Romanian Grammar

Romanian subject pronouns are eu, tu, el, ea, noi, voi, ei, ele: “I, you, he, she, we, you (plural), they.” They are often left out because the verb form usually identifies the subject: Sunt student can mean “I am a student.” State the pronoun when it adds contrast, emphasis, or clarity; use dumneavoastră with a second-person-plural verb for formal “you.”

Romanian nouns have three grammatical genders: masculine, feminine, and neuter. Gender controls forms such as un/o (“a/an”), doi/două (“two”), and many adjectives. The essential Romanian pattern is that a neuter noun behaves like a masculine noun in the singular but like a feminine noun in the plural: un scaun nou (“a new chair”), but două scaune noi (“two new chairs”).

Romanian usually expresses English the by adding an ending to the noun: băiat “boy” becomes băiatul “the boy,” and fată “girl” becomes fata “the girl.” The exact ending depends on the noun’s gender, number, and final sound: common results include -ul, -le, -a, -i, -le, and -urile.

Romanian places its indefinite articles before the noun: un with a masculine or neuter singular noun, o with a feminine singular noun, and niște with plural nouns of any gender. Thus, un om means “a man,” o casă means “a house,” and niște cărți means “some books.”

Romanian a fi means “to be.” Its present forms are sunt, ești, este/e, suntem, sunteți, sunt: Sunt student (“I am a student”), Ești obosit? (“Are you tired?”), Suntem acasă (“We are at home”). Subject pronouns are often left out because the verb form and context usually make the subject clear.

Romanian a avea means “to have.” Its present-tense forms are am, ai, are, avem, aveți, au: Am o carte means “I have a book.” Besides possession, Romanian uses this verb for age and in common expressions such as a avea nevoie de (“to need”).

Romanian verbs are traditionally divided into four groups according to the ending of the infinitive (the dictionary form): -a, -ea, -e, and -i/-î. For example, a cânta belongs to Group I, while a vedea, a merge, and a dormi belong to Groups II, III, and IV respectively. The group is a useful label, but it does not by itself predict every present-tense form.

A Romanian adjective normally matches the noun it describes in gender and number. For a common four-form adjective, this gives frumos (masculine singular), frumoasă (feminine singular), frumoși (masculine plural), and frumoase (feminine plural). Neuter nouns use the masculine form in the singular and the feminine form in the plural.

Romanian numbers are built in clear patterns: 11–19 end in -sprezece, while 21–99 join the tens and units with și (“and”), as in treizeci și unu (“thirty-one”). The main grammatical details are that “one” and “two” have gender-sensitive forms—un/o and doi/două—and quantities from 20 upward normally use de before a noun: douăzeci de lei.

Romanian uses în for being or moving inside something, la for a point or destination, and pe for a surface. The other essential choices are cu “with/by,” de “of/from,” pentru “for,” din “from inside/out of,” and spre “toward.” Learn each preposition as part of a short phrase, because one English preposition does not always match one Romanian preposition.

The safest neutral pattern in Romanian is Subject–Verb–Object (SVO): Eu mănânc o prăjitură means “I eat a cake.” This is familiar to English speakers, but Romanian often leaves out a subject that the verb ending makes clear, and adjectives usually follow their nouns: o fată frumoasă (“a beautiful girl”). Word order can change for emphasis, but beginners should build clear neutral sentences first.

Put nu directly before the verb to make a Romanian statement negative: Înțeleg (“I understand”) becomes Nu înțeleg (“I don’t understand”). Romanian also normally keeps nu with words such as nimic (“anything/nothing”), nimeni (“anybody/nobody”), and niciodată (“ever/never”): Nu am nimic means “I don’t have anything.”

Romanian normally turns a statement into a yes/no question by changing the intonation, not by adding an equivalent of English do: Vorbești română? means “Do you speak Romanian?” To ask for specific information, place a question word such as ce “what,” cine “who,” unde “where,” când “when,” cum “how,” or de ce “why” near the beginning: Unde locuiești? “Where do you live?”

Use bună for an informal “hi,” bună ziua for a polite daytime greeting, and la revedere for “goodbye.” Romanian distinguishes informal singular forms such as te rog and scuză-mă from formal or plural forms such as vă rog and scuzați-mă. Mulțumesc means “thank you” in any register.

