Language/French/Grammar/Verbs-with-personal-subject-used-impersonally

Verbs that take a personal subject can also sometimes be used impersonally

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Definition: impersonal form

A sentence is in the impersonal form if:

1. The subject is the word "il".
2. The subject represents nothing and no one.

Examples

• Il se passe ici des choses étranges

Strange things are happening here

• Il est arrivé hier matin un événement qui sort de l'ordinaire

Something out of the ordinary happened yesterday morning

• Il convient d'être prudent de nos jours avec les conditions sanitaires

It is advisable to be careful nowadays with the sanitary conditions

• Il nous arrive souvent de recevoir des stars de la télé

We often receive TV stars

• Il manque un treizième couvert à la table

A thirteenth place setting is missing at the table

• Il y va de sa réputation

His reputation is at stake

• Il nous manque plusieurs de nos amis ce soir

Several of our friends are missing tonight

• Il ne me souvient pas d'avoir été présenté à cette dame

He don't remember being introduced to this lady

“être” can also be used impersonally

“être” can also be used impersonally, either in set expressions or more formally as an alternative to il y a:

• Il est grand temps que nous partions en vacances

It is high time we went on vacation

• Il n'est absolument pas question de rester client de cet opérateur Internet

There is absolutely no question of remaining a customer of this Internet operator

• Il est dommage d'avoir été si mal reçu par le service clients

It is a shame to have been so badly received by customer service

• Est-Il besoin de vous rappeler que vous devez absolument arriver à l'heure? (formal style)

Is there any need to remind you that you absolutely must arrive on time?

• Il est des jours où l'on souhaiterait être seul

There are days when one would wish to be alone

Introduce fairy stories

There are two set phrases used to introduce fairy stories:

• « Il était une fois » (most used) OR « Il y avait une fois »

Once upon a time …

Other Chapters

Table of Contents

Nouns

• Types
• Gender
• Plural

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Determiners

• Articles
• Typical use of the definite article
• Typical use of the indefinite article
• The partitive article: du, de l', de la, des
• Use of indefinite and partitive articles after the negative forms ne... pas, ne... jamais, ne... plus, ne... guère
• Omission of the article
• Demonstrative determiners
• Possessive determiners

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Personal and impersonal pronouns

• Subject pronouns
• Object pronouns
• Stressed pronouns
• Demonstrative pronouns
• Possessive pronouns

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Adjectives

• Adjectives modifying the noun
• Adjectives which follow verbs or verbal expressions
• Adjectives with complements
• Indefinite and negative noun phrases with adjective complements
• Adjectives used as nouns
• Adjectives used as adverbs
• Masculine and feminine forms of adjectives
• Plural forms of adjectives
• Adjective agreement with nouns
• Invariable adjectives
• Compound adjectives
• Comparative and superlative forms of adjectives
• Subjunctive versus indicative in clauses dependent on a superlative adjective
• Absolute use of the superlative

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Adverbs

• Function of adverbs
• Formation of adverbs with the ending -ment
• Adjectives used as adverbs without addition of -ment
• Phrases used as adverbs
• English and French adverb formation
• Types of adverbs
• Location of adverbs

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Numbers, measurements, time and quantifiers

• Cardinal numbers
• Ordinal numbers
• Fractions
• Some differences in the use of cardinal and ordinal numbers in French and English
• Measurements and comparisons
• Dates, days, years
• Clock time
• Money
• Quantifiers

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Verb forms

• Conjugations
• Easy ways of generating some parts of the paradigms
• Changes in the stem form of some -er conjugation verbs
• Verbs whose stems end in c- or g-
• Verb paradigms

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Verb constructions

• Relations between verbs and their complements
• Intransitive constructions
• Directly transitive verbs
• Indirectly transitive verbs
• Ditransitive verbs
• The passive
• Pronominal verbs
• Impersonal verbs
• Verbs which take noun + adjective or noun + noun complements

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Verb and participle agreement

• Subject-verb agreement
• Agreement of the past participle with the subject of être
• Agreement of the past participle of verbs conjugated with avoir with a preceding direct object
• Agreement of the past participle of pronominal verbs in compound tenses

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Tense

• The present
• The past
• The future
• Other tenses indicating the time at which events occur relative to other events
• Combining tenses
• Tenses in direct and reported descriptions of events
• Tenses with si

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The subjunctive, modal verbs, exclamatives and imperatives

• The attitude of the subject to events: the subjunctive
• The use of devoir, pouvoir, savoir, falloir
• The French equivalents of the English modal verbs: 'would', 'should', 'could', 'may', 'might', 'ought to', and 'must'
• Exclamatives
• Imperatives

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The infinitive

• Introduction: what are infinitives?
• Infinitives as complements to other verbs
• Verbs which take infinitive complements without a linking preposition
• Verbs which take infinitive complements preceded by the preposition à
• Verbs which take an infinitive complement preceded by de
• Omission of objects before infinitives
• Infinitives as complements to adjectives
• Infinitives as complements to nouns
• Infinitives in subordinate clauses
• Infinitives as polite commands
• Quick-reference index to verbs taking infinitive complements

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Prepositions

• Introduction
• Prepositions listed alphabetically from à to vers
• French translations for common English prepositions

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Question formation

• Introduction
• Yes/no questions
• Information questions
• Order of object pronouns in questions involving inversion
• Order of negative particles in questions involving inversion
• Use of question words and phrases: qui?, que?, quoi?, quel?, de qui?, avec combien de? etc.
• Indirect questions

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Relative clauses

• Introduction
• Use of relative qui
• Use of relative que
• Preposition plus qui
• Use of lequel in relative clauses
• Use of dont, de qui, duquel/de laquelle/desquels/desquelles
• The use of où as a relative pronoun
• Use of relative quoi
• Free relative clauses and the use of ce qui, ce que, ce dont, ce à quoi, ce sur quoi, etc.
• Translating 'whoever', 'whatever', 'wherever', 'whenever', 'however'
• Indicative and subjunctive in relative clauses

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Negation

• Introduction
• Location of sentence negators
• Order of negators in multiple negation
• Omission of ne in sentence negation
• Order of negative elements in questions and imperatives
• ne... pas
• ne... que
• ne... aucun(e), ne... nul(le)
• ne... jamais
• ne... plus
• ne... guère
• ne... rien
• ne... personne
• ne... ni... ni
• sans used with other negators
• ne used alone

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Conjunctions and other linking constructions

• Introduction
• Coordinating conjunctions
• Subordinating conjunctions
• Conjunctions sometimes confused by English speakers
• Repeated subordinating conjunctions
• Subordinating conjunctions used with infinitive clauses
• après avoir/ être + past participle linking an infinitive clause to a main clause
• Past participle phrases used as linkers
• Present participles and gerunds

Other Lessons

• Adverbs ending in —ment derived from the masculine form of an adjective
• Adjectives preceded by de
• Differences in the use of numbers in French and English Addresses
• Conventions for writing cardinal numbers in figures
• Intransitive verbs and auxiliary “être”
• Ditransitive verbs
• Location of adverbs modifying sentences
• The plural indefinite article des
• Use of il, ce, cela and ça as impersonal pronouns
• Plural indefinite article "des" VS preposition "de" and definite article "les"
• Conditional Mood and Future Tense
• Vous and Tu Complete Guide
• Non specific use of y
• Changes in the stem form of some —er conjugation verbs
• Difference between Nombre, Chiffre and Numéro