Romanian verbs

Romanian verbs are highly inflected in comparison to English, but markedly simple in comparison to Latin, from which Romanian has inherited its verbal conjugation system (through Vulgar Latin). Unlike its nouns, Romanian verbs behave in a similar way to those of other Romance languages such as French, Spanish, and Italian. They conjugate according to mood, tense, voice, person and number. Aspect is not an independent feature in Romanian verbs, although it does manifest itself clearly in the contrast between the imperfect and the compound perfect tenses as well as within the presumptive mood. Also, gender is not distinct except in the past participle tense, in which the verb behaves like an adjective.

## Verb paradigm

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There are nine moods into which a verb can be put, with five of them being personal (having a different form for each person) and four non-personal.[1] As an example, the tables below show the verb a face ("to do") at all moods, tenses, persons and numbers. Only positive forms in the active voice are given. The corresponding personal pronouns are not included; unlike English verbs, Romanian verbs generally have different forms for each person and number, so pronouns are most often dropped except for emphasis. The English equivalents in the tables (one for each mood and tense) are only an approximative indication of the meaning.

Personal moods

Mood | Tense | Number and person | English
equivalent
(only sg. 1st)
Singular | Plural
1st | 2nd | 3rd | 1st | 2nd | 3rd
Indicative  | Present  | fac | faci | face | facem | faceți | fac | I do, I am doing
Simple perfect (preterite)  | făcui | făcuși | făcu | făcurăm | făcurăți | făcură | I have (just) done, I did
Imperfect  | făceam | făceai | făcea | făceam | făceați | făceau | I was doing, I used to do
Pluperfect  | făcusem | făcuseși | făcuse | făcuserăm | făcuserăți | făcuseră | I had done
Compound perfect  | am făcut | ai făcut | a făcut | am făcut | ați făcut | au făcut | I did, I have done
Future  | voi face | vei face | va face | vom face | veți face | vor face | I will do
Future (popular, 1)  | am să fac | ai să faci | are să facă | avem să facem | aveți să faceți | au să facă | I'll do
Future (popular, 2)  | o să fac | o să faci | o să facă | o să facem | o să faceți | o să facă[nb 1] | I'll do
Future-in-the-past (popular)  | aveam să fac | aveai să faci | avea să facă | aveam să facem | aveați să faceți | aveau să facă | I was going to do
Future perfect  | voi fi făcut | vei fi făcut | va fi făcut | vom fi făcut | veți fi făcut | vor fi făcut | I will have done
Subjunctive  | Present  | să fac | să faci | să facă | să facem | să faceți | să facă | that I do, to do
Past  | să fi făcut | that I did, to have done
Optative-
Conditional  | Present  | aș face | ai face | ar face | am face | ați face | ar face | I would do
Past  | aș fi făcut | ai fi făcut | ar fi făcut | am fi făcut | ați fi făcut | ar fi făcut | I would have done
Presumptive  | Present  | oi face | o face | om face | oți face | or face | I might do
Present progressive  | oi fi făcând | o fi făcând | om fi făcând | oți fi făcând | or fi făcând | I might be doing
Past  | oi fi făcut | o fi făcut | om fi făcut | oți fi făcut | or fi făcut | I might have done
Imperative  | Present  | – | fă! | – | – | faceți! | – | do! (2nd person only)
Non-personal moods

Mood | Tense | Verb forms | English equivalent
Infinitive  | Present  | a face | to do
Past  | a fi făcut | to have done
Participle  | Past  | făcut (sg., masc.)
făcută (sg., fem.)
făcuți (pl., masc.)
făcute (pl., fem.) | done
Gerund  | –  | făcând | doing
Supine  | –  | de făcut | (something) to do

### Usage

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#### Simple perfect

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Use of simple perfect in Romania:
Area of use Area of partial use
Area of infrequent use Not used
Historical region of Oltenia highlighted

The simple perfect has been replaced by the compound perfect in most of the Romanian varieties; it is commonly used in the Oltenian vernacular (graiul oltenesc) to denote recent actions that still affect the present situation: mâncai (I have just eaten). In the literary standard, the simple perfect is used almost exclusively in writing, where the author refers to the characters' actions as they take place. For that reason, the second person is practically never used, whereas the first person appears only when the writer includes himself among the characters.

#### Imperfect

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In Romanian, the compound perfect is often used where other Romance languages would use the imperfect. For example, the English sentence My father was Romanian requires the imperfect when translated into languages like French and Italian, whereas in this context in Romanian the compound perfect form Tatăl meu a fost român is frequently used instead of the imperfect Tatăl meu era român.

#### Past participle

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Verbs in the past participle are used in their singular masculine form when they are part of compound tenses (compound perfect, future perfect, past subjunctive, etc.) in the active voice. As part of a verb in the passive voice, the past participle behaves like adjectives, and thus must agree in number and gender with the subject:

* Active voice: Am făcut curat în casă. (I cleaned the house.)
* Passive voice: Echipa adversă a fost făcută praf. (The opposing team was laid to waste.)