Ask Cât e ceasul? (“What time is it?”) and answer E ora trei (“It is three o’clock”). Romanian writes the names of days, months, and seasons with a lowercase letter: luni, ianuarie, primăvară. Use la for a clock time and usually în for a month or season: la ora trei, în ianuarie, în primăvară.

Romanian commonly expresses can, want, and must with a conjugated modal followed by să + a conjugated verb: pot să vin “I can come,” vreau să vin “I want to come,” and trebuie să vin “I must come.” A putea and a vrea change with their subject, while impersonal trebuie normally stays unchanged; the verb after să shows who performs the action.

Six Romanian verbs are especially useful at the beginner level: a face “to do/make,” a merge “to go,” a veni “to come,” a ști “to know,” a da “to give,” and a lua “to take.” Their present-tense forms must largely be learned as complete sets: fac, merg, vin, știu, dau, iau all mean “I do/go/come/know/give/take,” even though there is no visible word for “I.”

To say that something is present or exists, Romanian commonly uses este (or spoken e) before a singular noun and sunt before a plural noun: Este o cafenea aici (“There is a café here”) and Sunt două cafenele aici (“There are two cafés here”). It can also use există, which does not change for number: Există o soluție / Există două soluții (“There is one solution / There are two solutions”). Unlike English, Romanian does not add a word equivalent to introductory there.

Romanian color words usually behave like adjectives: they normally follow the noun and change to match its gender and number. For example, “red” appears as roșu in un câine roșu but as roșie in o casă roșie. Some common colors, including maro and roz, normally stay unchanged.

Use a mânca for “to eat” and a bea for “to drink”: Mănânc pâine means “I eat bread,” and Beau apă means “I drink water.” To order, say Vreau... , vă rog (“I want... , please”) at beginner level; the more polished Aș dori... or Aș vrea... means “I would like....” Romanian often uses no article when food or drink is meant in a general, uncountable sense.

Romanian family nouns have grammatical gender and change between singular and plural: frate → frați (brother → brothers), soră → surori (sister → sisters). To say “my mother” or “my brother,” Romanian normally uses a definite noun followed by a possessive: mama mea, fratele meu. Learn each word with its gender, plural, and a short possessive phrase rather than as an isolated translation.

Romanian place words often appear in a short pattern such as la + place for a destination or general location and în + place for being inside: Merg la magazin (“I’m going to the shop”), but Sunt în magazin (“I’m inside the shop”). When a place is the subject of a sentence, its word for “the” is usually attached to the end: gara (“the train station”), spitalul (“the hospital”).

After a fi (“to be”), Romanian normally uses a profession without an article: Sunt profesor (“I am a teacher”), not Sunt un profesor. Many profession nouns have distinct masculine and feminine forms, such as profesor/profesoară and student/studentă, but the ending used to create the feminine form varies from word to word.

Romanian normally expresses “to like” as though the liked thing pleases someone: Îmi place muzica literally has the structure “Music is pleasing to me.” Use place with one thing or an activity, plac with plural things, and a short pronoun such as îmi, îți, or le to show who feels the liking.

Romanian body-part nouns have grammatical gender and change form for the plural and for “the”: cap “head” becomes capul “the head,” while picior “leg” becomes picioare “legs.” To say that something hurts, use mă doare with one body part and mă dor with more than one: Mă doare capul but Mă dor picioarele.

Romanian Group I verbs have an infinitive ending in -a, such as a cânta “to sing,” a lucra “to work,” and a mânca “to eat.” Their present-tense forms follow more than one pattern: compare cânt but lucrez, so learn a new verb with its eu (“I”) form. The third-person singular and plural are usually identical: el/ea lucrează and ei/ele lucrează.

Use a fi (“to be”) with a place phrase to say where someone or something is: Sunt în bucătărie (“I am in the kitchen”) and Cartea este pe masă (“The book is on the table”). Learn acasă as a complete place word meaning “at home” or “homeward”: say Sunt acasă, not în acasă. Romanian often expresses English “the” through the noun form itself, so learn useful phrases as whole units.

Romanian weather expressions normally have no spoken equivalent of English it. Use either e (“is”) plus a weather word—e cald, e frig, e soare—or a weather verb on its own: plouă (“it is raining”) and ninge (“it is snowing”). Do not add el or ea before these expressions.

