Serbian does not need an English-style dummy subject in Сева There is lightning, Хладно је It is cold, or Спава ми се I feel sleepy. These clauses are genuinely impersonal: no nominative noun or pronoun controls the predicate. Present-tense verbal predicates use third-person singular, and past predicates default to neuter singular.
Subjectlessness is not the same as ordinary pro-drop. In Радим, an unspoken first-person subject controls -м; in Овде се ради, no particular person controls the third-person singular verb. That distinction explains agreement, case, and the way Serbian packages weather, bodily states, necessity, and generic human activity.
No dummy it in weather and environmental clauses
English inserts it in it is thundering and it is getting dark. Serbian simply uses the impersonal predicate.
Сева и грми изнад града.
There is lightning and thunder over the city.
У децембру се смркава већ око четири.
In December it gets dark at around four already.
После олује се брзо разведрило.
After the storm, it cleared up quickly.
Past разведрило се is neuter singular. There is no omitted masculine or feminine subject that could trigger разведрио or разведрила.
Not every English weather sentence maps to a subjectless Serbian clause. Пада киша contains nominative киша, which is a grammatical subject:
Од јутрос пада ситна киша.
A light rain has been falling since this morning.
Serbian still has no dummy counterpart of English it, but киша can control ordinary agreement. Diagnose the Serbian structure rather than the English translation.
Impersonal states with је, било је, and биће
An adjective-like neuter form or adverb can describe the general conditions in a place. The location is a setting, not a nominative subject.
У ходнику је мрачно и прилично хладно.
It is dark and fairly cold in the corridor.
Синоћ је у сали било загушљиво.
It was stuffy in the hall last night.
До подне ће на тераси бити пријатно.
It will be pleasant on the terrace until noon.
The time pattern is stable:
| Time | Impersonal frame | Agreement |
|---|---|---|
| present | овде је тихо | third-person singular copula |
| past | овде је било тихо | neuter singular било |
| future | овде ће бити тихо | third-person singular ће |
| negative past | овде није било тихо | fused singular није + neuter било |
Plural у канцеларијама or на улицама cannot make било plural because those phrases are locative, not nominative controllers.
The experiencer is dative
Serbian commonly presents a physical or emotional state as something experienced to a person. The experiencer appears in dative, while the predicate remains impersonal.
Хладно ми је поред отвореног прозора.
I feel cold beside the open window.
Деци је досадно док чекају почетак представе.
The children are bored while they wait for the performance to begin.
Било нам је непријатно када су сви заћутали.
We felt uncomfortable when everyone fell silent.
Neutral unstressed experiencers are ми, ти, му, јој, нам, вам, им. A full dative marks contrast:
Мени је вруће, а њој је сасвим пријатно.
I feel hot, while she feels perfectly comfortable.
The English subject corresponds to Serbian dative мени/јој, not nominative ја/она. Neither experiencer controls the neuter predicate.
Other frequent frames must be learned as constructions:
Жао ми је што нисам раније одговорио.
I'm sorry that I did not reply earlier. (male speaker)
Мука јој је од вожње по кривудавом путу.
The drive along the winding road makes her feel sick.
Dative + се: inclination rather than an action
The pattern dative + се + third-person singular verb expresses an urge, willingness, or lack of inclination. It does not assert that the person is actually doing the activity.
Пије ми се нешто топло после ове шетње.
I feel like drinking something warm after this walk.
Деци се још не иде кући.
The children do not feel like going home yet.
Јуче ми се није радило, али сам ипак завршио извештај.
I did not feel like working yesterday, but I finished the report anyway. (male speaker)
Compare a personal action with an impersonal inclination:
Радним данима спавам око седам сати.
On weekdays I sleep about seven hours. (personal verb)
Спава ми се, али морам да сачекам последњи воз.
I feel sleepy, but I have to wait for the last train.
In спавам, the ending marks the actor. In спава ми се, dative ми names the experiencer and the verb stays third-person singular.
Necessity, permission, and agentless instructions
Modal predicates often leave the person responsible unexpressed. A following да-clause can identify that person through its own ending:
Треба да кренемо пре јутарње гужве.
We should leave before the morning rush.
Треба is impersonal; first-person plural appears on кренемо. In the past, careful standard Serbian uses neuter singular требало:
Требало је раније резервисати места за радионицу.
The places for the workshop should have been reserved earlier.
The infinitive creates an agentless instruction. This does not make the infinitive more Serbian than да + present; both are standard and choose different degrees of actor specification.
