Impersonal and Dummy Subjects | Greek Grammar

English cannot leave the subject slot empty. Its word order depends on that slot being filled, so when there is nothing to put in it the language invents something: it rains, it's late, it seems he's gone, there is a problem, there were three of them. Neither it nor there refers to anything at all in those sentences. They are placeholders, and every English speaker produces them without noticing.

Greek has no such requirement. The verb ending already names the subject, so Greek leaves the subject pronoun out by default, and a clause with no subject at all is a complete, ordinary sentence — the slot is not empty, it simply is not there. So Greek has no dummy subject of either kind, and that produces two different transfer errors with two different fixes. English it corresponds to nothing. English there corresponds to a real verb.

English "it" corresponds to nothing

Weather, time, ambient conditions, and the whole family of impersonal verbs take no subject and no pronoun. The verb stands alone.

Χιονίζει από χθες το βράδυ και ο δρόμος για το χωριό έκλεισε.

chionízi apó chthes to vrádhi ke o dhrómos ya to chorió éklise

It's been snowing since last night and the road to the village is closed.

Νυχτώνει νωρίς τον Δεκέμβρη και βγαίνεις από τη δουλειά στα σκοτεινά.

nichtóni norís ton Dhekémvri ke vyénis apó ti dhuliá sta skotiná

It gets dark early in December and you come out of work in the dark.

For temperature and general atmospheric conditions the verb is κάνει — literally "it makes" — and it is worth pausing on, because Greek draws a line here that English does not.

Κάνει τέτοια ζέστη που δεν βγαίνω καθόλου έξω το μεσημέρι.

káni tétia zésti pu dhen vyéno kathólu ékso to mesiméri

It's so hot that I don't go outside at all in the middle of the day.

Κρυώνω, μπορείς να κλείσεις το παράθυρο;

krióno, borís na klísis to paráthiro;

I'm cold — can you shut the window?

English uses it is for the room and I am for the person: it's cold / I'm cold. Greek uses a subjectless verb for the room (κάνει κρύο) and an ordinary personal verb for the person (κρυώνω, "I feel cold"). Say είμαι κρύος and you have described your own temperature as an object, not your sensation.

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Two different English "it"s, two different repairs. It's cold in here is ambient, so Greek uses the subjectless κάνει κρύο. I'm cold is a sensation, so Greek uses the personal verb κρυώνω. Sensations live on verbs in Greek generally — πεινάω, διψάω, βαριέμαι, ζεσταίνομαι — where English builds them out of be plus an adjective, so neither half of the English pair survives translation unchanged.

The same subjectless pattern runs through the modal impersonals — πρέπει, μπορεί, χρειάζεται, φαίνεται, αξίζει — where the person is carried entirely by the following να-clause. Their forms and their pasts are on impersonal πρέπει / μπορεί να, and the fuller inventory of subjectless verbs is on impersonal verbs.

Φαίνεται ότι δεν πρόκειται να απαντήσουν, πέρασαν δύο βδομάδες.

fénete óti dhen prókite na apandísun, pérasan dhío vdhomádhes

It looks as though they aren't going to reply — it's been two weeks.

είναι + adjective: why the adjective is neuter

There is one construction where the missing subject leaves a visible trace, and it trips up learners constantly. In είναι + adjective + να / που, the adjective has nothing to agree with — no noun, no pronoun, nothing — so it goes into the neuter singular by default.

Είναι δύσκολο να εξηγήσεις σε ξένο γιατί κλείνουν όλα τον Αύγουστο.

íne dhískolo na eksiyísis se kséno yatí klínun óla ton Ávghusto

It's hard to explain to a foreigner why everything shuts in August.

Είναι κρίμα που δεν πρόλαβες να τη γνωρίσεις.

íne kríma pu dhen prólaves na ti ghnorísis

It's a shame you didn't get to meet her.

Compare a sentence that does have a subject, and watch the adjective move:

Είναι δύσκολη η κατάσταση, δεν ξέρω τι να σου πω.

íne dhískoli i katástasi, dhen kséro ti na su po

The situation is difficult — I don't know what to tell you.

