Italian Impersonal Verbs: Piove, Bisogna, Si Dice

🔍 In short. Italian impersonal verbs are verbs with no real subject. They live in the third person singular: piove (it rains), bisogna partire (one must leave), fa freddo (it is cold), sembra che (it seems that). Weather verbs and the necessity verbs bisogna, occorre, basta, serve are the core. This guide maps every family of italian impersonal verbs, the essere-or-avere question with the weather, and how they connect to the impersonal si.

Once you stop hunting for a subject that is not there, italian impersonal verbs become one of the easiest corners of the language: one person form, a handful of patterns, and a lot of everyday mileage.

What an impersonal verb is

Step outside a plant nursery in Padova on a grey morning and the first thing anyone says is piove. Nobody asks “what rains?”. There is no subject, and none is missing: that is the whole nature of italian impersonal verbs. They run in the third person singular of every finite tense, and in the infinitive, participle and gerund, without a person doing anything.

Three groups cover almost everything: the weather verbs (piove, nevica, grandina), the necessity verbs (bisogna, occorre, basta), and the “it happens / it seems” verbs (succede, sembra, pare). To these you can add the impersonal si (si mangia bene), which makes any verb subjectless. Learn the three families and italian impersonal verbs stop being a grey area.

Weather verbs: piove, nevica, fa freddo

The clearest italian impersonal verbs are the weather ones, and they are usually the first italian impersonal verbs a learner meets. There is no sky-actor doing the raining; the verb alone is a full sentence.

• Oggi piove, non andiamo al vivaio.
  It’s raining today, we’re not going to the nursery.
• Domani nevicherà sulle Alpi.
  It will snow on the Alps tomorrow.
• Ieri ha grandinato per dieci minuti a Modena.
  It hailed for ten minutes in Modena yesterday.
• In autunno albeggia tardi e fa freddo presto.
  In autumn it dawns late and gets cold early.

A second pattern uses fare plus a word for the conditions: fa caldo, fa freddo, fa bel tempo, fa brutto. These fare expressions are among the most frequent italian impersonal verbs and behave exactly like the others: third person singular, no subject. Fa freddo, ti conviene metterti la giacca is everyday Italian and you will use it daily.

Essere or avere with the weather

This is the one real doubt with weather italian impersonal verbs in compound tenses. Did it rain, è piovuto or ha piovuto? When the verb is genuinely impersonal, both auxiliaries are correct and interchangeable.

• Ieri è piovuto tutto il giorno. = Ieri ha piovuto tutto il giorno.
  It rained all day yesterday. (both correct)
• Stanotte è nevicato. = Stanotte ha nevicato.
  It snowed last night. (both correct)
• Sono piovute critiche sul progetto.
  Criticism rained down on the project. (figurative: only essere)

The exception is worth noting: when the verb is used figuratively or with a real subject (sono piovuti auguri, “good wishes poured in”), only essere works. So the rule for these italian impersonal verbs is simple: pure weather, either auxiliary; figurative meaning, essere only.

Bisogna, occorre, basta, serve

The necessity group is the most useful set of italian impersonal verbs in real conversation. They express “one must”, “it is necessary”, “it is enough”, and they never take a personal subject: you cannot say io bisogno.

• Bisogna fare attenzione al gelo notturno.
  One must watch out for the night frost.
• Occorre comprare del concime nuovo.
  It is necessary to buy new fertilizer.
• Basta poca acqua per queste piante.
  A little water is enough for these plants.
• Non serve annaffiare ogni giorno.
  There’s no need to water every day.

Keep bisogna apart from dovere. Dovere has a personal subject (io devo, tu devi); bisogna never does, it stays impersonal. “I have to leave” is devo partire, while bisogna partire means “one must leave / it is necessary to leave”. Mixing them up is the single most common error with these italian impersonal verbs.

Che + subjunctive or plain infinitive

The necessity italian impersonal verbs open a clause in two ways. With a specified person, use che plus the subjunctive. With no specified person, use the bare infinitive.

• Bisogna che tu copra le piante stasera.
  You need to cover the plants tonight. (specific person, subjunctive)
• Bisogna coprire le piante stasera.
  The plants need covering tonight. (general, infinitive)
• Occorre che Lorenzo passi in vivaio.
  Lorenzo needs to stop by the nursery.
• Basta chiedere a Caterina.
  It’s enough to ask Caterina.

The clause that follows is the real subject of the sentence (“that you cover the plants” is what is necessary). You do not need the grammar label to use it: pick che + subjunctive when there is a clear person, and the infinitive when the statement is general. This split governs most longer sentences built on italian impersonal verbs.

The “to happen” verbs

English has one main verb for “to happen”; Italian spreads the job across several italian impersonal verbs, each with a slightly different flavour.

