Future Tense in Romanian

In Brief

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”).

Overview

At B1, the main task is not learning one large set of new verb endings. Instead, you combine a future marker with a verb form you already know. The two central patterns are traditionally called viitorul cu voi and viitorul cu o să. They normally describe predictions, plans, promises, and events expected after the moment of speaking.

The infinitive is the dictionary form of a verb, such as a merge (“to go”). In the voi future, you remove the marker a and use only merge. The subjunctive is a verb form introduced by să; in simple terms, it is the form seen in phrases such as vreau să plec (“I want to leave”). The o să future uses that same să pattern.

English often distinguishes “will” from “be going to,” but Romanian does not match that contrast exactly. Voi pleca and o să plec can refer to the same future event. The clearest difference is usually register: the voi form is common in writing, prepared speech, formal statements, and neutral careful language, while o să is very frequent and natural in conversation.

How It Works

The voi future: auxiliary + infinitive

An auxiliary is a short helping verb used to build a tense. The future auxiliary changes with the subject, while the main verb stays in the same infinitive form without a.

Pattern: subject + future auxiliary + infinitive without a

Person	Auxiliary	a pleca (“to leave”)	English
eu	voi	voi pleca	I will leave
tu	vei	vei pleca	you will leave
el / ea	va	va pleca	he / she will leave
noi	vom	vom pleca	we will leave
voi	veți	veți pleca	you will leave (plural or formal)
ei / ele	vor	vor pleca	they will leave

The main verb does not change for person:

• voi merge, vei merge, va merge — “I/you/he or she will go”
• vom vedea, veți vedea, vor vedea — “we/you/they will see”
• voi dormi, vei dormi, va dormi — “I/you/he or she will sleep”

This makes the pattern work equally well with regular and irregular verbs. You need to know the infinitive, but you do not need the verb’s present-tense stem. For example, the present forms of a fi (“to be”) are irregular, yet the future is entirely regular:

Person	Future of a fi	English
eu	voi fi	I will be
tu	vei fi	you will be
el / ea	va fi	he / she will be
noi	vom fi	we will be
voi	veți fi	you will be
ei / ele	vor fi	they will be

Romanian often omits the subject pronoun because the auxiliary already shows the person. Voi ajunge la opt normally means “I will arrive at eight”; eu is only needed for emphasis or contrast.

The everyday o să future

Pattern: subject + o să + present subjunctive

The element o să stays the same for every person. The verb after it carries the information about who performs the action.

Person	a pleca	English
eu	o să plec	I will leave / I’m going to leave
tu	o să pleci	you will leave
el / ea	o să plece	he / she will leave
noi	o să plecăm	we will leave
voi	o să plecați	you will leave
ei / ele	o să plece	they will leave

For many verbs, the first- and second-person subjunctive forms look like the present indicative (the ordinary present): plec, pleci, plecăm, plecați. The third-person subjunctive may be different: pleacă is “he/she leaves,” but să plece is “that he/she leave,” so the future is o să plece.

Some frequent verbs have forms worth learning as complete chunks:

Infinitive	eu	el / ea	English
a fi	o să fiu	o să fie	I will be / he or she will be
a avea	o să am	o să aibă	I will have / he or she will have
a veni	o să vin	o să vină	I will come / he or she will come
a face	o să fac	o să facă	I will do / he or she will do
a putea	o să pot	o să poată	I will be able / he or she will be able

Do not treat o să as three freely interchangeable words. For learning purposes, remember it as one future frame followed by the appropriate verb form.

Negation

Place nu before the future auxiliary or before o să:

• Nu voi întârzia. — “I will not be late.”
• Nu vom uita. — “We will not forget.”
• Nu o să plouă. — “It is not going to rain.”
• N-o să vină azi. — “He/She is not going to come today.”

In speech and informal writing, nu o să is often contracted to n-o să. The uncontracted spelling is also correct. Do not place nu immediately before the main verb in these basic patterns: use nu voi merge, not voi nu merge.

Questions

Romanian does not need an equivalent of English “do” or a special subject–auxiliary inversion. A statement becomes a yes/no question mainly through intonation and punctuation:

• Vei veni mâine? — “Will you come tomorrow?”
• O să aveți timp? — “Will you have time?”
• Când vor ajunge? — “When will they arrive?”
• Unde o să stai? — “Where will you stay?”

