Impersonal Verbs
French: Cambridge International GCSE, topic 8.12.2
Impersonal Verbs
Impersonal verbs are verbs that have no personal reference because no agent can perform the action. They are mainly verbs that express weather phenomena and are conjugated in the third person singular.
Pleuvoir: present
- il/elle pleut - it's raining
Neiger: present
- il neige - it's snowing
Grêler: present
- il grêle - it's hailing
Other tenses
- Il pleuvait/neigeait/grêlait.
- It was raining/snowing/hailing (imperfect).
- Il a plu/neigé/grêlé.
- It has rained/snowed/hailed (passé composé).
- Il va pleuvoir/neiger/grêler.
- It's going to rain/snow/hail (near future).
Examples
- Il va pleuvoir pendant toute la journée.
- It's going to rain all morning.
- À Paris, il neige très souvent.
- In Paris, it snows very often.
- Il ne grêle jamais en Séville.
- It never snows in Seville.