Δύσκολη agrees with κατάσταση. Take the noun away and there is nothing left to agree with, so δύσκολο it is. This is the whole rule, and it applies to εύκολο, πιθανό, φανερό, σημαντικό, απαραίτητο, κρίμα, ντροπή and the rest of the frame.

English "there is" is a real verb: υπάρχει

Now the second dummy, and the one that produces worse Greek. There is / there are is not a placeholder plus a verb in Greek — it is the single verb υπάρχω, "to exist", used in the third person. And because it is a real verb with a real subject, it agrees.

Υπάρχει πρόβλημα με τη σύνδεση, το είπαν και στις ειδήσεις.

ipárchi próvlima me ti síndhesi, to ípan ke stis idhísis

There's a problem with the connection — they mentioned it on the news too.

Υπάρχουν πολλά μαγαζιά κλειστά φέτος στην αγορά.

ipárchun polá maghaziá klistá fétos stin aghorá

There are a lot of shops closed in the market this year.

Δεν υπάρχει περίπτωση να προλάβουμε το πλοίο τώρα.

dhen ipárchi períptosi na prolávume to plío tóra

There's no chance of us catching the boat now.

Alongside it, everyday speech uses έχει as an existential — "there is / there are" — and this one behaves differently in a way worth noticing: it stays in the singular whatever follows, and what follows is in the accusative, because it is grammatically the object of έχει rather than its subject.

Έχει πολύ κόσμο σήμερα στην παραλία, πάμε αλλού.

échi polí kózmo símera stin paralía, páme alú

There are loads of people at the beach today — let's go somewhere else. (informal)

Both are correct; υπάρχει is the neutral one and the one that belongs in writing, while έχει is what you hear. What you must not do is translate the there itself: εκεί means "in that place", so Εκεί είναι πολλοί τουρίστες is a statement about a location and not about existence at all. The rest of the existential system — the past υπήρχε, the difference from possessive έχω, and the presentational word order — is on existential υπάρχει.

One thing to keep separate, because it looks like a counterexample and is not: είναι with an indefinite subject and a place word is ordinary Greek — Είναι κανείς εδώ; ("Is anybody there?"), Δεν είναι κανείς μέσα. There είναι is doing its usual job of linking a subject, κανείς, to a location, and English happens to translate it with there. What είναι cannot do is the presentational work of English there is + a brand-new noun — announcing something into the conversation for the first time — and that is where υπάρχει takes over.

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Sort your English before you translate. If the sentence has it and the it refers to nothing, delete it and translate the verb alone: Βρέχει, Κάνει κρύο, Είναι αργά, Φαίνεται ότι…. If the sentence has there is / there are, do not translate the word there at all — reach for υπάρχει / υπάρχουν. Two different English words, two completely different Greek repairs.

When αυτό is allowed after all

Having said all that, do not over-correct. αυτό is a perfectly good subject whenever it points at something — a thing, a situation, a statement someone has just made. What is impossible is αυτό as a placeholder with nothing behind it.

Αυτό είναι το πρόβλημα, ότι κανείς δεν αναλαμβάνει ευθύνη.

aftó íne to próvlima, óti kanís dhen analamváni efthíni

That's the problem — that nobody takes responsibility.

There, αυτό refers back to the whole situation under discussion, and the sentence is fine. The test is simple: if you could replace the English it with that, pointing at something, Greek can have αυτό. If you could not — it's raining, it's five o'clock — Greek has nothing at all. The related question of the object clitic το for a whole idea is on the clitic το.

No subject, and no subject recoverable: the third-person plural

One more subjectless clause type belongs on this page because it looks like it is missing something and is not. A third-person plural verb with no subject reports an action by an agent nobody has named and nobody intends to name.

Χτυπάνε την πόρτα — περιμένεις κανέναν;

chtipáne tin pórta — periménis kanénan;

Somebody's at the door — are you expecting anyone?

Μου έσπασαν τον καθρέφτη του αυτοκινήτου μέσα στη νύχτα.

mu éspasan ton kathréfti tu aftokinítu mésa sti níchta

Somebody smashed my wing mirror during the night.

