These verbs are irregular in an unusual way. Their forms are perfectly normal; what they are missing is people. βρέχει has no first person, χιονίζει has no plural, πρόκειται has no "I" — they occupy the third person singular and leave the rest of the paradigm empty, because there is nobody to put there. The syntactic rule behind that — Greek has no dummy subject, so the verb simply stands alone — is set out on impersonal and dummy subjects. This page is the inventory and the forms: which verbs, in which tenses, with which complements.
The weather verbs
| Present | Meaning | Imperfect (it was …-ing) | Aorist (it did) |
|---|---|---|---|
| βρέχει | it's raining | έβρεχε | έβρεξε |
| χιονίζει | it's snowing | χιόνιζε | χιόνισε |
| ψιχαλίζει | it's drizzling | ψιχάλιζε | ψιχάλισε |
| φυσάει | it's windy | φυσούσε | φύσηξε |
| βροντάει | it's thundering | βροντούσε | βρόντηξε |
| αστράφτει | there's lightning | άστραφτε | άστραψε |
| συννεφιάζει | it's clouding over | συννέφιαζε | συννέφιασε |
| παγώνει | it's freezing | πάγωνε | πάγωσε |
| σκοτεινιάζει | it's getting dark | σκοτείνιαζε | σκοτείνιασε |
| νυχτώνει | night is falling | νύχτωνε | νύχτωσε |
| ξημερώνει | day is breaking | ξημέρωνε | ξημέρωσε |
Nothing on that list is morphologically odd — φυσάει is an ordinary Class Β verb with a velar aorist, αστράφτει an ordinary labial one. The oddity is that the paradigm stops after one cell.
Βρέχει από το πρωί και δεν έχω ομπρέλα μαζί μου.
vréchi apó to proí ke dhen écho ombréla mazí mu
It's been raining since this morning and I haven't got an umbrella with me.
Χιόνισε στα βόρεια και έκλεισαν τα σχολεία για δύο μέρες.
chiónise sta vória ke éklisan ta scholía ya dhío méres
It snowed in the north and the schools shut for two days.
Ξημέρωσε και εμείς ακόμα μιλούσαμε στο μπαλκόνι.
ksimérose ke emís akóma milúsame sto balkóni
Day broke and we were still talking on the balcony.
For temperature Greek does not use these verbs at all — it uses κάνει plus a noun (κάνει κρύο, κάνει ζέστη, κάνει παγωνιά), and that whole family, along with the seasonal vocabulary, belongs to weather expressions and κάνω.
Both pasts exist, and they mean different things
Because these verbs are shaped like any other verb, they keep the full aspect contrast in the past — and this is the single most useful thing on the page, because English gives you almost no help with it. It rained yesterday can be either one in Greek.
- έβρεχε — imperfective: rain as the background to something else, or as a state that went on.
- έβρεξε — perfective: rain as one bounded event, something that happened and finished.
Όταν βγήκαμε από τον κινηματογράφο έβρεχε ακόμα.
ótan vyíkame apó ton kinimatoghráfo évreche akóma
When we came out of the cinema it was still raining.
Έβρεξε λίγο το πρωί και μετά βγήκε ήλιος.
évrekse lígho to proí ke metá vyíke ílios
It rained a bit in the morning and then the sun came out.
Both of those are natural, and swapping them changes the picture rather than breaking the sentence: Έβρεχε όλη μέρα frames a whole rainy day you lived through, while Έβρεξε όλη μέρα sums the day up as a single event now closed. The choice is the ordinary one described on imperfect vs aorist; what is worth noticing is that a subjectless verb makes it just like any other.
A subject does turn up when there is one to name
It is tempting to conclude that these verbs refuse subjects. They do not; they simply have nothing to say about who is doing it. Name a real participant — a wind, a kind of precipitation — and it appears in the nominative like any subject.
Φυσάει βοριάς και τα πλοία μένουν δεμένα στο λιμάνι.
fisái voriás ke ta plía ménun dheména sto limáni
A northerly is blowing and the boats are staying tied up in the harbour.
Έπεσε χαλάζι μεγάλο σαν καρύδι και κατέστρεψε τη σοδειά.
épese chalázi meghálo san karídhi ke katéstrepse ti sodhiá
Hail the size of walnuts came down and wrecked the crop.