Romanian clothing words have grammatical gender and number, so articles and adjectives change to match them: o cămașă albă means “a white shirt,” while pantofi albi means “white shoes.” Use a purta for “to wear”: Port o cămașă albă. Romanian usually puts the adjective after the clothing word, and it attaches the definite article to the end of the noun: pantofii means “the shoes.”

To say how you travel, Romanian normally uses cu plus a transport noun with the definite article attached: cu autobuzul (“by bus”), cu trenul (“by train”), and cu mașina (“by car”). Combine this phrase with a motion verb: Merg cu autobuzul means “I go by bus,” while Vin cu mașina means “I come by car.” Walking is the important exception: pe jos, not cu.

Romanian does not have one universal plural ending equivalent to English -s. Masculine nouns often take -i, feminine nouns commonly take -e or -i, and neuter nouns usually take -e or -uri: băiat → băieți, carte → cărți, scaun → scaune, drum → drumuri. Because the stem may also change, the safest habit is to learn every noun with its gender and plural.

The nominative marks the subject—the person or thing that performs an action or is described—while the accusative marks a direct object, the person or thing directly affected by the action. Most Romanian nouns have the same form in both cases, so word order and context usually show their role. A specific person used as a direct object is often introduced by pe and is commonly repeated by an object pronoun: O chem pe Maria (“I’m calling Maria”).

Romanian uses the same noun forms for the genitive, which often shows possession (cartea băiatului, “the boy’s book”), and the dative, which marks a recipient or beneficiary (Dau fetei o carte, “I give the girl a book”). The main singular forms are often -lui for masculine and neuter nouns and -ei/-ii for feminine nouns; the plural normally ends in -lor. With indefinite nouns, use unui, unei, and unor.

Romanian usually puts a short, unstressed object pronoun before a finite verb: Mă vede means “He/She sees me,” and Îl cunosc means “I know him.” The main direct-object forms are mă, te, îl/o, ne, vă, îi/le. With affirmative commands and in a few other constructions, the pronoun follows the verb instead: Ajută-mă! (“Help me!”).

Romanian normally talks about completed past events with perfectul compus: a short auxiliary form (am, ai, a, am, ați, au) plus a past participle: Am mâncat means “I ate” or “I have eaten.” The auxiliary changes with the subject, but the participle normally stays unchanged: Ea a plecat; Ei au plecat.

Romanian uses the imperative to tell one or more people what to do: Vino! means “Come!” and Citiți! means “Read!” when addressing several people or one person politely. For a negative command to one person, use nu + the infinitive without a: Nu pleca! (“Don’t leave!”). With several people or polite address, put nu before the plural command: Nu plecați!

Romanian reflexive verbs use a short pronoun that matches the subject: mă, te, se, ne, vă, se. It normally comes before a conjugated verb—Mă trezesc (“I wake up”)—but follows an affirmative command: Trezește-te! (“Wake up!”). English often has no matching “myself” word, so it is best to learn a se trezi or a se îmbrăca as a complete unit.

Romanian demonstratives agree with the noun in gender and number: acest băiat “this boy,” această fată “this girl,” and acele cărți “those books.” Before a noun, use forms such as acest, această, acel, acea; when the word stands alone or follows the noun, use forms such as acesta, aceasta, acela, aceea: cartea aceasta or simply aceasta.

Romanian possessives agree with the thing possessed, not with its owner: cartea mea is “my book,” but prietenii mei is “my friends.” After a noun, the basic pattern is definite noun + possessive; when the possessive replaces the noun, add al, a, ai, ale: al meu, a mea, ai mei, ale mele (“mine”). The forms lui, ei, and lor do not change.

Romanian normally places mai before an adjective to mean “more” or English -er: mare “big” becomes mai mare “bigger.” The relative superlative uses an agreeing form of cel plus mai: cel mai mare, cea mai mare, cei mai mari, cele mai mari (“the biggest”). Use decât for “than” and la fel de ... ca for “as ... as.”

Romanian has two especially useful ways to talk about the future. Use voi, vei, va, vom, veți, vor + the infinitive without a in neutral or more formal language: Voi pleca mâine (“I will leave tomorrow”). In everyday conversation, o să + the present subjunctive is extremely common: O să plec mâine (“I’m going to leave tomorrow”).

