What is the impersonal passive in grammar?

The impersonal passive (in German: unpersönliches Passiv) is a subcategory of the German passive voice of the verb. This construction has two specialities: The actor/performer (agent) is not named, and the personal pronoun ‘es’ is used instead of a subject, which—however—is not a dummy subject. Note that the impersonal passive voice is only possible if the original active sentence does not contain an accusative object. Compare the different appearances of such forms in German grammar:

Rules for formation

If an active sentence does not have an accusative object, it is not possible to form a passive sentence with a subject from it. Therefore, the personal pronoun ‘es’ replaces the subject in such passive clauses and, thus, forms the impersonal passive:

• Example 1:
  • Active: „Die Baufirma baut im Stadtpark.“ (The construction company is building in the town park.)
    • active sentence without accusative object
  • Passive 1: „Im Stadtpark wird gebaut.“ (Construction is taking place in the town park.)
    • subjectless passive clause
  • Passive 2: „Es wird im Stadtpark gebaut.“ (Construction is taking place in the town park.)
    • ‘Es’ represents the subject here, so the sentence is in the impersonal passive.
• Example 2:
  • Active: „Wir freuen uns auf den Urlaub.“ (We are looking forward to the holiday.)
    • active sentence with prepositional object ‘auf den Urlaub’ (to the holiday)
  • Passive 1: „Auf den Urlaub wird sich gefreut.“ (Literally: People are looking forward to the holiday.)
    • subjectless passive clause
  • Passive 2: „Es wird sich auf den Urlaub gefreut.“ (Literally: People are looking forward to the holiday.)
    • With ‘Es’ as the subject replacement; thus, the sentence appears in the impersonal passive.

Additionally, an entire sentence may also function as a subject and become a subordinate or subject clause. Then, it can also be represented by ‘es’:

• Active: „Experten nehmen an, dass das Flugzeug wegen eines Triebwerkschadens abstürzte.“ (Experts believe that the plane crashed due to engine failure.)
  • active clause
• Passive 1: „Dass das Flugzeug wegen eines Triebwerkschadens abstürzte, wird angenommen.“ (The plane is believed to have crashed due to engine failure.)
  • passive clause with subordinate clause
• Passive 2: „Es wird angenommen, dass das Flugzeug wegen eines Triebwerkschadens abstürzte.“ (It is believed that the plane crashed due to engine failure.)
  • impersonal passive; stylistically better in this case

Comparison with a dummy subject

Keep in mind that the pronoun ‘es’ is neither a proper subject nor a dummy subject. The following examples show the major difference: An expletive or dummy subject can also be placed elsewhere in the sentence instead of just in the front position:

• „Es schneit schon seit gestern.“ (It’s been snowing since yesterday.)
  • Here, the pronoun ‘es’ is a typical dummy subject at the beginning of the sentence.
• „Warum schneit es denn schon wieder!“ (Why is it snowing again!)
  • in the middle of the sentence
• „Draußen schneit es.“ (It’s snowing outside.)
  • at the end of the sentence

Further explanations related to the ‘Impersonal passive voice’

The following explanations refer to the topic ‘The impersonal passive of verbs’ and could be interesting too:

• The subject in German grammar
• The passive voice in German grammar
• The personal passive voice
• The dynamic passive voice (with ‘werden’)
• The static passive voice (with ‘sein’)