Imperative Mood in Romanian

In Brief

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!

Overview

The imperative mood (modul imperativ) is the verb form used for commands, instructions, invitations, warnings, and requests. Romanian has dedicated imperative forms only for the second person—the person or people being addressed. In practical terms, you choose between an informal singular form for one person and a plural form for a group or for polite address.

This is introduced at A2 because it lets you handle many everyday situations: following directions, reading signs, giving simple instructions, and asking someone to help. A command does not have to sound harsh. Tone, context, te rog (“please,” informal), and vă rog (“please,” polite or plural) can turn the same grammatical form into a friendly request.

English usually forms commands with the plain verb—“come,” “read,” “don’t speak”—regardless of how many people are addressed. Romanian requires more attention: affirmative singular forms vary by verb, plural commands have a recognizable ending, and negative singular commands follow a special rule.

How It Works

The two people you can address

Romanian imperative forms distinguish number and register:

Addressee	Romanian person	Typical use	Example
one person, familiar	second-person singular	a friend, relative, child, or close colleague	Ascultă! — “Listen!”
several people	second-person plural	any group	Ascultați! — “Listen!”
one person, polite	second-person plural	a stranger, customer, older person, or formal contact	Ascultați, vă rog. — “Please listen.”

Romanian normally leaves out the subject pronoun because the verb ending identifies the addressee. You do not generally need tu or voi before a command.

Affirmative commands to one person

An affirmative command tells someone to do something. The second-person singular form cannot be produced from one completely reliable ending rule. Depending on the verb, it may resemble the present-tense tu form or the el/ea (“he/she”) form. For that reason, learn the singular imperative with each common verb.

Infinitive	Meaning	Informal singular command	Plural/polite command
a lucra	to work	Lucrează!	Lucrați!
a vorbi	to speak	Vorbește!	Vorbiți!
a citi	to read	Citește!	Citiți!
a merge	to go	Mergi!	Mergeți!
a scrie	to write	Scrie!	Scrieți!
a aștepta	to wait	Așteaptă!	Așteptați!

This variation is why comparing the command with forms you already know from Romanian conjugation groups is useful. It is safer to remember ascultă, vorbește, and mergi as whole forms than to guess from the infinitive.

Plural and polite affirmative commands

The command for several people has the same shape as the second-person plural present form—the form used with voi. It commonly ends in -ți:

• Citiți textul. — “Read the text.”
• Mergeți înainte. — “Go straight ahead.”
• Așteptați aici. — “Wait here.”

The same form addresses one person politely. Context tells you whether Deschideți ușa, vă rog means “Open the door, please” to one person or to a group. Romanian often uses polite plural grammar where English simply uses “you,” so English speakers need to make the register choice themselves.

Negative commands to one person

A negative imperative tells someone not to act. For informal singular commands, use:

nu + infinitive without the marker a

The infinitive is the dictionary form of a verb, such as a pleca (“to leave”). The initial a is an infinitive marker and is removed after nu.

Infinitive	Affirmative	Negative singular
a pleca	Pleacă!	Nu pleca!
a vorbi	Vorbește!	Nu vorbi!
a merge	Mergi!	Nu merge!
a face	Fă!	Nu face!
a fi	Fii!	Nu fi!

Notice that the negative is not made by placing nu before the affirmative singular form. Pleacă! becomes Nu pleca!, not Nu pleacă! This is one of the most important patterns to memorize.

Negative commands to several people or one person politely

For plural or polite commands, place nu before the plural form:

• Nu plecați! — “Don’t leave!”
• Nu vorbiți! — “Don’t speak!”
• Nu intrați! — “Do not enter!”
• Nu vă grăbiți! — “Don’t hurry!”

Unlike the singular pair Pleacă! / Nu pleca!, the plural verb keeps the same form in Plecați! / Nu plecați!

Common irregular affirmative forms

Several very frequent verbs have short or irregular singular commands. Their negative singular forms still follow the regular nu + infinitive without a pattern.

