Lesson Transcript

Hi guys, welcome back to ItalianPod101. My name is Desy, mi chiamo Desy, and in this video, we're gonna talk about impersonal verbs, verbi impersonali, in Italian, verbi impersonali.
I know that I always stress the importance of changing the verb form depending on the pronouns. So for example, io parlo, but tu parli, lui parla. But in this case, these are verbs that have no pronoun, so they don’t change. Actually, they only use the third person singular form. Just like in English impersonal verbs use the pronoun it, it rains, it’s nine o’clock, it. That it, though, doesn't really refer to anything in particular, right? So impersonal verbs in Italian work the same way, but we are way more minimalistic and don't even use it. Just look at that, that way. For example:
"It rains." Piove.
"It’s raining." Sta piovendo.
There is no subject, no "it" even, there's just the verb, third-person singular.
There are some verbs that only have the impersonal form.
Piove, "It’s raining"
Nevica, "it's snowing"
Tuona, "it thunders, it's thundering."
When you need to put those verbs in the past form, the rule says that è (essere), the auxiliary, has to be used. So…
È piovuto. "It rained."
È nevicato. "It snowed."
But actually "has", so the verb avere, is accepted too.
Ha piovuto. Ha nevicato.
So you don't have to think too much about that, luckily, at least.
There are some verbs, though, that have an impersonal use, but you know them as normal verbs. That's when things get tricky, but follow me. For example, fare.
Io faccio una torta, "I make a cake, I bake a cake".
Lui fa una torta.
Everything works, right? Same, third-person singular but without any pronoun:
Fa freddo. "It’s cold."
Fa caldo. "It’s hot."
Again, we're talking about weather conditions, so if you think about that, it's easy to think that it doesn't need the pronoun.
A really common impersonal expression with the verb fare is…
Fa niente. Fa niente.
Meaning "it doesn't matter". It literally "does nothing", "it doesn't matter."
For example:
"Oh, sorry, I promised you I would go, but I can't in the end." Oh, scusa, ti ho promesso che sarei andato, ma non posso.
Scusa, ti ho promesso che sarei andato, ma non posso.
"It doesn't matter, don't mention it, dont worry about it." Fa niente.
Same example with:
Non importa. "It's not of any importance, it doesn't matter." again.
Importare as in "to matter."
Anche se è caro, non importa, mi serve. "Even though it's expensive, it doesn't matter, I need it." Non importa, "it has no importance".
Even when you're walking, for example, and someone bumps into you, and if they're nice, they'll say, Scusa, you can be like, Ah, fa niente, it doesn't matter, no problem.
Now, when talking about impersonal verbs, we also have to talk about impersonal expressions in general because basically, you can make any verb impersonal. Same way as in English, someone would say "one has to blah blah blah", something, or "it is said blah blah blah", or "you have to", but this "you" doesn't really mean you, Marco, but you in general, all the people, everyone should do something. We have the same expression with the word si that takes the place of the pronoun in the third person singular.
For example, mangiare:
Io mangio, tu mangi, lui mangia, right? He eats. If we don't use "he" but si as a pronoun in this case, si mangia, it just becomes "it is eaten" or "you eat". In Italy…
In Italia, si mangia la pizza. "In Italy, people eat pizza." In Italy, pizza is eaten. In Italy, it is common to eat pizza.
So, it becomes an impersonal expression, really useful and really used.
So let's look a bit more into it.
Probably something that you've been using already but without noticing that is an impersonal use of a verb.
Come si dice "ciao" in inglese? "How do you say "hi" in English?"
Come si dice? That si is the impersonal form. So, "how do you say? How is it said? How would people say?" Impersonal use.
Come si dice "casa" in inglese? "How do you say "house" in English?
In this case, how do you say "house" in Italian? Casa.
Come si dice?
If you don't really get the idea of an impersonal pronoun, it may be useful for you to think of it as "people". Si beve: people drink.
"In Italy, people drink wine." In Italia, si beve vino.
And like that, any verb can be converted into an impersonal expression. For example,
Si sa che gli italiani amano la pizza.
Si sa…from sapere, to know…che gli italiani amano la pizza. "It is known that Italians love pizza."
This expression is really common when talking about rules or giving instructions, especially with the word non, so in the negative form.
Let's assume I'm telling this to my kids, I'm giving them rules to follow:
Non si scrive sui muri.
Like, "writing on walls won't be accepted." It's not, people shouldn’t write on walls, you shouldn’t write on walls. Another one, my mom would be so proud of me for remembering all the rules she gave me when I was a kid, but yeah,
Non si gioca quando si mangia. "You don't play when you're eating."
But not you only, you. People in general don't do that. This is the rule.
Non si gioca…(giocare, io gioco, tu giochi, lui gioca, si gioca)…quando si mangia (when eating). "When eating, one should not play." When eating, you should not play.
But yeah, jokes aside, to sum up, impersonal verbs are made with the third singular form of the verb, and some of them are impersonal only, while some of them are just made impersonal by the expression. And you can make every verb impersonal by using the pronoun si, always with third-person singular.
Please feel free to come up with your own examples and write them down below in the comments. I'm looking forward to seeing those. Thanks for watching, and remember, if you haven't done it yet, to subscribe for your free lifetime account on ItalianPod101. Download PDF lessons and learn Italian in the easiest, fastest, and most fun way possible. I'll see you soon. Ciao ciao, bye bye.

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