Romanian normally forms the present subjunctive with să + a conjugated verb: Vreau să plec means “I want to leave.” It appears after wishes, requests, necessity, possibility, judgments, and expressions of purpose, often where English uses to + verb. Most first- and second-person forms match the present indicative, but the third-person form is often distinctive: pleacă “leaves” becomes să plece.

The Romanian present conditional uses aș, ai, ar, am, ați, ar followed by the infinitive without a: aș merge (“I would go”), ai putea (“you could”), ar fi (“it would be”). Use it for wishes, polite requests, advice, and imagined results. The verb itself does not change for person; the auxiliary shows who the subject is.

The Romanian imperfect, imperfectul, presents a past situation from the inside: it was ongoing, repeated, habitual, or part of the background. English often uses “was doing,” “used to do,” or “would do,” but sometimes a simple past is the most natural translation. Typical forms end in -am, -ai, -a, -am, -ați, -au: citeam can mean “I was reading” or “I used to read.”

Romanian can change a name or noun when you speak directly to someone: Ion becomes Ioane!, and domnul can become domnule! (“sir!”). This direct-address form is the vocative case. Common signals include -e, -ule, -o, and plural -lor, although many forms—especially everyday names and kinship words—also remain unchanged.

Romanian often expresses the same object twice: once as a short object pronoun, or clitic, and once as a full noun phrase. Thus “I see Ion” is Îl văd pe Ion, literally “Him I-see pe Ion,” and “I gave Maria the gift” is I-am dat Mariei cadoul. This doubling is a normal part of Romanian grammar, not redundant emphasis.

Romanian commonly expresses the passive in two ways: a fi (“to be”) + a past participle, as in Casa a fost construită (“The house was built”), or se + a third-person verb, as in Se vând bilete (“Tickets are sold”). With a fi, the participle agrees with the passive subject; with passive se, the verb normally agrees with the noun that undergoes the action. An agent can be added to the a fi passive with de or, especially for a clearly identified doer, de către.

Romanian usually introduces a relative clause with care, which can mean “who,” “which,” or “that”: Omul care vine means “The man who is coming.” Its form depends on its job inside the relative clause: use care for a subject, pe care plus an object pronoun for a direct object, and forms such as căruia, căreia, and cărora for “to whom.” Unlike English, Romanian normally does not omit the relative word.

Romanian often uses the masculine/neuter singular form of an adjective as an adverb, without adding an ending: clar can mean “clear” or “clearly,” and frumos can mean “beautiful” or “beautifully.” Unlike an adjective, an adverb does not agree with a person or thing: Ea cântă frumos means “She sings beautifully.” Frequent independent forms include bine “well,” rău “badly,” and repede “quickly.”

Romanian subordinating conjunctions link a main statement to a clause that gives its content, condition, reason, purpose, time, or contrast. Că, dacă, deși, and pentru că commonly introduce verbs in the indicative, while ca să and înainte să take a să-subjunctive: Știu că vine, but Am venit ca să te ajut. Unlike English “that,” Romanian că is normally not omitted.

Romanian normally puts pe before a direct object that identifies a particular person: O văd pe Maria (“I see Maria”). A definite personal object is commonly repeated by a short object pronoun—îl, o, îi, le—so Romanian literally has a pattern like “her I-see pe Maria.” Do not use pe before every direct object: ordinary objects such as cartea (“the book”) normally have no marker.

Romanian textual connectors tell the reader how ideas fit together: în primul rând introduces a first point, de asemenea adds one, cu toate acestea marks an unexpected contrast, pe de altă parte presents another side, and în concluzie closes an argument. They often stand at the beginning of a sentence or clause and are commonly set off with a comma, but their exact position and punctuation depend on the connector.

Romanian uses mai-mult-ca-perfectul for an action completed before another past moment: Când am ajuns, Maria plecase means “When I arrived, Maria had left.” Unlike English had + past participle, Romanian normally expresses this meaning in one verb form, with endings such as -sem, -seși, -se, -serăm, -serăți, -seră.

Romanian uses the presumptive mood (modul prezumtiv) when a speaker presents something as a guess rather than a known fact. Use a form of a fi with a gerund for an ongoing situation (O fi dormind — “He/She is probably sleeping”) and with a past participle for a completed event (O fi plecat — “He/She must have left”). Context and intonation determine whether the best English equivalent is “probably,” “must,” “may,” or “I wonder.”

