the subject belongs to the pronoun it. Pronoun it performs the function of the subject always and everywhere (in all types of impersonal sentences).
To better understand the principle of the formation of impersonal sentences, let us explain the situation with examples:
- Autumn => It is autumn.
- Spring will come soon => It will be spring soon.
- Warmth => It is warm.
- Cold => It is cold.
- It's hot => It is hot.
- It will be cool in summer => It will be cool in summer.
- It was getting dark => It was getting dark.
A specific tense (the form of the verb to be) is chosen depending on the specific situation or based on the context. The particle it remains unchanged for all temporary forms.
Constructions it is, it was, it will be used for translation different offers, which contain an adverb. For example, how to translate sentences that contain adverbs close, far, impossible, Maybe, difficult, easily etc.? Let's explain everything with examples:
Interrogative form of impersonal sentences
To form a question form, verb to be should be placed at the beginning of the sentence:
- Is it already dark? => Is it already dark?
- Is it near the window? => Is it next to the window?
- Is it drizzling? => Drizzle?
Please note that the verb to be will have different shapes (is, are, am ).
To form negative form, you just need to add a particle not .
- It was not raining. => There was no rain.
- It is not snowing. => It's not snowing.
Impersonal sentences: where they are used and when they are appropriate to use
- If you need to answer the question: “What time is it?”, it is appropriate to use impersonal sentences:
- It is 9 o’clock now => It’s nine o’clock now.
- It was half past 5 => It was half past five.
- When I return it will be 11 o’clock => When I return it will be 11 o’clock.
- If you need to talk about the weather, describe it, then we use impersonal sentences with verbs to snow, to rain, to drizzle, to hail etc.:
- It is snowing days and nights => Snow goes on for days and at night.
- It often rains these days => It often rains these days.
- It will be drizzling => It will drizzle.
- If you need to say how long it will take to perform a particular action:
- It takes me half a day to get to the station => I need half a day to get to the station.
- It will take some time to learn so many rules => It will take some time to learn so many rules.
Note! We use the design i t takes… to… . If there is such a construction, it automatically means that you need to use an impersonal sentence.
- If you need to describe an action where the infinitive is used. Such sentences often use the following words => to seem, to appear, to happen, to turn out, never:
- It is hard for me to say ‘’hello’’, but it is never late => It’s hard for me to say “Hello,” but it’s never too late (I’ll still have time to say hello).
- It happened to be clear and sunny => It turned out that the weather was clear and sunny.
- It turned out funny but this young director is my close friend => It turned out funny, but this young director is my close friend.
- If you need to express modality with verbs must, may, can. In this situation, the subject is the word one:
- One cannot cope with everything at once => You cannot cope with everything at once.
- One have to wash hands before his dinner => You need to wash your hands before lunch.
- One must sign in here => Here you need to register (log in).
On a note! When translated into Russian, the word one is omitted (it is not translated in any way).
Let's sum it up
By doing the exercises every day, you will quickly learn the intricacies of forming an impersonal sentence. It is important to change words in sentences every time, create different situations and use everything possible words his vocabulary. Regular exercise, patience and effort will lead you to success and new knowledge. Learn and improve!
In speech, we often use sentences like “Spring. It was getting dark. It’s getting colder,” etc. Such sentences are called “impersonal” because the sentence does not indicate the person performing the action, and often the action itself is missing. In Russian everything is simple, but in English with impersonal sentences - impersonal sentences are a little more complicated. English grammar does not allow sentences without a subject and predicate, following one after another in in strict order, and we can't translate Russian offer, consisting of one word, also one word. It is imperative to come up with a construction that will contain the main members of the sentence. We'll see now how it will look in English.
Impersonal sentence structure
Let's start with a simple one and gradually complicate the impersonal sentence. "Spring. It was getting dark. It's getting colder." As can be seen from the examples, this type of sentence is used to convey natural conditions or weather phenomena. The construction used to translate impersonal sentences is based on English - in the present, past or future tense. As you probably guessed, to be will serve as the missing predicate, and as for the subject, a pronoun will take its place it, which always and in any impersonal sentence will serve as the subject and, accordingly, take its rightful place at the beginning of the sentence. Now let's see what we got.
- Spring – It is spring
- Cold – It is cold
- Warmth – It is warm
- Hot – It is hot
- It was getting dark – It was getting dark
- It was getting cold – It was getting cold
- Winter will come soon - It will be winter soon
- It will be hot in summer - It will be hot in summer
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As can be seen from the above examples, we have created a non-existent formal subject it, and a formal predicate – is, was or will be depending on the tense. By design it is, it was, it will be we will translate into English all sentences that contain the adverb - difficult, perhaps, impossible, easy, late, early, far, close etc. To make it easier for you to understand, we will give a few examples:
- It is difficult for a child to lift a heavy box – It is difficult for the child to lift the heavy box
- It is impossible to finish this work in a day
- It is difficult for me to breathe - it is difficult for me to breathe
- It's too early to get up now - it is too early to get up
- It’s too late to go for a walk – it is late to go for a walk
For education interrogative form impersonal offer auxiliary to be (am, is, are) is placed at the beginning of the sentence, and the negative is formed using the negative particle not.
- Is it dark out of doors?
- It was not snowing.
Use of impersonal sentences
- We use an impersonal sentence to say what time is it now
:
It’s 11 o’clock now – it is 11 o’clock now
It was half past five – it was half past 4
When I return it will be 10 o’clock already - Impersonal sentences are always used to describe the weather with verbs to rain, to snow, to hail, to drizzle
It often rains in autumn – It often rains in autumn
It’s drizzling, I must take an umbrella – It is drizzling, I must take an umbrella - To note how much time it takes us to complete an action, you’ve probably come across sentences starting with the words “ I need... time to do something, it takes me... time to do something, etc.
" So, to translate such sentences, the construction of an impersonal sentence is also used - It takes…to…:
She needs an hour to get to work – It takes her an hour to get to her work
It will take my mother half a day to bake so many cakes.
- An impersonal sentence is often used to describe actions that require an infinitive, using words such as never, to appear, to seem, to turn out, to happen
It is never late to say “excuse me” - It’s never too late to say “sorry”
It seemed to be late to change anything - It seemed too late to change anything - An impersonal sentence is used to express modality with verbs can, may, must
. In this case formal subject is the word one, which is omitted when translated into Russian.
One must not smoke here
One should wash hands before having meals
It is impossible to do all the work at once - One cannot do all the work at once.
That's all about impersonal sentences in English. Try to form several sentences on your own to reinforce the material.
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 to the verb to be negative particle not.
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?
In English, as in Russian, there are many types various offers. 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) — special type sentences 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 easily use only one word, which will 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 a 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 the simple one, use the 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 inanimate noun, then 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 the specific period of time that is required to achieve specific purpose, then there are frequent cases of using the copula “ 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 required form verb depending on the tense and type of sentence: affirmation, negation, question.
Believe you can speak English and you"re halfway there!
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