Common Irregular Verbs in Romanian

In Brief

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.”

Overview

These verbs describe ordinary actions: making dinner, going home, coming by train, knowing an answer, giving someone a book, or taking a bus. You will hear them in some of the first Romanian conversations you have. At A1, the main goal is to recognize and use their present-tense forms in short statements and questions.

An infinitive (the dictionary form of a verb) normally appears in Romanian with a: a face, a merge, a veni. This a belongs to the dictionary form; it is not used before an ordinary present-tense verb. Therefore, “I go” is merg, not a merg.

Romanian often leaves out the subject pronoun (a word such as “I,” “you,” or “they”) because the verb ending already identifies the person. English needs “I” in “I know,” but Romanian can simply say Știu. You may add eu for contrast—Eu știu, dar el nu știe (“I know, but he does not”)—but it is not normally necessary.

How It Works

The six persons

A conjugated form changes according to who performs the action. Romanian distinguishes singular and plural “you”: tu addresses one person informally, while voi addresses several people. Dumneavoastră, the usual polite “you,” takes the same plural form as voi even when referring to one person.

Person	Meaning	Typical subject pronoun
1st singular	I	eu
2nd singular	you, one person, informal	tu
3rd singular	he/she; also it	el/ea
1st plural	we	noi
2nd plural	you, several people	voi
3rd plural	they	ei/ele

Present-tense conjugations

The present tense can express both a regular action and an action happening now. Depending on context, Fac cina can mean “I make dinner,” “I am making dinner,” or occasionally “I do make dinner.” Romanian does not need a separate equivalent of English “am making” in ordinary situations.

Person	a face do/make	a merge go	a veni come	a ști know	a da give	a lua take
eu	fac	merg	vin	știu	dau	iau
tu	faci	mergi	vii	știi	dai	iei
el/ea	face	merge	vine	știe	dă	ia
noi	facem	mergem	venim	știm	dăm	luăm
voi	faceți	mergeți	veniți	știți	dați	luați
ei/ele	fac	merg	vin	știu	dau	iau

Several patterns make the table easier to remember:

• The first-person and third-person plural forms are identical for all six verbs: eu fac / ei fac, eu vin / ei vin. Context or an explicit subject tells you which meaning is intended.
• A face and a merge have relatively stable stems: fac- / face- and merg- / merge-.
• A veni has short forms in the singular and third-person plural: vin, vii, vine, vin, but venim, veniți in the first and second plural.
• A ști keeps ști-, but spelling matters: știu, știi, știe. In știi, the two written i represent the stem and the person ending.
• A da and a lua change more noticeably: compare dau—dă—dăm and iau—iei—ia—luăm.

Basic sentence patterns

Statements and negatives

The simplest pattern is verb + the rest of the message:

• Fac cafea. — “I am making coffee.”
• Mergem la serviciu. — “We are going to work.”
• Ei vin mâine. — “They are coming tomorrow.”

To make the sentence negative, put nu directly before the verb:

• Nu știu. — “I don’t know.”
• Nu iau autobuzul. — “I’m not taking the bus.”
• Maria nu vine azi. — “Maria isn’t coming today.”

English uses “do/does” in many present questions and negatives. Romanian does not: Știi? means “Do you know?” and Nu știe means “He/She doesn’t know.”

Questions

A yes/no question can have the same word order as a statement, with question intonation and a question mark in writing:

• Vii mâine? — “Are you coming tomorrow?”
• Luați cardul? — “Are you taking the card?” or “Do you take cards?”

Question words normally come before the verb:

• Ce faci? — “What are you doing?”
• Unde mergeți? — “Where are you going?”
• Când vine trenul? — “When does the train come?”

