Sentences with No Subject at All | Hebrew Grammar

English grammar insists on a subject, even when it refers to nothing: it is cold, it is worth waiting, it is forbidden to smoke. Hebrew does not insert a dummy pronoun. קר בחוץ, כדאי לחכות, and אסור לעשן are complete sentences whose predicate has no grammatical subject.

That does not mean every Hebrew sentence translated with English it or an experiencer dative lacks a subject. Some have a real noun that controls agreement. This page keeps four patterns separate so that “impersonal” never becomes an excuse to ignore agreement.

Type 1: ambient conditions with nobody to agree with

Weather, temperature, light, and general atmosphere can be stated without a subject. Adjectival predicates such as קר, חם, and נעים appear in masculine singular; nominal חושך is simply an invariant noun predicate.

קר בחוץ, קחי מעיל.

kar bakhúts, kekhí me'íl

It’s cold outside; take a coat. (to a woman)

חם פה נורא, אפשר לפתוח חלון?

kham po norá, efshár liftóakh khalón?

It’s terribly hot in here; can we open a window?

נעים בחוץ הערב, בואו נשב במרפסת.

na'ím bakhúts ha'érev, bó'u neshév bamirpéset

It’s pleasant outside this evening; let’s sit on the balcony. (to a group)

כבר חושך, הילדים צריכים לחזור הביתה.

kvar khóshekh, hayeladím tsrikhím lakhazór habáyta

It’s dark already; the children need to come home.

With no subject, there is no gender or number feature to copy. An adjectival ambient predicate therefore remains masculine singular, while nominal חושך has no agreement paradigm. Past and future use masculine-singular היה and יהיה for the same reason.

היה קר בלילה, אבל בבוקר התחמם.

hayá kar baláyla, avál babóker hitkhamém

It was cold at night, but it warmed up in the morning.

יהיה נעים יותר אחרי השקיעה.

yihyé na'ím yotér akharéi hashki'á

It will be more pleasant after sunset.

Weather verbs deserve one precision. ירד גשם כל הלילה is semantically impersonal—no agent makes the rain fall—but גשם is an overt weather noun and the verb is masculine singular with it. It belongs beside the ambient pattern in meaning, but it is not proof that a noun subject never controls agreement.

ירד גשם כל הלילה והרחובות מוצפים.

yarád géshem kol haláyla veharekhóvot mutsafím

It rained all night and the streets are flooded.

Type 2: impersonal predicates plus an infinitive

Hebrew can present an action as advisable, possible, permitted, forbidden, or regrettable without naming the person who performs it. The predicate stays masculine singular and the action appears as an infinitive.

כדאי לצאת מוקדם לפני הפקקים.

kedái latsét mukdám lifnéi hapkakím

It’s worth leaving early before the traffic.

אסור לעשן ליד הכניסה.

asúr le'ashén leyád haknisá

Smoking is forbidden near the entrance.

מותר להיכנס עם כלב קטן?

mutár lehikanés im kélev katán?

Is it permitted to enter with a small dog?

אפשר לשלם כאן באשראי.

efshár leshalém kan be'ashrái

You can pay by card here.

חבל לבזבז יום שלם על נסיעה.

khavál levazbéz yom shalém al nesi'á

It’s a shame to waste a whole day travelling.

English translations must manufacture it, you, a gerund subject, or a passive. Hebrew needs none of them. The predicate evaluates the action directly. Their individual meanings and complement patterns are on impersonal modal predicates.

Past and future again use היה when the predicate itself has no tense:

היה כדאי לחכות עוד עשר דקות.

hayá kedái lekhakót od éser dakót

It would have been worth waiting another ten minutes.

יהיה אפשר לשלם באינטרנט מהשבוע הבא.

yihyé efshár leshalém ba'ínternet mehashavúa habá

It will be possible to pay online starting next week.

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חבל על הזמן is a separate frozen expression. Literally it can relate to wasted time, but in (informal) Israeli speech it very often means “fantastic / out of this world.” Do not analyse that idiom as חבל + an infinitive, and do not infer its meaning word by word.

ההופעה הייתה חבל על הזמן, כולם רקדו עד הסוף.

hahofa'á haytá khavál al hazmán, kulám rakdú ad hasóf

The show was amazing; everyone danced right to the end. (informal idiom)

Type 3: dative experiencers — check whether a subject exists

Hebrew often puts the person experiencing a sensation or desire in a ל־ phrase: לי, לך, לו, לה. The crucial next question is whether a noun inside the sentence acts as the grammatical subject.

A real noun subject: agreement is required

In כואב לי הגב, הגב is the subject and controls masculine singular כואב. Change the body part and the verb changes. Likewise, in בא לי קפה, קפה supplies the masculine-singular item desired. The experiencer לי never controls agreement.

כואב לי הגב אחרי הנסיעה הארוכה.

ko'év li hagáv akharéi hanesi'á ha'aruká

My back hurts after the long journey.

כואבות לי הברכיים אחרי העלייה.

ko'avót li habirkáyim akharéi ha'aliyá

My knees hurt after the climb.

בא לי קפה, אתה רוצה גם?

ba li kafé, atá rotsé gam?

I feel like a coffee; do you want one too? (to a man; informal)

These are not subjectless in the strict grammatical sense. English hides the structure by translating לי as the subject I/my and the Hebrew subject as an object or body-part phrase. The full desire construction is routed to בא לי.

No noun subject: masculine singular stays fixed

Other experiencer expressions contain no nominal subject at all. The predicate stays masculine singular while the dative identifies the person affected.

נמאס לי לחכות, אני הולכת הביתה.

nim'ás li lekhakót, aní holékhet habáyta

I’m fed up with waiting; I’m going home. (f. speaker)

לא אכפת להם מה יגידו.

lo ikhpát lahém ma yagídu

They don’t care what people will say.