The everyday verb for heavy precipitation is ρίχνει ("it's coming down"), which also anchors the language's favourite rain idiom, ρίχνει καρεκλοπόδαρα — literally "it's throwing down chair legs", the Greek equivalent of raining cats and dogs (informal).
Μην ξεκινήσεις τώρα, ρίχνει καρεκλοπόδαρα έξω.
min ksekinísis tóra, ríchni kareklopódhara ékso
Don't set off now — it's absolutely pouring out there.
"Impersonal" is a use, not a class of verb
Several of these words have a full, ordinary personal life elsewhere, and knowing that stops you from treating them as strange defective creatures. βρέχω with an object means "wet, moisten"; its mediopassive βρέχομαι means "get wet". φυσάω with an object means "blow on something". παγώνω works both ways: πάγωσε το ποτήρι ("the glass frosted over") and πάγωσα τα φιλέτα ("I froze the fillets").
Φύσα λίγο τη σούπα πριν τη δώσεις στο μικρό.
físa lígho ti súpa prin ti dhósis sto mikró
Blow on the soup a bit before you give it to the little one.
Βράχηκα ως το κόκαλο περιμένοντας το λεωφορείο.
vráchika os to kókalo periménondas to leoforío
I got soaked to the bone waiting for the bus.
What is genuinely restricted to the third person is the meteorological meaning: χιονίζει and ψιχαλίζει turn up in ordinary speech only as weather reports. And even the light-and-dark verbs have grown a personal branch — ξημερώνομαι means "to be still up at daybreak" (Ξημερωθήκαμε στο τραπέζι, informal).
πρόκειται να — the impersonal that is not about weather
πρόκειται is the most useful non-weather impersonal, and learners meet it late because no textbook chapter is called "things that are due to happen". It is frozen in the third person singular and takes να plus a fully conjugated verb, exactly like πρέπει and μπορεί. It reports something scheduled, intended or on the cards — closer to English is going to / is due to than to a plain future.
Πρόκειται να ανοίξει καινούριο σχολείο στη γειτονιά μας.
prókite na aníksi kenúrio scholío sti yitoniá mas
A new school is going to open in our neighbourhood.
Its past is επρόκειτο — with the augment, and equally frozen — and it usually carries the flavour of a plan that then changed.
Επρόκειτο να παντρευτούν τον Μάιο, αλλά το ανέβαλαν.
eprókito na pandreftún ton Máio, alá to anévalan
They were going to get married in May, but they put it off.
The same word has a second job with a completely different complement: πρόκειται για + accusative = "it is a matter of, it's about". Same frozen verb, but here it introduces a noun rather than a να-clause, and mixing the two constructions is the classic error.
Πρόκειται για ταινία μικρού μήκους, κρατάει δέκα λεπτά.
prókite ya tenía mikrú míkus, kratái dhéka leptá
It's a short film — it runs ten minutes.
συμβαίνει and τυχαίνει
συμβαίνει ("it happens, it's going on") gives you the standard way of asking what is wrong, and its aorist συνέβη keeps the augment inside the compound.
Τι συμβαίνει εδώ πέρα; Γιατί φωνάζετε όλοι;
ti simvéni edhó péra; yatí fonázete óli;
What's going on here? Why is everyone shouting?
τυχαίνει να is the frame for "it so happens that" — and note that Greek usually keeps the verb impersonal where English puts the person in the subject slot (I happen to know him). A personal τυχαίνω να ξέρω is possible, but the impersonal frame is what you will hear.
Τυχαίνει να ξέρω τον ιδιοκτήτη, θα του μιλήσω εγώ.
tichéni na kséro ton idhioktíti, tha tu milíso eghó
I happen to know the owner — I'll speak to him myself.
Two neighbouring families are deliberately not on this page. The modal impersonals — πρέπει, μπορεί, χρειάζεται, αξίζει, φαίνεται — are on impersonal πρέπει / μπορεί να. The experiencer verbs — μου αρέσει, μου φαίνεται, με νοιάζει, με πειράζει — only look impersonal: they have a real subject, it just follows the verb, and they are handled on the genitive experiencer. And "there is / there are" is the full verb υπάρχει, on existential υπάρχει.
Common Mistakes
1. Building the English progressive out of two Greek words. Greek has one present tense; it is raining is a single verb.
❌ Είναι βρέχει έξω, πάρε ομπρέλα.
Incorrect — Greek has no progressive auxiliary; the whole sentence is Βρέχει.