Useful complements

A complement is a word or phrase that completes the verb’s meaning. These verbs often occur in recurring combinations:

Verb	Common pattern	Example	Meaning
a face	a face + activity or thing	fac curat	I clean / I am cleaning
a merge	a merge la + destination	merg la bancă	I go to the bank
a merge	a merge + acasă	merg acasă	I go home
a veni	a veni din/de la + origin	vin din România	I come from Romania
a ști	a ști + fact/question	știu unde este	I know where it is
a da	a da + thing + recipient	dau cartea Mariei	I give Maria the book
a lua	a lua + object/transport	iau trenul	I take the train

Notice merg acasă, without la. With a named place, la is common: merg la restaurant, la medic, la București. Means of transport often use either cu after a motion verb—merg cu autobuzul (“I go by bus”)—or a lua with a direct object—iau autobuzul (“I take the bus”).

Examples in Context

Romanian	English	Note
Ce faci? Fac curat.	What are you doing? I’m cleaning.	Everyday use of a face
Facem cina împreună.	We are making dinner together.	“Make” rather than “do” in English
Unde mergi? Merg acasă.	Where are you going? I’m going home.	No la before acasă
În fiecare zi merg pe jos la serviciu.	Every day I walk to work.	a merge pe jos means “to go on foot”
Mergeți cu trenul sau cu autobuzul?	Are you going by train or by bus?	Polite or plural “you”
Ana vine din Cluj mâine.	Ana is coming from Cluj tomorrow.	Present tense with a future time word
Vii cu noi la restaurant?	Are you coming with us to the restaurant?	Informal singular question
Știi unde e banca?	Do you know where the bank is?	a ști followed by an embedded question
Nu știu răspunsul.	I don’t know the answer.	nu comes before the verb
Ei știu că magazinul este închis.	They know that the shop is closed.	că introduces a known fact
Îți dau cartea mâine.	I’ll give you the book tomorrow.	Present tense used for an arranged future action
Dăm copiilor apă.	We give the children water.	Plural recipient expressed as a noun
Iau o cafea, vă rog.	I’ll have a coffee, please.	Natural when ordering
Luăm autobuzul până în centru.	We’re taking the bus to the city centre.	Transport with a lua
Maria ia cheia de pe masă.	Maria takes the key from the table.	Concrete act of taking

Common Mistakes

Keeping the infinitive marker in a present-tense sentence

• Wrong: Eu a merge acasă.
• Right: Eu merg acasă. / Merg acasă.
• Why: The a appears with the infinitive a merge, not with a conjugated present form.

Using English “do” to build a Romanian question

• Wrong: Faci tu știi unde e gara?
• Right: Știi unde e gara?
• Why: Romanian forms this question with intonation; it does not insert an auxiliary equivalent of English “do.” A face has its full meaning “do/make,” not a grammatical support role here.

Treating an irregular verb as regular

• Wrong: Eu dau, tu dăi.
• Right: Eu dau, tu dai.
• Why: Learn each high-frequency paradigm as a set. The same warning applies to iau, iei, ia, whose vowels change across the singular.

Confusing vii and știi with one-i spellings

• Wrong: Vi mâine? / Tu ști răspunsul.
• Right: Vii mâine? / Tu știi răspunsul.
• Why: The second-person singular forms are written vii and știi. Their third-person singular partners are vine and știe.

Adding la before acasă

• Wrong: Merg la acasă.
• Right: Merg acasă.
• Why: Romanian acasă already means “at home/homeward” and normally stands without la. Compare merg la birou (“I go to the office”).

Forgetting agreement with polite dumneavoastră

• Wrong: Dumneavoastră merge la centru?
• Right: Dumneavoastră mergeți la centru?
• Why: Polite dumneavoastră takes second-person plural verb forms: faceți, mergeți, veniți, știți, dați, luați.

Usage Notes

“Do” and “make” are often one verb

English separates “do” and “make,” but Romanian frequently uses a face for both: fac tema (“I do my homework”), fac o prăjitură (“I make a cake”), and fac sport (“I exercise/do sport”). Do not choose a different Romanian verb merely because the English translation changes.

