prodrop

Prodrop, short for pro-drop or pro-drop language, is a linguistic term describing languages in which certain pronouns—most commonly the subject—can be omitted in a sentence when their identity is recoverable from verb morphology or the surrounding context. The phenomenon is often described in terms of zero pronouns or null subjects. In prodrop languages, finite verbs frequently carry information about person and number, making explicit subject pronouns unnecessary in many ordinary clauses.

In practice, subject pronouns are routinely dropped in declarative sentences, though pronouns may be used for emphasis, contrast, or to resolve potential ambiguity. Some languages also permit dropping of object pronouns under favorable discourse conditions. The extent and rules of dropping vary by language and dialect, and not all sentences allow omission in all contexts. In some languages, pronoun dropping interacts with discourse and topic structures, influencing when and how pronouns appear.

Languages commonly cited as prodrop include Spanish, Italian, and Portuguese in the Romance family; Greek and Turkish in their respective groups; and Japanese and Korean in East Asian varieties. Finnish and Swedish are also described as prodrop to varying degrees. The phenomenon is a major topic in syntactic theory, where it informs the null subject parameter: languages that routinely omit subjects are contrasted with non-null-subject languages like English, where subject pronouns are typically required in finite clauses. Pronoun dropping thus reflects how morphology, syntax, and discourse shape sentence structure across languages.