es (agent inespecífic)

Impersonal Es

Level 5

Impersonal es leaves a human agent unspecified and commonly uses a third-person singular verb.

How It Works

Use impersonal es to speak about what people do without naming an actor: aquí es treballa molt. With an intransitive verb there is no direct object that could become a grammatical subject. The form is not an instruction that literally names a person called es.

A general description such as en aquesta feina es viatja molt applies to an unspecified class of workers. It does not identify a hidden plural subject with which the verb must agree. By contrast, es revisen expedients is passive and has a plural patient subject. In instructions, an active personal form can make responsibility clearer when a specific reader must perform the action; choose impersonality only when that generality is intended.

Examples (3)

  1. En aquesta feina es viatja molt.

    This job involves a lot of travel.

  2. Aquí es parla amb calma.

    People speak calmly here.

  3. A la biblioteca no es crida.

    People do not shout in the library.

How It Connects

Tap a pattern to see what it builds on and what it leads to.

es (agent inespecífic)Level 5Impersonal Es

Learn This First

Recognize a genuinely unspecified agent before distinguishing passive agreement.

Words in This Pattern