The Romanian gerund (gerunziul) is an invariable verb form, usually ending in -ând or -ind, that presents an action as unfolding alongside another action: Mergea cântând means “He/She was walking while singing.” It often translates an English -ing clause, but English uses -ing much more widely; Romanian normally chooses a finite clause, an infinitive, or a clause with să in many places where English uses an -ing form.

The Romanian supine (supinul) is a non-finite verb form (one that does not show person or tense), usually built with de + past participle: de făcut “to do,” de văzut “to see,” de mâncat “to eat.” It is especially common after nouns and pronouns (ceva de făcut), after evaluative words (greu de înțeles), and in expressions of tasks, purpose, availability, or necessity.

Romanian normally adds the definite article to the noun: fata frumoasă means “the beautiful girl.” If the adjective is placed before the noun, the article attaches to that adjective instead: frumoasa fată. Only one member of the phrase carries the article, so Romanian uses marele poet, not marele poetul.

Romanian uses cineva/ceva for an unspecified person or thing, oricine/orice for unrestricted choice, and nimeni/nimic in negative statements. Person words often take pe when they are direct objects, negative words normally occur with nu, and fiecare takes a singular verb even when it means “each person” or “everyone.”

Romanian combines clauses either by coordination, where both clauses have equal status, or by subordination, where one clause depends on another. Connectors such as deși “although,” dacă “if,” and pentru că “because” normally introduce a verb in the indicative, while purpose clauses with astfel încât commonly use să plus the subjunctive: A vorbit clar, astfel încât toți să înțeleagă.

Romanian normally introduces reported statements with că (“that”), yes/no questions with dacă (“if/whether”), and commands or requests with să plus the subjunctive: A spus că vine, M-a întrebat dacă plec, Mi-a spus să aștept. Unlike English, Romanian does not apply an automatic tense backshift after a past reporting verb; the tense is chosen according to when the reported event happens and whether it is still presented as valid.

Romanian normally introduces a condition with dacă (“if”). Use the present for an open, realistic condition—Dacă vii, te aștept (“If you come, I’ll wait”)—and conditional forms for imagined or impossible situations: Dacă aș avea bani, aș călători (“If I had money, I would travel”) and Dacă aș fi știut, aș fi venit (“If I had known, I would have come”). Unlike standard English, Romanian can naturally use a conditional form in both halves of an unreal conditional.

A Romanian past participle can describe a noun just as an adjective does: ușa deschisă (“the open door”), cuvântul scris (“the written word”). In this adjectival use, it agrees with the noun in gender and number: deschis, deschisă, deschiși, deschise. By contrast, the participle in the compound past normally remains unchanged: am deschis, au deschis (“I opened,” “they opened”).

Romanian perfectul simplu presents an action as completed in the past and uses a single verb form: văzui means “I saw,” while plecă means “he/she left.” It is chiefly a tense of literary narrative in standard Romanian, but it is also used in everyday regional speech, especially in Oltenia. In neutral conversation, perfectul compus—am văzut, a plecat—is usually the safer choice.

Romanian forms three advanced compound verb forms with a form of fi (“be”) plus the past participle: voi fi plecat (“I will have left”), aș fi plecat (“I would have left”), and să fi plecat (“that I/he/she/etc. have left”). They express, respectively, completion before a future point, an unreal or unfulfilled past possibility, and a completed action viewed through the subjunctive.

Romanian is mutually intelligible across its main regional varieties, but everyday speech differs in vocabulary, pronunciation, forms of address, and the frequency of some verb forms. At C1, the goal is not to imitate a dialect: it is to recognise regional signals, understand their social meaning, and keep standard Romanian as a reliable neutral choice.

Romanian word order is flexible, but not random. Speakers place material early to establish a topic or a contrast, and often place new or surprising information later; when an object is moved, a matching short object pronoun may resume it: Pe Ion l-am văzut ieri (“Ion is the one I saw yesterday”). Intonation and context determine whether an unusual order sounds neutral, contrastive, emotional, or literary.

