Learn Latin from the Romans A Complete Introductory Course Using Textbooks from the Roman Empire

Some verbs are impersonal; that is, they have no meaningful subject. In English, where the structure of the language requires that verbs have expressed subjects, impersonal verbs have a grammatical subject ‘it’, as in ‘it is raining’ or ‘it is important to do the right thing’. In Latin impersonal verbs have no expressed subject, but they appear in the third person singular, and in forms where the gender of the subject is specified they are neuter: thus in many ways the Latin impersonal subject is not unlike the English ‘it’. Some verbs are only used impersonally and therefore do not occur in forms other than the third person singular, as is signalled by their principal parts.