ABSTRACT
Unlike in English, in Russian the formal subject ‘it’ is not used to replace an absent subject. Sentences without a subject are called impersonal. The predicate that remains the core element of an impersonal sentence clarifies a state or action that occurs as if without external forces. Russian impersonal sentences are short and expressive and are therefore very common in popular speech, literature and poetry. Russian impersonal sentences do not fully correspond to English sentences that convey similar ideas. Russian impersonal sentence refers to a person, it is commonly translated into English using a personal sentence with a noun or pronoun as a subject. The predicate of an impersonal sentence has no subject in the nominative case to agree with. Therefore, it is usually expressed by indeclinable words with a verbal link or the neuter form of the verb. Impersonal sentences can have an infinitive as their core element. So-called impersonal verbs can be used only in impersonal sentences.