Impersonal се is common in public rules and statements of possibility:
Овде се може платити картицом или готовином.
One can pay here by card or in cash.
У читаоници се не сме разговарати телефоном.
Phone conversations are not allowed in the reading room.
These sentences do not contain a nominative counterpart of English one. The setting comes first, се occupies its normal early clitic position, and the modal remains singular.
Generic activity: impersonal or passive?
An impersonal се-clause presents what unspecified people do, with default singular agreement. A se-passive instead has a nominative patient that controls agreement.
У овом одељењу се ради у две смене.
People in this department work in two shifts. (impersonal; no nominative subject)
У овом одељењу се издају нове дозволе.
New permits are issued in this department. (se-passive; plural дозволе controls издају)
The plural test exposes the structure. Дозволе is nominative plural, so издају must be plural. In ради, no nominative patient exists.
Past impersonal се uses neuter singular and normally omits the positive third-person auxiliary је in the cluster:
После предавања се дуго разговарало о практичним примерима.
After the lecture, people talked about practical examples for a long time.
For the full passive contrast, see The se-Passive and Impersonal Constructions.
Clause order and information packaging
An initial location or time frame is especially natural because an impersonal clause lacks a topic-like subject:
Када се смркне, у парку постане тихо.
When it gets dark, the park becomes quiet.
The comma closes the initial subordinate time clause. In the main clause, у парку frames the setting; it is not a subject. Coordination can link two impersonal states:
Напољу је хладно, па нам се не излази.
It is cold outside, so we do not feel like going out.
The result connector па makes the relation explicit. Dative нам belongs only to the second clause and follows its early host.
Existential има/нема clauses are another major subjectless type, but their special case patterns and tense forms are treated on Existential Sentences.
Common Mistakes
Adding a dummy pronoun for weather
❌ Оно је грми цело поподне.
Incorrect—the weather verb has no dummy Serbian equivalent of English ‘it,’ and је cannot accompany finite грми this way.
✅ Грми цело поподне, али киша још не пада.
It has been thundering all afternoon, but it is not raining yet.
Making the experiencer nominative
❌ Деца је досадно током дуге паузе.
Incorrect—the experiencer must be dative деци, while the impersonal predicate stays singular.
✅ Деци је досадно током дуге паузе.
The children are bored during the long break.
Treating inclination as a personal reflexive
❌ Ја се спава после ручка.
Incorrect—the inclination construction uses dative ми and third-person singular спава.
✅ После ручка ми се спава, па ћу попити кафу.
I feel sleepy after lunch, so I'll have a coffee.
Giving an impersonal past plural agreement
❌ На шалтерима су се чекали више од сат времена.
Incorrect—на шалтерима is locative, not a plural subject; impersonal past requires neuter singular чекало се.
✅ На шалтерима се чекало више од сат времена.
People waited at the service counters for more than an hour.
Practice Tasks
Task 1: Subjectless or pro-drop?
Analyze Радимо до пет, Овде се ради до пет, Хладно нам је, and Пада снег. Identify the understood personal subject, true subjectless clauses, dative experiencer, and overt nominative subject.
Task 2: Move through time
Change У сали је пријатно into past negative and future affirmative. Then add a dative experiencer to each version without changing the default neuter agreement.
Key Takeaways
- Serbian has no dummy weather pronoun corresponding to English it.
- A true impersonal clause has no nominative controller; present verbs default to third-person singular and past predicates to neuter singular.
- Physical and emotional experiencers commonly appear in dative: хладно ми је, жао јој је.
- Спава ми се expresses inclination, not the personal action спавам.
- Initial locative phrases frame a subjectless event but never control agreement.
- A plural nominative patient creates a se-passive with plural agreement; genuine impersonal се remains singular.
Now practice Serbian
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Start learning Serbian →Related Topics
- The se-Passive and Impersonal ConstructionsB1 — Expressing 'one does / it is done' with se.
- The Two Faces of trebatiB1 — Personal 'need' vs impersonal 'should', and the agreement traps.
- Existential Sentences (there is/are)A2 — ima/nema, biti, and presentational order.
- Subject Pronouns and Pro-Drop in PracticeA1 — When to include and when to omit the subject pronoun.
- The Possessive (Sympathetic) DativeB1 — Using the dative for inalienable possession and affectedness.
- Predicate Agreement SubtletiesC1 — Agreement with collective, quantified, plural-only, and semantically mismatched subjects.