מתחשק לי לצאת לטיול בשבת.

mitkhashék li latsét letiyúl beshabát

I feel like going on a trip on Saturday.

קר לנו ליד החלון, אפשר לעבור שולחן?

kar lánu leyád hakhalón, efshár la'avór shulkhán?

We’re cold by the window; can we move to another table?

Do not attach היה mechanically to every member of this group. נמאס is itself a nif'al verb. Its current/past form in this use is נִמְאַס nim'ás, and its future is יימאס.

בסוף יימאס לי להסביר את אותו הדבר בכל פעם.

basóf yima'és li lehasbír et otó hadavár bekhól pá'am

Eventually I’ll get tired of explaining the same thing every time.

The three-way contrast: קר לי, אני קר, זה קר

All three sentences are real Hebrew. They differ in who or what is being described.

קר לי, אפשר לסגור את החלון?

kar li, efshár lisgór et hakhalón?

I’m cold; can we close the window? (a sensation experienced by me)

אני קר כי עמדתי שעה בחוץ.

aní kar ki amádti sha'á bakhúts

I’m cold to the touch because I stood outside for an hour. (m. speaker; a property of the person)

זה קר, תחממי את זה עוד דקה.

ze kar, tekhamemí et ze od daká

This is cold; heat it for another minute. (to a woman; a property of a thing)

For “it is cold outside,” use קר בחוץ, the ambient subjectless frame. For “I feel cold,” use קר לי. אני קר is not broken Hebrew; it makes a different physical or metaphorical claim about the person.

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The dative construction treats the sensation as something that holds for or happens to a person. English instead promotes that person to subject. Once you recognise לי as the experiencer rather than the subject, both the agreement and the missing dummy “it” become predictable.

An unnamed human agent: the impersonal plural

A bare third-person plural verb can leave a human agent unnamed: “they told me,” “someone stole,” “people say.” This construction does contain verbal plural morphology, but no expressed subject noun or pronoun.

אמרו לי שהחנות סגורה היום.

amrú li shehakhanút sgurá hayóm

They told me the shop is closed today. (unnamed source)

גנבו לי את האופניים מחוץ לתחנה.

ganvú li et ha'ofanáyim mikhúts latakhaná

Someone stole my bicycle from outside the station. (unnamed agent)

Adding הם would point to a specific group already known in the conversation. For the generic and passive analysis, continue to impersonal plural verbs and generic “one/you”.

Common Mistakes

1. Choosing a property sentence when a sensation is intended. Both strings are grammatical, so meaning decides.

✅ קר לי אחרי עשר דקות בחוץ.

kar li akharéi éser dakót bakhúts

I feel cold after ten minutes outside. (experiencer dative)

✅ אני קר למגע, אבל אני מרגיש בסדר.

aní kar lamagá, avál aní margísh beséder

I’m cold to the touch, but I feel fine. (m. speaker; property of the person)

2. Checking agreement requires identifying the structure. An explicit subject noun controls agreement; a ב־ phrase naming the affected body part does not.

✅ כואבות לי הרגליים אחרי הריצה הארוכה.

ko'avót li haragláyim akharéi haritsá ha'aruká

My legs hurt after the long run. (רגליים is the explicit feminine-plural subject.)

✅ כואב לי ברגליים אחרי הריצה הארוכה.

ko'év li baragláyim akharéi haritsá ha'aruká

My legs hurt after the long run. (ברגליים is a locative phrase, not the subject, so masculine-singular כואב is expected.)

3. Distinguishing referential זה from English dummy “it.” Hebrew begins an impersonal prohibition directly with the predicate, but זה is grammatical when it points to a particular act or thing.

✅ אסור לעשן במרפסת, אבל יש אזור עישון בחוץ.

asúr le'ashén bamirpéset, avál yesh ezór ishún bakhúts

Smoking is forbidden on the balcony, but there is a smoking area outside.

✅ זה אסור לפי התקנון.

ze asúr lefí hatakanón

That is forbidden under the regulations. (זה is referential: it points to a specific act or thing.)

4. Building the future of נמאס with יהיה. נמאס is a verb with its own future.

❌ מחר יהיה נמאס לי לחכות.

Incorrect — use the nif’al future of נמאס: מחר יימאס לי לחכות.

✅ מחר כבר יימאס לי לחכות לתשובה.

makhár kvar yima'és li lekhakót litshuvá

By tomorrow I’ll already be tired of waiting for an answer.

5. Adding הם to an unnamed-agent plural. Both clauses are grammatical, but explicit הם makes the group specific.

✅ התקשרו ואמרו שהמשלוח בדרך.

hitkashrú ve'amrú shehamishlóakh badérekh

They called and said the delivery is on its way. (unnamed callers)

✅ הנהגים התקשרו, והם אמרו שהמשלוח בדרך.

hanahagím hitkashrú, vehém amrú shehamishlóakh badérekh

The drivers called, and they said the delivery is on its way. (specific group)

Key Takeaways

Ambient predicates such as קר, חם, נעים, and חושך can form complete subjectless sentences and stay masculine singular.
Impersonal modal/evaluative predicates + infinitive need no dummy “it”: כדאי ללכת, אסור לעשן, אפשר לשלם.
A dative experiencer does not tell you whether there is a subject. כואבות לי הברכיים has an agreeing noun subject; קר לי, נמאס לי, אכפת לי do not.
Use היה/יהיה with tenseless predicates: היה קר, יהיה כדאי. But נמאס is a nif’al verb and has future יימאס.
קר לי, אני קר, and זה קר are all real Hebrew with different meanings.
A bare third-person plural verb can conceal an unnamed human agent: אמרו לי, גנבו לי.

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