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Impersonal verbs and the German pronoun "es"

The personal pronoun "es"

Impersonal verbs in German use as subject the pronoun "es".

The pronoun "es" usually means "it" but it has no meaning in the context of impersonal verbs but rather just a grammatical function of a subject.

Verbs that deal with nature are impersonal verbs:

Es dunkelt schon
It's getting dark

Heute kann es regnen
It might rain today

Gestern hat es geschneit
It snowed yesterday

As you see in the following examples, verbs dealing with noise can be impersonal:

Wo hat es geknallt?
Where was the bang?

Was tun, wenn es im Ohr pfeift?
What to do if there is a whistling (noise) in your ear?

These verbs don't necessarily have to always be impersonal if you specify the origin of the noise (that's why it doesn't have the pronoun "es")

Nachts pfeift der Wind ums Haus
At night, the wind whistles around the house

Many verbs that deal with the senses in German are impersonal:

Es tut mir leid
I'm sorry

Es hat mir geschmeckt
I liked the food/ It tasted very well

Copulative verbs, meaning "sein", "werden" and "bleiben", can behave like impersonal verbs if they are accompanied by adjective or adverbs that:

It is very common to find the verb "geben" acting as an impersonal verb:

Be careful with "geben" which means to give but also behaves like an impersonal verb meaning "there is/are"

Es gibt keine Lösung
There is no solution

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