The following examples come from
Portuguese: • "I'm going home" can be translated either as "" or as "", where "
eu" means "I". • "It's raining" can be translated as (
Brazilian Portuguese) or (
European Portuguese). In Portuguese, as in most other Romance languages (but not all, French is a notable exception), there is no exact equivalent for the pronoun
it. However, some older persons say (
European Portuguese) which directly translates to "He is raining". • "I'm going home. I'm going to watch TV" would not, except in exceptional circumstances, be translated as At least the subject of the second sentence should be omitted in Portuguese unless one wishes to express emphasis, as to emphasize the
I. As the examples illustrate, in many null-subject languages,
personal pronouns exist and can be used for
emphasis but are dropped whenever they can be inferred from the context. Some sentences do not allow a subject in any form while, in other cases an explicit subject without particular emphasis, would sound awkward or unnatural. Most
Bantu languages are null-subject. For example, in
Ganda, 'I'm going home' could be translated as or as , where means 'I'.
Albanian {{interlinear|lang=sq|indent=3
Arabic Arabic is considered a null-subject language, as demonstrated by the following example: {{interlinear|lang=ar|indent=3 Subject information for 'they' is encoded in the conjugation of the verb .
Azerbaijani {{interlinear|lang=az|indent=3
Bulgarian {{interlinear|indent=3
Catalan/Valencian In
Catalan/
Valencian, as in Spanish, Portuguese, Galician, etc., the subject is also encoded in the
verb conjugation. Pronoun use is not obligatory. •
(Nosaltres) Anem a la platja: We go to the beach. •
(Tu) Ets la meva amiga: You are my friend. •
(Vostès/vosaltres) No són/sou benvinguts aquí: You are not welcome here. •
(Ells) Estan dormint: They are asleep. •
(Jo) Necessito ajuda: I need help. •
(Ell) És a la seva habitació: He is in his bedroom. •
(Ella) Està cansada: She is tired. In Catalan/Valencian, one may choose whether to use the subject or not. If used in an inclined tone, it may be seen as an added emphasis; however, in colloquial speaking, usage of a pronoun is optional. Even so, sentences with a null subject are used more frequently than sentences with a subject. In some cases, it is even necessary to skip the subject to create a grammatically correct sentence.
Chinese Most
varieties of Chinese tend to be non-null-subject. Verbs in Chinese languages are not conjugated, so it is not possible to determine the subject based on the verb alone. However, in certain circumstances, most Chinese varieties allow dropping of the subject, thus forming null-subject sentences. One of the instances where the subject would be removed is when the subject is known. Below is an example in Mandarin: {{fs interlinear|lang=zh|indent=3 {{fs interlinear|lang=zh|indent=3 The above example clearly shows that a speaker could omit the subject if the doer of the verb is known. In a Chinese imperative sentence, like the first text, the subject is also left out.
Galician In Galician, as in Spanish, Portuguese, Catalan, etc., the subject is also encoded in the
verb conjugation. Pronoun use is not obligatory. •
(Nós) Imos á praia: We go to the beach. •
(Ti) E-la miña amiga: You are my friend. (Informal singular) •
(Vós) Non sodes benvidos aquí: You are not welcome here. (Informal Plural) •
(Eles) Están durmindo: They are sleeping. •
(Eu) Necesito axuda: I need help. •
(El) Está no seu cuarto: He is in his bedroom. •
(Ela) Está cansada: She is tired. In Galician, one may choose whether to use the subject or not. If used in an inclined tone, it may be seen as an added emphasis; however, in colloquial speaking, usage of a pronoun is optional. Even so, sentences with a null subject are used more frequently than sentences with a subject. In some cases, it is even necessary to skip the subject to create a grammatically correct sentence.
Modern Greek {{fs interlinear|indent=3 "Εγώ(Egó)", which means "I", has been omitted. The conjugation has encoded them.