Infinitive	Meaning	Affirmative singular	Negative singular	Plural/polite
a fi	to be	Fii!	Nu fi!	Fiți! / Nu fiți!
a face	to do, make	Fă!	Nu face!	Faceți! / Nu faceți!
a da	to give	Dă!	Nu da!	Dați! / Nu dați!
a veni	to come	Vino!	Nu veni!	Veniți! / Nu veniți!
a duce	to take, carry	Du!	Nu duce!	Duceți! / Nu duceți!
a lua	to take	Ia!	Nu lua!	Luați! / Nu luați!
a zice	to say	Zi!	Nu zice!	Ziceți! / Nu ziceți!
a sta	to stay, stand	Stai!	Nu sta!	Stați! / Nu stați!

Object and reflexive pronouns

An object pronoun is a short word standing for the person or thing affected by an action: “me” in “tell me,” for example. A reflexive pronoun shows that the action returns to the same person, as in “wash yourself.” Pronoun position changes between affirmative and negative commands.

With an affirmative command, the short pronoun normally follows the verb and is joined with a hyphen:

• Spune-mi! — “Tell me!”
• Ajută-l! — “Help him!”
• Spală-te! — “Wash yourself!”
• Așezați-vă! — “Sit down!” (plural or polite)

With a negative command, the pronoun comes before the verb:

• Nu-mi spune! — “Don’t tell me!”
• Nu-l ajuta! — “Don’t help him!”
• Nu te spăla aici! — “Don’t wash here!”
• Nu vă așezați acolo! — “Don’t sit there!”

For English speakers, this movement is unfamiliar because English keeps “me,” “him,” and “yourself” after the verb in both positive and negative commands. Treat the Romanian positive and negative patterns as separate frames.

Examples in Context

Romanian	English	Note
Vino aici, te rog.	Come here, please.	Informal singular; irregular vino
Nu pleca încă!	Don’t leave yet!	Negative singular uses pleca
Citiți instrucțiunile cu atenție.	Read the instructions carefully.	Plural or polite
Nu vorbi atât de repede.	Don’t speak so quickly.	Informal singular
Luați loc, vă rog.	Please have a seat.	Polite formula; literally “take a place”
Deschide fereastra.	Open the window.	Informal singular
Nu deschideți ușa.	Don’t open the door.	Plural or polite negative
Spune-mi adevărul.	Tell me the truth.	Pronoun follows an affirmative command
Nu-mi spune finalul filmului!	Don’t tell me the ending of the film!	Pronoun precedes a negative command
Grăbește-te, pierdem trenul!	Hurry up, we’re missing the train!	Reflexive singular command
Nu vă grăbiți; avem timp.	Don’t hurry; we have time.	Reflexive plural or polite command
Mergeți înainte și faceți dreapta.	Go straight ahead and turn right.	Two polite/plural directions
Fii atent la trepte.	Be careful on the steps.	fii has two i’s
Nu fi trist.	Don’t be sad.	Negative singular has one i
Hai să bem o cafea.	Let’s have a coffee.	Inclusive suggestion with hai să

Common Mistakes

Putting nu before the affirmative singular form

• Wrong: Nu pleacă!
• Right: Nu pleca!
• Why: An informal negative command uses nu plus the infinitive without a. Nu pleacă normally means “He/she isn’t leaving,” not “Don’t leave.”

Using the singular form for polite address

• Wrong: Așteaptă aici, vă rog. (to a customer)
• Right: Așteptați aici, vă rog.
• Why: Formal address uses the second-person plural form, even for one person. The phrase vă rog reinforces the polite register.

Guessing every affirmative form from one rule

• Wrong: Veni aici!
• Right: Vino aici!
• Why: Common singular commands are not fully predictable. Learn frequent irregulars such as vino, fă, dă, ia, and du individually.

Leaving the pronoun in the same position

• Wrong: Nu spune-mi!
• Right: Nu-mi spune!
• Why: Short pronouns follow affirmative commands (spune-mi) but move before the verb in negative commands (nu-mi spune).