Object and reflexive pronouns

Short object pronouns such as mă (“myself/me”), îl (“him/it”), and le (“to them/them”) normally come before the finite future element and the infinitive in the voi construction. A reflexive pronoun points back to the subject, as in “I wash myself.”

• Mă voi întoarce curând. — “I will return soon.”
• Îl voi suna diseară. — “I will call him this evening.”
• Le vom explica problema. — “We will explain the problem to them.”

With o să, the pronoun belongs with the verb after să:

• O să mă întorc curând.
• O să-l sun diseară.
• O să le explicăm problema.

The hyphen in să-l reflects the attachment of the short pronoun l- to să.

Future meaning without a future form

Like English, Romanian can use the present tense for a scheduled or clearly established future event, especially when a time expression removes ambiguity:

• Mâine plec la Cluj. — “I’m leaving for Cluj tomorrow.”
• Trenul ajunge la nouă. — “The train arrives at nine.”
• Ne vedem luni. — “We’ll see each other on Monday.”

This is not an error or an incomplete future. It is often the most natural choice for fixed arrangements and timetables.

Examples in Context

Romanian	English	Note
Voi merge mâine.	I will go tomorrow.	Neutral voi future
O să plec devreme.	I’m going to leave early.	Natural everyday plan
Va fi frumos.	It will be beautiful.	Irregular verb a fi
O să vină și el.	He will come too.	Third-person subjunctive vină
Vom termina proiectul până vineri.	We will finish the project by Friday.	Deadline with până
Veți primi un răspuns în curând.	You will receive an answer soon.	Formal or plural “you”
Nu voi uita promisiunea.	I will not forget the promise.	Negation before the auxiliary
N-o să fie nicio problemă.	There won’t be any problem.	Common contraction in speech
Când o să ajungeți la hotel?	When will you arrive at the hotel?	Question with polite/plural “you”
Îți voi trimite documentele diseară.	I will send you the documents this evening.	Object pronoun before voi
O să-l vedem după întâlnire.	We will see him after the meeting.	Pronoun attached to să
Mă voi trezi la șase.	I will wake up at six.	Reflexive verb
Dacă plouă, vom rămâne acasă.	If it rains, we will stay home.	Future result after a real condition
Mâine lucrez de acasă.	I’m working from home tomorrow.	Present tense with future meaning
Peste zece ani, orașul va arăta altfel.	In ten years, the city will look different.	Prediction about a distant future

Common Mistakes

Keeping a before the infinitive

• Wrong: Voi a merge mâine.
• Right: Voi merge mâine.
• Why: The dictionary form is a merge, but the voi future uses the infinitive without a.

Conjugating the main verb after voi

• Wrong: Vom mergem cu trenul.
• Right: Vom merge cu trenul.
• Why: Only the auxiliary marks the person. The main verb remains the same infinitive form for all six persons.

Using an infinitive after o să

• Wrong: O să merge mâine.
• Right: O să merg mâine. / O să meargă mâine.
• Why: O să requires a subjunctive form that agrees with the subject. Merg is first person; meargă is third person.

Forgetting the special third-person form

• Wrong: O să vine și Maria.
• Right: O să vină și Maria.
• Why: The third-person subjunctive of a veni is să vină, not present indicative vine.

Copying English question order

• Wrong: Va el veni mâine?
• Right: Va veni el mâine? / O să vină el mâine?
• Why: Romanian does not normally form future questions by moving the auxiliary ahead of an expressed subject in the English way. The subject is often omitted; when included, it commonly follows the verb here and may add emphasis.

Assuming will and o să have the same contrast as English

• Misleading rule: “Always translate English ‘will’ with voi and ‘going to’ with o să.”
• Better: Voi cumpăra biletele and O să cumpăr biletele can both mean “I’ll buy the tickets.”
• Why: Romanian usually chooses between these forms according to register and style, not according to a rigid English distinction between spontaneous decisions and prior plans.

Usage Notes

Formality and frequency

The voi future is fully current Romanian, not an archaic tense. It is especially visible in news, instructions, official communication, public announcements, essays, and careful speech: Rezultatele vor fi publicate luni (“The results will be published on Monday”). It can also appear naturally in ordinary conversation, particularly in promises or firm statements.