A complex Romanian noun phrase is organised around a head noun, the main noun that determines agreement: toți acești băieți înalți (“all these tall boys”). Modifiers may come before or after it, but gender, number, definiteness, and sometimes case must remain consistent. In particular, watch which word carries the definite article and whether a genitive needs al, a, ai, or ale.

When two Romanian object clitics occur together, the dative normally comes before the accusative: mi-l dă (“gives it to me”), ți-o spun (“I tell it to you”), ni le arată (“shows them to us”). The pronouns also change to short cluster forms such as mi, ți, i, ni, vi, li, and their spacing or hyphenation changes around vowels, auxiliaries, and affirmative commands.

Romanian uses să + a verb form not only for wishes and intentions, but also where English often uses an infinitive, a relative clause, or an inverted conditional: Caut pe cineva care să mă ajute (“I’m looking for someone to help me”). For earlier actions, use the invariable pattern să fi + past participle: să fi venit (“to have come” or “that … came”). At an advanced level, the key choice is often not how to form the subjunctive, but whether the speaker presents something as factual, desired, possible, doubted, or contrary to fact.

Romanian builds word families by adding derivational suffixes—endings that create a new word or change its word class: a citi “to read” gives cititor “reader” and citibil “readable.” Especially useful families include -ție/-țiune for actions, processes, or results, -tor/-toare for people or things that perform an action, -bil/-bilă for possibility, and -ism/-ist for systems, movements, associated people, and adjectives. These patterns help you understand unfamiliar vocabulary, but they are not formulas that can be attached freely to every base.

Romanian academic writing favors explicit logical links, carefully limited claims, and a relatively nominal style: actions are often expressed as nouns rather than as personal verbs. Phrases such as în ceea ce privește (“as regards”), dat fiind faptul că (“given that”), and prin prisma acestor considerente (“in light of these considerations”) organize an argument, but they work best when they make the reasoning clearer rather than merely longer.

Romanian makes many loanwords part of its own grammar: nouns can receive an article, a plural ending, and a case form, while borrowed verb stems can take Romanian conjugation endings. This produces forms such as email-ul, like-uri, site-ului, a scana, and a downloada. The difficult C2 skill is choosing not only a possible form, but also the spelling and register appropriate to the context.

Romanian speakers adjust vocabulary, sentence structure, forms of address, and even verb forms to suit the situation. E tare bun sounds conversational, Este foarte bun is neutral, and Este deosebit de bun sounds more formal or promotional. C2 mastery means choosing naturally between registers—not making every sentence as elevated as possible.

Legal and bureaucratic Romanian is the formal register of laws, contracts, court texts, certificates, applications, and official notices. Its most recognizable features are set formulas, an impersonal institutional voice, action nouns in place of direct verbs, dense chains of modifiers, and exact references to documents or legal provisions. At C2, the essential skill is not making every sentence sound “legal,” but identifying who must do what, under which conditions, and with what legal effect.

Romanian idioms combine ordinary words into conventional meanings that cannot always be guessed literally: a bate câmpii literally evokes “beating the fields,” but means “to talk nonsense” or “to ramble.” Learn each expression as a complete grammatical frame— including its prepositions and short pronouns—and check its tone before using it. At C2, choosing an idiom that fits the speaker, setting, and intended attitude matters as much as knowing its definition.

Romanian words such as deci, parcă, totuși, de altfel, and oricum do more than connect facts: they show how a speaker presents a conclusion, an uncertain impression, a concession, an extra observation, or a point that remains true regardless. Their closest English equivalents—“so,” “it seems,” “however,” “besides,” and “anyway”—are useful starting points, but context and intonation determine the real effect.

Romanian places inherited, literary, or old-fashioned forms such as dumnealui, precum, and iarăși beside modern international vocabulary such as feedback, management, and a implementa. The essential C2 skill is register awareness: recognise what a form suggests, then choose a neutral, elevated, historical, technical, or contemporary alternative deliberately. Borrowed words also have to fit Romanian grammar, even when their spelling remains foreign.

Romanian can rearrange sentence elements to direct attention, establish a topic, sharpen a contrast, or create a literary rhythm. Pe tine te caut singles out “you,” while Ceea ce vreau e liniște places the desired result at the end as the focus. The grammar of the sentence still matters: fronted objects may require pe and a matching clitic pronoun, and highly inverted patterns belong mainly to rhetorical or literary styles.