• succedere: Succede spesso di trovare il vivaio chiuso il lunedì.
  It often happens that the nursery is closed on Mondays.
• capitare (by chance): Capita a tutti di dimenticare l’ombrello.
  It happens to everyone to forget their umbrella.
• accadere (more formal): Accade raramente di vedere una gelata così tardi.
  It rarely happens to see a frost this late.
• convenire (to be worth it): Conviene aspettare la primavera per il trapianto.
  It’s worth waiting for spring to transplant.

Succedere and capitare are the everyday choices, accadere and avvenire the written ones. They take di + infinitive (capita di sbagliare) or che + subjunctive (capita che sbagli), the same two-way split as the necessity italian impersonal verbs.

Sembra, pare, risulta

A small but constant group of italian impersonal verbs reports appearances and hearsay: sembra, pare (both “it seems”), risulta (“it turns out / it appears on record”). They are the polite way to say something without committing to it.

• Pare che domani migliori il tempo.
  It seems the weather will improve tomorrow.
• Sembra che Elena abbia cambiato vivaio.
  It seems Elena has changed nursery.
• Non risulta che il pagamento sia arrivato.
  There is no record that the payment has arrived.

They almost always trigger che + subjunctive (pare che sia, sembra che venga), which is exactly why they are such useful italian impersonal verbs for sounding tactful: you report without claiming certainty. Of all the italian impersonal verbs, these are the ones that make spoken Italian sound diplomatic.

Impersonal verbs across tenses

A common worry is that italian impersonal verbs only exist in the present. They do not. They run through every tense, always in the third person singular: only the time changes, never the person.

• Da bambino, d’inverno nevicava spesso a Modena.
  When I was a child, it often snowed in Modena in winter. (imperfect)
• Domani pioverà e bisognerà rimandare il trapianto.
  Tomorrow it will rain and the transplant will have to be postponed. (future)
• Senza la serra, con quel gelo notturno sarebbe morto tutto.
  Without the greenhouse, with that night frost everything would have died. (conditional perfect)
• Pensavo che bisognasse coprire le piante.
  I thought the plants needed covering. (imperfect subjunctive)

So piove becomes pioveva, pioverà, è piovuto, pioverebbe; bisogna becomes bisognava, bisognerà, bisognerebbe, bisognasse. Nothing else shifts. Once you accept that italian impersonal verbs simply carry the tense on a fixed third person form, the whole paradigm becomes predictable and you stop hunting for a subject in past or future sentences. This is the quiet strength of italian impersonal verbs: one slot to fill, the same in every tense, so the time of the action is the only thing you ever change.

The impersonal si in one minute

Beyond the verbs that are impersonal by nature, Italian can make almost any verb subjectless with si. In Italia si mangia bene means “in Italy people eat well”, with no named eater. It is the close cousin of italian impersonal verbs, built with si + third person singular.

• In questo vivaio si lavora bene anche d’inverno.
  In this nursery one works well even in winter.
• D’estate ci si alza presto per innaffiare.
  In summer one gets up early to water.

When a reflexive verb goes impersonal you would get si si alza, which is impossible, so Italian uses ci si alza. The impersonal si and the ci si rule are big enough to deserve their own guides; here it is enough to know they sit right next to italian impersonal verbs in everyday speech.

Common mistakes English speakers make

• Giving bisogna a subject. There is no io bisogno; for a personal subject use devo, devi.
• Stressing over the weather auxiliary. È piovuto and ha piovuto are both fine.
• Forgetting the subjunctive after bisogna che / pare che / sembra che: it is bisogna che tu vada, not che tu vai.
• Adding a pronoun subject: esso piove does not exist; just piove.
• Using è + adjective where Italian uses fare: it is fa freddo, not è freddo for the weather.
• Treating succedere as personal. “I happened to see” is mi è capitato di vedere, not ho successo.

Dialog: at the Padova plant nursery

Lorenzo stops at Caterina’s plant nursery in Padova on a cold, drizzly morning. Listen for how many verbs run with no subject at all.

Count them: fa freddo, pare che, è nevicato, bisogna, mi serve, occorre, basta, conviene, capita che geli, succede che, non bisogna, si recupera, non importa, smette di piovere. A short nursery chat is almost entirely italian impersonal verbs.

Cheat sheet: every impersonal verb

One table for the whole system of italian impersonal verbs. Keep it open while you do the quiz.

Mini-challenge

Test your understanding

The quiz below drills the italian impersonal verbs: weather, necessity, the che-or-infinitive split, and the impersonal si. Take it after the cheat sheet.

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Frequently asked questions

Seven questions about italian impersonal verbs come up in every B1 class. The answers below draw on classroom usage and on the Crusca note Il verbo piovere vuole l’ausiliare essere o avere?.

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Related guides

Three guides that sit next to italian impersonal verbs, plus the institutional reference.

• Italian Si Impersonale: how “one / people” works with si and any verb.
• Italian Ci Si: The Double Si Rule: why a reflexive verb goes impersonal as ci si.
• Italian Si Passivante: the related si that makes things “get done”.
• Accademia della Crusca: il verbo piovere e l’ausiliare: institutional note on the weather auxiliary.