The o să construction is extremely common in relaxed spoken Romanian and is acceptable in a wide range of everyday contexts. Calling it merely “slang” would be inaccurate. In a formal report or administrative notice, however, the voi form is usually the safer stylistic choice.

Plans, predictions, promises, and schedules

Both central futures cover several meanings:

• plan: O să vizitez muzeul mâine. — “I’m going to visit the museum tomorrow.”
• prediction: Prețurile vor crește. — “Prices will rise.”
• promise: Te voi ajuta. — “I will help you.”
• expected result: O să fie bine. — “It will be all right.”

For a fixed personal arrangement, the present can sound particularly immediate: Mâine mă întâlnesc cu Ana (“I’m meeting Ana tomorrow”). For an impersonal published schedule, the present is also normal: Avionul pleacă la 14:30 (“The plane leaves at 2:30 p.m.”).

Subject pronouns and the word voi

Romanian voi has two jobs. As a subject pronoun, it means plural or formal “you”: Voi veniți mâine (“You are coming tomorrow”). As a future auxiliary, it means “I will”: Voi veni mâine (“I will come tomorrow”). The form that follows resolves the ambiguity: present veniți agrees with “you,” while infinitive veni follows the future auxiliary.

Time clauses

After words such as când (“when”) and după ce (“after”), Romanian often uses a present form when the future meaning is already clear, much as English says “when I arrive” rather than “when I will arrive”:

• Când ajung acasă, te voi suna. — “When I get home, I will call you.”
• După ce terminăm, o să ieșim. — “After we finish, we’ll go out.”

This is a useful pattern, but actual tense choice can depend on meaning and style. At B1, the safest habit is to learn common time-clause examples as complete sentences rather than translating every English “will” separately.

Beyond the Basics / Advanced Use

Am să and reduced spoken forms

Romanian also has a future built with forms of a avea plus să: am să plec, ai să pleci, are să plece, avem să plecăm, aveți să plecați, au să plece. You may hear forms such as am să vă sun (“I’ll call you”). Their frequency and stylistic feel vary, and o să is the simpler all-purpose conversational pattern for learners.

You will also encounter reduced future auxiliaries in colloquial and regional speech, including forms such as oi, ăi, o, om, ăți, or: oi vedea (“I’ll see”), o veni (“he/she will come”). These forms can carry conversational, regional, or sometimes uncertain overtones depending on context. Recognise them, but use standard voi or everyday o să until you have a strong feel for local usage.

The future perfect

The future perfect describes something that will already be complete before a later future point. It uses the future auxiliary + fi + a past participle (the form used in compound tenses, such as terminat “finished”):

• Voi fi terminat până la prânz. — “I will have finished by noon.”
• Când ajungi, ei vor fi plecat deja. — “When you arrive, they will already have left.”

This form belongs to more advanced study and is less essential in conversation than the basic future. Romanian can often express the same timing with a simpler tense plus context.

Future-looking forms can express probability

Forms resembling the future may also express a guess about the present or past rather than literal future time. For example, O fi acasă can mean “He/She is probably at home.” This belongs to the Romanian presumptive mood, where the speaker presents something as probable rather than known. Do not automatically translate every o fi or vor fi as future time; use the context to decide.

Practice Tips

1. Build paired sentences. Take ten useful verbs and say each future twice: voi citi / o să citesc, voi veni / o să vin, voi face / o să fac. This separates the register choice from the meaning.
2. Focus on third person after o să. Make a short list of frequent pairs: vine → o să vină, face → o să facă, are → o să aibă, este → o să fie. These are where present-tense habits most often cause errors.
3. Describe a real week in three styles. Write one formal plan with voi, retell it aloud with o să, then rewrite fixed appointments in the present. Comparing Voi pleca luni, O să plec luni, and Plec luni develops a natural sense of register.

Related Concepts

• Prerequisite: Verb Conjugation Groups — helps you identify Romanian infinitives and remove the marker a correctly.
• Useful companion: Subjunctive Mood — explains the verb forms required after o să.
• Next step: Presumptive Mood — shows how future-like forms can express probability rather than future time.