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

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
MoodTenseNumber and personEnglish
equivalent
(only sg. 1st)
SingularPlural
1st2nd3rd1st2nd3rd
Indicative Present facfacifacefacemfacețifacI do, I am doing
Simple perfect (preterite) făcuifăcușifăcufăcurămfăcurățifăcurăI have (just) done, I did
Imperfect făceamfăceaifăceafăceamfăceațifăceauI was doing, I used to do
Pluperfect făcusemfăcuseșifăcusefăcuserămfăcuserățifăcuserăI had done
Compound perfect am făcutai făcuta făcutam făcutați făcutau făcutI did, I have done
Future voi facevei faceva facevom faceveți facevor faceI will do
Future (popular, 1) am să facai să faciare să facăavem să facemaveți să facețiau să facăI'll do
Future (popular, 2) o să faco să facio să facăo să facemo să facețio să facă[nb 1]I'll do
Future-in-the-past (popular) aveam să facaveai să faciavea să facăaveam să facemaveați să facețiaveau să facăI was going to do
Future perfect voi fi făcutvei fi făcutva fi făcutvom fi făcutveți fi făcutvor fi făcutI will have done
Subjunctive Present să facsă facisă facăsă facemsă facețisă facăthat I do, to do
Past să fi făcutthat I did, to have done
Optative-
Conditional		 Present aș faceai facear faceam faceați facear faceI would do
Past aș fi făcutai fi făcutar fi făcutam fi făcutați fi făcutar fi făcutI would have done
Presumptive Present oi faceo faceom faceoți faceor faceI might do
Present progressive oi fi făcândo fi făcândom fi făcândoți fi făcândor fi făcândI might be doing
Past oi fi făcuto fi făcutom fi făcutoți fi făcutor fi făcutI might have done
Imperative Present –fă!––faceți!–do! (2nd person only)
Non-personal moods
MoodTenseVerb formsEnglish equivalent
Infinitive Present a faceto do
Past a fi făcutto have done
Participle Past făcut (sg., masc.)
făcută (sg., fem.)
făcuți (pl., masc.)
făcute (pl., fem.)		done
Gerund – făcânddoing
Supine – de făcut(something) to do

Simple perfect
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

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

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

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]

ConjugationEndingExamplesNotes
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.

ClassIdentificationExamples (one from each sound change type)
V1infinitive 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
V2infinitive ending in -a, present indicative with infix -ez- a lucra, a studia, împerechea
V3infinitive 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
V4infinitive ending in -i, present indicative singular 3rd person ending in -ă a oferi, a suferi
V5infinitive ending in -i, present indicative singular 3rd person ending in -ește a povesti, a trăi
V6infinitive ending in -î, present indicative singular 3rd person ending in -ă a vârî, a coborî
V7infinitive ending in -î, present indicative singular 3rd person ending in -ăște a hotărî
V8infinitive ending in diphthong -ea a apărea, a cădea, a ședea, a vedea, a putea
V9infinitive 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
V10infinitive 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
V11infinitive 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

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

Bibliography
  • 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
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