There is no plural group in either sentence — one person knocked, one person did the damage — and adding αυτοί would wreck both, because it would claim that specific people are meant. This is Greek's standard alternative to the English agentless passive, and how it competes with the generic second person and with the mediopassive is worked out on generic 'you' and impersonal reference.

Common Mistakes

1. Supplying αυτό for the English dummy "it". There is nothing for it to point at, so it cannot be there.

❌ Αυτό φυσάει πολύ, μην ανοίξεις την τέντα.

Incorrect — a weather verb takes no subject at all: Φυσάει πολύ.

✅ Φυσάει πολύ, μην ανοίξεις την τέντα.

fisái polí, min aníksis tin ténda

It's really windy — don't open the awning.

2. Translating "there is" with είναι. Είναι is a copula: it links a subject to something, and it cannot introduce a brand-new indefinite thing into the conversation the way English there is does.

❌ Είναι ένα πρόβλημα με το ασανσέρ πάλι.

Incorrect for 'there's a problem with the lift again' — the existential verb is υπάρχει (or, in speech, έχει). The same words are fine when there is a subject to recover: as an answer to Τι έγινε; they mean 'It's a problem with the lift again', which is a different sentence.

✅ Υπάρχει πάλι πρόβλημα με το ασανσέρ.

ipárchi páli próvlima me to asansér

There's a problem with the lift again.

3. Putting the nominative after existential έχει. With υπάρχει the noun is the subject, so it is nominative; with έχει it is the object, so it is accusative.

❌ Έχει πολλοί τουρίστες τον Ιούλιο στο νησί.

Incorrect — the complement of existential έχει is accusative: Έχει πολλούς τουρίστες.

✅ Έχει πολλούς τουρίστες τον Ιούλιο και δεν βρίσκεις τραπέζι πουθενά.

échi polús turístes ton Iúlio ke dhen vrískis trapézi puthená

There are loads of tourists in July and you can't get a table anywhere.

4. Agreeing the adjective in an impersonal είναι-frame. With a να-clause there is no noun in sight, so the adjective stays neuter singular.

❌ Είναι απαραίτητη να δηλώσεις το εισόδημα μέχρι τον Ιούνιο.

Incorrect — nothing here is feminine; the adjective defaults to the neuter singular: Είναι απαραίτητο να…

✅ Είναι απαραίτητο να δηλώσεις το εισόδημα μέχρι τον Ιούνιο.

íne aparétito na dhilósis to isódhima méchri ton Iúnio

You have to declare the income by June.

5. Leaving υπάρχει in the singular in front of a plural. English there is barely agrees; υπάρχει is a full verb and does.

❌ Υπάρχει πολλά λάθη στο κείμενο.

Incorrect — υπάρχω agrees with what follows: Υπάρχουν πολλά λάθη. (The everyday έχει stays singular, but υπάρχει does not.)

✅ Υπάρχουν πολλά λάθη στο κείμενο, θέλει άλλη μια ανάγνωση.

ipárchun polá láthi sto kímeno, théli áli mia anághnosi

There are a lot of mistakes in the text — it needs another read-through.

Key Takeaways

Greek has no dummy subject. English has two, and they need two different repairs.
English "it" corresponds to nothing: Χιονίζει, Νυχτώνει, Κάνει κρύο, Φαίνεται ότι…, Πρέπει να…. The verb stands alone and the clause is complete.
Ambient versus personal: Κάνει κρύο describes the air, Κρυώνω describes you. English uses it is and I am; Greek uses a subjectless verb and a personal one.
In είναι + adjective + να / που the adjective is neuter singular, because there is no subject for it to agree with: Είναι δύσκολο να…, Είναι απαραίτητο να….
English "there is / there are" is the verb υπάρχει / υπάρχουν, which agrees with what follows. Everyday speech also uses έχει, which stays singular and takes the accusative.
αυτό is allowed whenever it refers to something. Αυτό είναι το πρόβλημα is fine; a placeholder αυτό is not.
A bare third-person plural reports an unnamed agent — Χτυπάνε την πόρτα, Μου έσπασαν τον καθρέφτη — and is Greek's usual replacement for the English agentless passive.

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