## Conjugation groups

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From an etymological point of view, Romanian verbs are categorized into four large conjugation groups depending on the ending in the infinitive mood, and this is the verb classification that is currently taught in schools.[2]

Conjugation | Ending | Examples | Notes

|
|
|

I  | –a | a da (to give)
a crea (to create)
a veghea (to ward)  | Verbs ending in hiatus ea are included here, as well as verbs ending in -chea and -ghea, due to their first conjugation-like behavior
II  | –ea | a putea (to be able to, can)
a cădea (to fall)
a vedea (to see)  | only when ea is a diphthong (also see above)
III  | –e | a vinde (to sell)
a crede (to believe)
a alege (to choose)  |
IV  | –i or –î | a ști (to know)
a veni (to come)
a hotărî (to decide)  |

Most verbs fall in the first conjugation group with another large number ending in –i (fourth group).

This classification only partially helps in identifying the correct conjugation pattern. Each group is further split into smaller classes depending on the actual morphological processes that occur. For example, a cânta (to sing) and a lucra (to work) both belong to the first conjugation group, but their indicative first person singular forms are eu cânt (I sing) and eu lucrez (I work), which shows different conjugation mechanisms.

A more appropriate classification, which provides useful information on the actual conjugation pattern, groups all regular verbs into 11 conjugation classes, as shown below.

Class | Identification | Examples (one from each sound change type)

|
|

V1 | infinitive ending in -a, present indicative without infix  | a ajuta, a arăta, a aștepta, a ierta, a toca, a apăra, a îmbrăca, a prezenta, a apăsa, a măsura, a căpăta, a semăna, a pieptăna, a amâna, a intra, a lătra, a apropia, a mângâia, a tăia, a despuia, deochea
V2 | infinitive ending in -a, present indicative with infix -ez- | a lucra, a studia, împerechea
V3 | infinitive ending in -i, present indicative singular 3rd person ending in -e | a fugi, a despărți, a ieși, a repezi, a dormi, a muri, a veni, a sui, a îndoi, a jupui
V4 | infinitive ending in -i, present indicative singular 3rd person ending in -ă | a oferi, a suferi
V5 | infinitive ending in -i, present indicative singular 3rd person ending in -ește | a povesti, a trăi
V6 | infinitive ending in -î, present indicative singular 3rd person ending in -ă | a vârî, a coborî
V7 | infinitive ending in -î, present indicative singular 3rd person ending in -ăște | a hotărî
V8 | infinitive ending in diphthong -ea | a apărea, a cădea, a ședea, a vedea, a putea
V9 | infinitive ending in -e, past participle ending in -ut | a pierde, a cere, a crede, a bate, a cunoaște, a coase, a vinde, a ține, a umple
V10 | infinitive ending in -e, past participle ending in -s | a prinde, a rade, a roade, a plânge, a trage, a merge, a zice, a întoarce, a permite, a scoate, a pune, a rămâne, a purcede, a scrie
V11 | infinitive ending in -e, past participle ending in -t or -pt | a rupe, a fierbe, a înfrânge, a sparge, a frige, a coace

Nevertheless, even such a classification does not consider all possible sound alternances. A full classification, considering all combinations of sound changes and ending patterns, contains about seventy types, not including irregular verbs.

### Irregular verbs

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There are various kinds of irregularity, such as multiple radicals whose choice is conditioned phonetically or etymologically and exceptional endings. The following is a list of the most frequent irregular verbs:

* a avea "to have"
* a fi "to be"
* a vrea "to want"
* a sta "to sit, stand, or remain"
* a da "to give"
* a azvârli "to throw"
* a lua "to take"
* a bea "to drink"
* a ști "to know"
* a usca "to dry"
* a continua "to continue"
* a mânca "to eat"
* a întârzia "to come late"

## Notes

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1. ^ In contemporary Romanian there is a tendency towards replacing o să with or să for the third person plural.See Gramatica limbii române, vol. I, p. 441.

## References

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1. ^ Cojocaru 2003, p. 115.
2. ^ Pană Dindelegan 2019, p. 30.

## Bibliography

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* Cojocaru, Dana. (2003). Romanian grammar. SEELRC.
* Pană Dindelegan, Gabriela (2019). Gramatica limbii române pentru gimnaziu. Univers Enciclopedic.
* (in Romanian) Maria Iliescu et al., Vocabularul minimal al limbii române, Editura Didactică și Pedagogică, 1981
* (in Romanian) Valeria Guțu Romalo et al., Gramatica limbii române, Editura Academiei Române, 2005

## External links

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* Romanian Reference Grammar with a good section on verbs, by Dana Cojocaru, University of Bucharest (183 pages) – 4.6 MB – pdf
* Most common Romanian verbs conjugated also with pronunciation and exercises
* Verbix.com: Romanian verbs conjugation (Attention: Generally good output, but a few verbs are not conjugated correctly.)
* DEX online: allows you to look up words in a series of prestigious dictionaries of Romanian; contains a conjugator.

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