✅ Βρέχει έξω, πάρε ομπρέλα.
vréchi ékso, páre ombréla
It's raining outside — take an umbrella.
2. Conjugating πρόκειται to match the person. The -ται ending invites it, but the verb is frozen; the person lives on the να-verb.
❌ Πρόκειμαι να μείνω στην Αθήνα φέτος.
Incorrect — πρόκειται is invariable: Πρόκειται να μείνω.
✅ Πρόκειται να μείνω στην Αθήνα φέτος το καλοκαίρι.
prókite na míno stin Athína fétos to kalokéri
I'm going to stay in Athens this summer.
3. Mixing the two complements of πρόκειται. A να-clause needs να; a noun needs για.
❌ Πρόκειται να μια παρεξήγηση.
Incorrect — with a noun the frame is πρόκειται για: Πρόκειται για μια παρεξήγηση.
✅ Πρόκειται για μια απλή παρεξήγηση, τίποτα σοβαρό.
prókite ya mia aplí pareksíyisi, típota sovaró
It's a simple misunderstanding, nothing serious.
4. Supplying "the weather" as the subject. Once you know that it has no translation, the next temptation is to promote a real noun into the empty slot. The slot is not empty — it is absent.
❌ Ο καιρός βρέχει από χθες το βράδυ.
Incorrect — in its weather sense βρέχει has no subject slot to fill, and ο καιρός is what the weather is like, not what rains. These verbs are not subject-refusing in general: Φυσάει βοριάς names a real participant, and transitive βρέχω takes one too — Η βροχή έβρεξε τα ρούχα.
✅ Βρέχει από χθες το βράδυ και ο κήπος πλημμύρισε.
vréchi apó chthes to vrádhi ke o kípos plimírise
It's been raining since last night and the garden has flooded.
Key Takeaways
- Impersonal verbs are complete in form and incomplete in persons: they occupy the third person singular and leave the rest of the paradigm empty.
- The weather inventory to know: βρέχει, χιονίζει, ψιχαλίζει, φυσάει, βροντάει, αστράφτει, συννεφιάζει, παγώνει, σκοτεινιάζει, νυχτώνει, ξημερώνει — each with a normal imperfect and aorist.
- Both pasts are live: έβρεχε frames a background or a state, έβρεξε reports one bounded event. The same contrast runs into the future — θα βρέξει against θα βρέχει.
- They are not subject-refusing: name a real participant and it appears — Φυσάει βοριάς, Έπεσε χαλάζι.
- Many of these verbs have ordinary personal uses elsewhere: βρέχω "wet", βρέχομαι "get wet", φυσάω "blow on", παγώνω "freeze something".
- πρόκειται να = "is going to / is due to", frozen, past επρόκειτο; πρόκειται για + accusative = "it's a matter of". Do not swap the two complements.
- συμβαίνει (what's going on) and τυχαίνει να (it so happens that) stay impersonal where English moves the person into the subject.
Now practice Greek
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Start learning Greek →Related Topics
- Impersonal and Dummy SubjectsB1 — English has two subjects that mean nothing — it and there — and Greek has neither, which produces two separate transfer errors with two separate fixes. 'It' corresponds to nothing at all (Βρέχει, Κάνει κρύο, Είναι κρίμα που…), while 'there is' is the real verb υπάρχει, which agrees, or the everyday έχει, which does not. Plus the neuter-singular adjective in Είναι δύσκολο να… and when αυτό genuinely is allowed.
- Impersonal πρέπει / μπορεί ναB1 — The two invariable modal frames — πρέπει να for obligation ('must / have to') and μπορεί να for possibility ('may / might') — where the modal never changes and the person is carried by the να-verb, plus their pasts έπρεπε να and μπορεί να + past.
- Irregular Verbs: PatternsB1 — Greek irregularity has one address: the perfective stem. The present of an irregular verb is almost always textbook-regular — it is δω, έφαγα, μπήκα, έστειλα that surprise you. This page sorts the whole field into five shapes (plus the impersonals) and the three verbs that have no perfective stem at all, and sends you to the page that handles each.
- Experiencer Clitics: μου αρέσειA2 — Μου αρέσουν τα λουλούδια is 'the flowers please me' — the thing is the subject and the person is a genitive clitic. The whole αρέσει / λείπει / φαίνεται / πάει family, why μου λείπεις inverts twice, the three ways to say your head hurts, and the sister family (με νοιάζει, σε πειράζει) that takes the accusative instead.