Hebrew Hebrew is considered a partially null-subject language, as demonstrated by the following example: {{interlinear|indent=3 Subjects can usually be omitted only when the verb is conjugated for grammatical person, as in the third-person plural in the example above. In Hebrew one can also construct null-subject sentences as in the Latin and Turkish language examples: "We/you/they are going to the beach" can be expressed as "holkhim la-yam" (הולכים לים), lit. "Are going to the beach." This is truly a null-subject construction. As in Spanish and Turkish, though, Hebrew conjugates verbs in accordance with specific pronouns, so "we went to the beach" is technically just as much a null-subject construction as in the other languages, but in fact the conjugation does indicate the subject pronoun: "Halakhnu la-yam" (הלכנו לים), lit. "Went (we) to the beach." The word "halakhnu" means "we went", just as the Spanish and Turkish examples indicate the relevant pronoun as the subject in their conjugation. So these should perhaps not be considered to be true null-subject phrases. Potentially confusing the issue further is the fact that Hebrew word order can also make some sentences appear to be null-subject, when the subject is in fact given after the verb. For instance, "it's raining" is expressed "yored geshem" (יורד גשם), which means "descends rain"; "rain" is the subject. The phrases meaning "It's snowing" and "It's hailing" are formed in the same way.
Hindustani The
Hindustani language shows radical pro-drop. This type of pro-drop differs from pro-drop in languages like Spanish where pro-drop is licensed by rich verbal morphology. South Asian languages such as Hindustani, in general, have the ability to pro-drop any and all arguments. Here, the case is expressed in a morpheme that is independent from the stem, making the pro-drop possible. {{interlinear|number=1. {{interlinear|number=2A. {{interlinear|number=2B.
Italian {{fs interlinear|indent=2 {{fs interlinear|indent=2 The conjugations of the root verbs (
faccio for
fare;
chiama for
chiamare) already imply the subject of the sentences.
Japanese Japanese and several other null-subject languages are
topic-prominent languages; some of these languages require an expressed
topic in order for sentences to make sense. In Japanese, for example, it is possible to start a sentence with a topic marked by the particle
は(read as
wa, written as
ha) and in subsequent sentences leave the topic unstated, as it is understood to remain the same, until another one is either explicitly or implicitly introduced. For example, in the second sentence below, the subject ("we") is not expressed again but left implicit: {{fs interlinear|lang=ja|indent=3 In other cases, the topic can be changed without being explicitly stated, as in the following example, where the topic changes implicitly from "today" to "I". {{fs interlinear|lang=ja|indent=3 It is also common for Japanese to omit things which are obvious in context. If the above line were part of a conversation about considering purchasing the game, it could be further shortened to: {{fs interlinear|lang=ja|indent=3
Latin Verb-conjugation endings in Latin express number and person (as well as tense and mood). {{interlinear|indent=3 {{interlinear|indent=3
Macedonian {{interlinear|indent=3
Polish {{interlinear|indent=3 In Polish, the subject is omitted almost every time, although it can be present to put emphasis on the subject.
Russian {{interlinear|indent=3 Russian verbs
conjugate according to the
subject's
grammatical person. Thus, the personal pronoun "я", corresponding to English "I", would not add any additional information to this sentence. Although it is acceptable in Russian to use both sentence constructions (with and without I=я), the traditional translation of this quotation mimics the original
Latin null-subject sentence structure, not the English translation with an "I".
Sindhi {{interlinear|lang=si|indent=3
With subjects: آئون آيس، مون ڏٺو، آئون، کٽيس
Idiomatic translation: I came, I saw, I conquered.
Spanish In Spanish, as with Latin and most Romance languages, the subject is encoded in the verb conjugation. Pronoun use is not obligatory. • : I need help. • : You (informal) are my friend. • : You (informal) are my friend. • : You (formal) see me. • : He is in his bedroom. • : She is tired. • : We go to the beach. • : You (plural, informal) should leave. • : You (plural) are not welcome here. • : They are asleep. • : They (feminine) go there. In Spanish, for the most part, one may choose whether to use the subject or not. Generally if a subject is provided, it is either for clarity or for emphasis. Sentences with a null subject are used more frequently than sentences with a subject.
Tamil Verb conjugations in Tamil incorporate suffixes for number (singular and plural) and person (1st, 2nd and 3rd), and also for gender (masculine, feminine and neuter) in the third person. An explicit subject, therefore, is unnecessary, and can be inferred from the verb conjugation.
Tamil script: முடிந்துவிட்டது
Transliteration: muḍinduviṭṭadu
Literal Translation: It has left, having ended.
Idiomatic Translation: It has come to an end. Another example: {{fs interlinear|indent=3|glossing=link
Turkish {{interlinear|lang=tr|indent=3 {{interlinear|lang=tr|indent=3
Vietnamese The Vietnamese language can have sentences without any subjects, especially in proverbs, idiom and universally situational and casual statements. {{interlinear|lang=vi|indent=3 {{interlinear|lang=vi|indent=3 ==Impersonal constructions==