impersonalinen

Impionalinen is a Finnish adjective meaning impersonal, used in linguistic and grammatical contexts to describe constructions that do not involve a specific person as the subject or agent. The term is applied mainly in descriptive grammar and language studies to distinguish sentence types that express general states, phenomena, or experiences without attributing them to a particular individual.

In Finnish, an impersonal clause often lacks a grammatical subject. The predicate may be a bare verb in present tense (for weather or natural phenomena) or a verb form that carries no personal ending. This results in statements that do not specify who performs the action or who experiences the state. Common contexts include weather expressions, general conditions, and statements about time or circumstances. Examples: "Sataa." (It is raining.) "On hiljaista." (It is quiet.) "Sataa" is a weather-related impersonal verb, while "On hiljaista" expresses a general state without a subject.

The concept is distinct from personal sentences, where the verb carries a clear subject and person marking. It is also related to the Finnish passive in the sense that both can produce statements without identifying an agent, though they are not identical grammatical phenomena. In Finnish grammar, impersonal constructions are a recognized category used to describe how language can convey information without a specified actor.

Etymology and usage notes: the word is formed from the Finnish suffix -inen, which turns the base adjective impersonal into a modifier. The term appears in grammar guides, linguistic descriptions of Finnish, and language-education materials to help learners recognize and analyze non-personal sentence patterns.