English insists that every sentence have a subject, even an empty one: it's raining, one must go, there is no time. The words it, one, and there in those sentences mean nothing — they are placeholders filling a slot the grammar demands. Polish has no such requirement. Whole families of perfectly ordinary Polish sentences have no grammatical subject at all, and trying to supply an English-style dummy subject is a clear error. Recognising subjectless sentences as normal — not as fragments — is one of the genuine conceptual shifts in learning Polish.
Weather and ambient states: just a verb
The most striking case: many weather and ambient expressions are a single verb with nothing else. There is no it.
Pada.
It's raining. (one word — no subject, no 'it')
Grzmi i błyska.
It's thundering and lightning.
Ściemnia się.
It's getting dark.
English it's raining feels like it has a subject (it), but that it refers to nothing. Polish simply omits the empty placeholder. Saying To pada or Ono pada to mean "it is raining" is wrong — there is no slot to fill. See weather and nature expressions.
Ambient states with jest + adverb
For ambient conditions Polish often uses jest ("is") plus an adverb — again with no subject. The predicate is adverbial (zimno, ciemno, gorąco), not adjectival.
Jest zimno.
It's cold. (adverb 'zimno', no subject)
Dziś jest strasznie gorąco.
It's terribly hot today.
W pokoju było ciemno i cicho.
It was dark and quiet in the room.
The dative-experiencer: zimno mi
Add a person who experiences the state, and that person appears in the dative — never as a nominative subject. The state is something that happens to you, so you are its dative recipient.
Zimno mi.
I'm cold. (lit. '(it is) cold to-me' — 'mi' is dative, not the subject)
Smutno jej dzisiaj.
She's sad today.
Nudzi mi się na tym wykładzie.
I'm bored in this lecture. (dative experiencer + się)
This is a deep structural difference. English makes the experiencer the subject (I am cold); Polish makes the experiencer a dative bystander to an impersonal state. Trying to say Ja jestem zimny means "I am cold (to the touch / a cold person)," not "I feel cold" — a real and common confusion. See the dative subject and feelings.
trzeba, można, wolno, warto + infinitive
A set of impersonal predicates expresses necessity, possibility, and permission. They take a bare infinitive and have no subject; the person concerned, if mentioned, goes in the dative.
| Word | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| trzeba | one must / it's necessary | Trzeba iść. |
| można | one may / it's possible | Można tu palić? |
| wolno | one is allowed | Nie wolno tu wchodzić. |
| warto | it's worth | Warto spróbować. |
Trzeba iść, bo się spóźnimy.
We need to go, or we'll be late. (no subject — 'trzeba' + infinitive)
Czy można tu palić?
Is one allowed to smoke here?
Nie wolno wchodzić bez pozwolenia.
Entering without permission is not allowed.
Warto było czekać.
It was worth waiting. (past: word + 'było')
To put these in the past, add the neuter było (trzeba było, można było, warto było). For how trzeba differs from the personal verb musieć, see musieć vs trzeba vs powinien.
The się-impersonal: Mówi się…
Polish forms a general "one / people / you-in-general" impersonal by adding się to a third-person singular verb. There is no subject; the action is attributed to people at large.
Mówi się, że zima będzie mroźna.
They say (one says) the winter will be frosty.
Jak się to robi?
How does one do this? / How is this done?
W Polsce dużo się czyta.
People read a lot in Poland.
This is how Polish renders English "one," generic "you," and "people say" — all with the same subjectless się construction. See the impersonal się and passive.
The -no / -to past: Zbudowano most
For a single completed action with an unnamed agent in the past, Polish has a dedicated impersonal form ending in -no or -to. It is built from the perfective verb, it never agrees with anything, and it has no subject — the doer is simply left unexpressed. It is common in formal, official, and journalistic registers.
Zbudowano nowy most nad Wisłą.
A new bridge was built over the Vistula. (formal — agent unnamed)
Znaleziono zaginione dokumenty.
The missing documents were found.
Otwarto wystawę o godzinie dziewiętnastej.
The exhibition was opened at seven p.m.
The crucial point: there is no past-tense się-impersonal in standard Polish — you cannot say Zbudowało się most for "a bridge was built." The -no/-to form fills that gap. See why there is no impersonal past with się.
Common Mistakes
❌ To pada dzisiaj.
Incorrect — there is no dummy 'it'; the verb stands alone.
✅ Pada dzisiaj.
It's raining today.
❌ Ja jestem zimny.
Means 'I am a cold person / cold to the touch', not 'I feel cold'.
✅ Zimno mi.
I'm cold.
❌ Trzeba idziemy do domu.
Incorrect — 'trzeba' takes an infinitive, not a conjugated verb.
✅ Trzeba iść do domu.
We need to go home.
❌ Zbudowało się nowy most.
Incorrect — Polish has no past się-impersonal; use the -no/-to form.
✅ Zbudowano nowy most.
A new bridge was built.
❌ Ono jest zimno w pokoju.
Incorrect — supplying a subject 'ono' for an impersonal state.
✅ W pokoju jest zimno.
It's cold in the room.
Key Takeaways
- Polish has no dummy subject — it/one/there have no Polish equivalent; supplying one (to pada, ono jest zimno) is wrong.
- Weather/ambient verbs stand alone (Pada, Grzmi); ambient states use jest
- adverb (Jest zimno).
- The experiencer of a state goes in the dative, not the nominative: Zimno mi, Nudzi mi się.
- trzeba, można, wolno, warto are subjectless and take an infinitive; their past adds neuter było.
- The się-impersonal (Mówi się…) covers generic "one/people"; the -no/-to form (Zbudowano…) is its agentless past counterpart, since Polish has no past się-impersonal.
Related Topics
- Impersonal się and the się-PassiveB2 — The everyday Polish way to say 'one does / you do / people do' without a subject — the impersonal się of signs, rules and generalisations, plus the się-passive for backgrounding the agent.
- The -no/-to Impersonal PastC1 — Polish's distinctively subjectless past form — zbudowano, znaleziono, otwarto — a frozen verb with no subject and no agent that keeps its object in the accusative, and is the voice of news, history and reports.
- musieć vs trzeba vs powinien: Must, Should, Have ToB1 — How to express obligation in Polish — the personal must (musieć), the impersonal one-must (trzeba), the weaker should (powinien), and the negation trap where the negatives don't mirror the positives.
- Dative Subject: Feelings and StatesB1 — The pervasive Polish construction where the experiencer of a feeling stands in the dative and the predicate is impersonal — zimno mi, smutno mi, podoba mi się, nudzi mi się, chce mi się, udało mi się — with no nominative subject at all.
- Talking About the WeatherA2 — The phrase bank for weather in Polish — Jaka jest pogoda?, the subjectless weather verbs (Pada 'it's raining', Grzmi 'it's thundering', Mży 'it's drizzling'), Pada deszcz / śnieg, Świeci słońce, the impersonal Jest zimno / ciepło / gorąco (adverb, no subject), Wieje wiatr, and seasons in the bare instrumental (latem, zimą) — where weather has no dummy 'it'.