B1 · The verb: present tense and stem
Verbs with no real subject
Es regnet. Mir ist kalt. Es gibt.
Weather, states and feelings that happen to somebody rather than being done by them.
A group of German verbs has no real subject. The weather verbs are the clearest: Es regnet, Es schneit, Es donnert. The es refers to nothing at all and cannot be replaced by anything; it is there because a German sentence needs a subject.
A second group describes a state that happens to a person, and there German puts the person in the dative rather than making them the subject: Mir ist kalt, Mir ist schlecht, Mir tut der Kopf weh. English says "I am cold", making the speaker the subject; German says literally "to me it is cold", which is a different picture of what is going on.
That difference matters more than it looks. Ich bin kalt is correct German and means the speaker is a cold person, emotionally. The dative construction is not a stylistic variant; it is the only way to say you feel cold.
Die Form
| weather | Es regnet. Es schneit. |
| a state, dative | Mir ist kalt. Uns ist warm. |
| how somebody is | Wie geht es dir? |
| pain | Mir tut der Rücken weh. |
| liking | Es gefällt mir hier. |
| existence | Es gibt keinen Grund. |
Die Regeln im Einzelnen
Weather verbs take es and nothing else.
Heute regnet es den ganzen Tag.It is raining all day today.
A physical state puts the person in the dative.
Ist dir kalt?Are you cold?
The es disappears when something else takes first position — except with the weather.
Mir ist kalt. Es ist mir kalt.I am cold.
Pain and liking are built the same way.
Der Hals tut mir weh.My throat hurts.
Genauer hingesehen
Where German puts the person in the dative
The pattern reaches further than the weather. Body parts hurting (Mir tut der Kopf weh), things tasting good (Das schmeckt mir), things pleasing (Das gefällt mir), things being too much (Das ist mir zu laut) — in each case the grammatical subject is the thing and the person is in the dative.
The idea behind it is consistent: the dative marks somebody affected rather than somebody acting. Once that clicks, a large group of sentences that looked unrelated turns out to be one construction, and it explains the dative verbs on the previous pages as well.
Ausnahmen und Sonderfälle (2)
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the weather verb is used figuratively
it can take a real subject.
Es hagelte Kritik.Criticism rained down.
The verb stops being impersonal.
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the state is a lasting characteristic
the nominative returns.
Er ist ein kalter Mensch.He is a cold person.
A characteristic belongs to the person; a sensation happens to them.
Woran man es erkennt
- es
- mir
- dir
- ihm
- weh tun
- gefallen
- schmecken
Beispielsätze
Es hat die ganze Nacht geschneit.It snowed all night.
Mir ist schlecht.I feel sick.
Wie geht es Ihnen?How are you?
Das Essen schmeckt uns gut.We like the food.
Es tut mir leid.I am sorry.
Noch 6 Beispielsätze
Es ist mir zu warm hier.It is too warm for me here.
Mir ist langweilig.I am bored.
Es hat geblitzt und gedonnert.There was lightning and thunder.
Wie gefällt dir die Wohnung?How do you like the flat?
Mir fehlt ein Wort.A word escapes me.
Es wird spät.It is getting late.
Besonderheiten (2)
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Mir ist and ich bin are both correct
Nothing here is about one form being wrong. <z>Mir ist kalt</z> and <z>Ich bin kalt</z> are both grammatical German sentences that say different things, which is why the mistake is never corrected: the listener simply hears a strange claim about your personality and moves on.
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Es gibt is impersonal too
<z>Es gibt</z> belongs to this family: the <z>es</z> is the subject, the verb never agrees with what follows, and what follows is an accusative object. <z>Es gibt viele Gründe</z> — singular verb, plural object, and no real subject anywhere.
Die typisch deutsche Falle
Aufgepasst
Both sentences are correct German and only one means what was intended. Ich bin kalt describes a person as cold — unfeeling, distant. To say you feel cold, German puts you in the dative and leaves the sentence without a subject: Mir ist kalt. The same applies to Mir ist warm, Mir ist schwindelig and Mir ist langweilig.
A feeling happens to you: mir, not ich.
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