Some combinations should be learned as whole expressions. Ce faci? can literally ask what someone is doing, but it is also used in the social question Ce mai faci?, meaning roughly “How are you?/How have you been?” A face curat means “to clean,” while a face cumpărături means “to shop/do the shopping.”

Choosing between “go” and “come”

As in English, a merge describes movement toward a destination, while a veni presents movement toward the speaker, listener, or a relevant meeting point. If a friend invites you over, Vin imediat (“I’m coming right away”) takes their location as the destination. Romanian also uses the present with a future time expression: Venim mâine means “We’re coming tomorrow.”

Knowing facts and knowing how

At beginner level, use a ști for facts and information: Știu adresa (“I know the address”), Știu că vine (“I know that he/she is coming”), and Știi unde este? (“Do you know where it is?”). For knowing a person or being acquainted with a place, Romanian normally uses a cunoaște: O cunosc pe Maria (“I know Maria”). This distinction is broadly similar to “know a fact” versus “be acquainted with,” although English uses “know” for both.

Giving, taking, and small pronouns

With a da, Romanian often puts a short indirect-object pronoun before the verb. An indirect object is the recipient—the person who receives something. Thus îți dau cartea literally has the structure “to-you I-give the book.” Forms such as îmi (“to me”), îți (“to you”), and îi (“to him/her”) belong to a later pronoun topic; at A1, memorize useful phrases without trying to master the whole system at once.

In cafés, iau is a natural way to choose or order something: Iau un ceai can mean “I’ll have a tea.” It does not always imply physically grabbing the item.

Beyond the Basics: Later Forms and Uses

You do not need to master this section at A1, but these same verbs remain irregular in other moods and tenses.

The common spoken past, the compound past, uses a form of a avea plus a past participle (a fixed verb form used to build the past). The six participles are worth recognizing:

Infinitive	Past participle	Example	English
a face	făcut	Am făcut cafea.	I made coffee.
a merge	mers	Am mers acasă.	I went home.
a veni	venit	A venit ieri.	He/She came yesterday.
a ști	știut	N-am știut.	I didn’t know.
a da	dat	Ți-am dat cartea.	I gave you the book.
a lua	luat	Am luat trenul.	I took the train.

The subjunctive (a verb form often introduced by să after wishes, needs, and similar expressions) has notable third-person forms: să facă, să meargă, să vină, să știe, să dea, să ia. You will meet them in phrases such as Vreau să vină (“I want him/her to come”) and Trebuie să știe (“He/She must know”).

Commands also contain forms that are best learned directly: Fă! (“Do/Make!”), Mergi! (“Go!”), Vino! (“Come!”), Dă-mi! (“Give me!”), and Ia! (“Take!”). Polite or plural commands generally use faceți, mergeți, veniți, dați, and luați.

Finally, present forms can develop meanings that no single English verb captures. Merge may mean “it works” (Telefonul merge), “it is acceptable” (Merge și așa), or “it goes well” in context. These are extensions of the core verb, not new conjugations.

Practice Tips

1. Learn by person, then mix the verbs. Recite all six “I” forms together—fac, merg, vin, știu, dau, iau—then do the same for tu. This makes vowel changes easier to notice than learning six isolated tables.
2. Build one six-line daily routine. Say what you make, where you go, when you come back, what you know, what you give someone, and what transport you take. Change the subject the next day from eu to noi or ei.
3. Turn statements into questions and negatives. Start with Vii mâine, then make Vii mâine? and Nu vii mâine. This trains Romanian structure without importing English “do/does.”

Related Concepts

• Prerequisite: Verb Conjugation Groups — introduces Romanian infinitive endings and the idea of conjugating for person.
• Useful foundation: Subject Pronouns — explains eu, tu, el/ea, noi, voi, and ei/ele, including when Romanian leaves them out.
• Next step: Compound Past Tense — uses participles such as făcut, mers, and venit to talk about completed past actions.
• Next step: Imperative Mood — develops command forms such as fă, vino, and ia.
• Later connection: Subjunctive Mood — covers forms such as să meargă, să vină, and să dea.