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28.11: Part 1: 10 THE VERB: IMPERSONAL CONSTRUCTIONS (VERBES IMPERSONNELS)

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    10 THE VERB: IMPERSONAL CONSTRUCTIONS (VERBES IMPERSONNELS)

    All that we mean by "impersonal" in the title "impersonal constructions" is that the grammatical subject is not a person. In such constructions, the person involved in the activity is usually the direct or indirect object of the verb, or is not explicitly mentioned at all.

    The most common impersonal verbs are those you've been using since early in the course: Il pleut, "It's raining;" Il neige, "It's snowing;" Il fait beau, "It's nice weather;" and other expressions of weather, plus Il est trois heures, "It's three o'clock."

    The most common impersonal constructions are those that take a subordinate clause, and most of those have been mentioned in the discussion of the subjunctive (il faut, il vaut mieux; il est bon que, il est nécessaire que). See Section 7.3.2.

    Two other impersonal constructions that are useful to know at this level are:

    falloir: il... faut
    Il me faut trois heures pour y aller.    		 (This is another use of il faut.)
    It takes me three hours to get there.
    plaire: il/ça... plaît
    Ça te plaît de me traiter ainsi?
    You enjoy treating me like that?

    (Plaire is also used with a personal subject, but still has a twist to it that you need to watch.)

    Tu me plais, chéri. I like/love you, darling.
    (= "You please me.")

    28.11: Part 1: 10 THE VERB: IMPERSONAL CONSTRUCTIONS (VERBES IMPERSONNELS) is shared under a not declared license and was authored, remixed, and/or curated by LibreTexts.

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