Confusing fii and fi

• Wrong: Fi atent! / Nu fii atent!
• Right: Fii atent! / Nu fi neatent!
• Why: The affirmative singular of a fi is fii with two i’s; after negative singular nu, use the infinitive stem fi with one i.

Forgetting agreement in descriptions

• Wrong: Fii atent! said to a woman
• Right: Fii atentă!
• Why: An adjective describing the addressee changes for gender and number: atent (masculine singular), atentă (feminine singular), atenți (masculine or mixed plural), atente (feminine plural).

Usage Notes

An imperative can range from warm encouragement to a sharp order. Vino! may be welcoming, urgent, or impatient depending on voice and situation. Add te rog after or around an informal request and vă rog for polite or plural requests: Ajută-mă, te rog and Ajutați-mă, vă rog. In formal service situations, a question or conditional expression may sound softer than a bare command, just as “Could you…?” often sounds gentler than “Do…!” in English.

Public instructions frequently use the polite/plural imperative because they address an unspecified audience: Apăsați butonul (“Press the button”), Păstrați liniștea (“Keep quiet”), and Nu intrați (“Do not enter”). Recipes and manuals also commonly use this form. Infinitives can appear as impersonal labels or written instructions, but the plural imperative is a central neutral instruction style.

Romanian often omits “please” where friendly tone or context already makes the request appropriate. Conversely, adding te rog does not automatically make an abrupt order suitable in every situation. Register depends on your relationship with the listener as well as grammar.

Beyond the Basics / Advanced Use

You do not need to master all of these patterns at A2, but you will meet them often.

Suggestions with hai să

Romanian commonly uses hai să plus the subjunctive—a verb pattern often introduced by să and used for desired, possible, or proposed actions—to mean “let’s…”:

• Hai să mergem! — “Let’s go!”
• Hai să începem. — “Let’s begin.”
• Haideți să discutăm. — “Let’s discuss.” (plural or polite invitation)

This fills a gap in the imperative, which has no true first-person plural command. The longer forms haide and haideți are also used. In everyday speech, hai is extremely common.

Commands about a third person

To express “Let him/her…” or “Have them…,” Romanian uses să plus a subjunctive form rather than a second-person imperative:

• Să intre! — “Let him/her come in!”
• Să aștepte afară. — “Let him/her wait outside.”
• Să vină mâine. — “Let them come tomorrow” or “He/she should come tomorrow,” depending on context.

These are command-like uses, but grammatically they are not the basic second-person imperative taught above.

Strong, general, and repeated prohibitions

A negative imperative can prohibit an immediate act: Nu atinge! (“Don’t touch!”). In rules and signs, the plural/polite form often gives a general prohibition: Nu fumați! (“No smoking!” / “Do not smoke!”). Repetition, particles, and word order can add urgency—Nu mai vorbi! means “Stop talking” or “Don’t talk anymore,” not merely “Don’t speak.”

More than one attached pronoun

Advanced Romanian can attach combinations of short pronouns to affirmative commands, as in Dă-mi-l! (“Give it to me!”). The order and spelling of combined pronouns deserve separate study. At first, become comfortable with one pronoun at a time: dă-mi, spune-i, ajută-l, uită-te.

Practice Tips

1. Learn commands in four-part sets. For each useful verb, record affirmative singular, negative singular, affirmative plural, and negative plural: pleacă / nu pleca / plecați / nu plecați. This makes the crucial contrast visible.
2. Transform positive commands into negative ones. Say Vorbește! → Nu vorbi! and Vorbiți! → Nu vorbiți! aloud. Then add pronouns: Spune-mi! → Nu-mi spune! The movement of the pronoun becomes easier through paired practice.
3. Collect commands from real situations. Look at Romanian recipes, app buttons, transport notices, and signs. Mark whether each form addresses one familiar person, a group, or one person politely, and notice how often public instructions use -ți.

Related Concepts

• Prerequisite: Verb Conjugation Groups — helps you recognize verb stems and the present-tense forms behind many commands.
• Next step: Romanian object and reflexive pronouns — useful for patterns such as spune-mi, ajută-l, and așezați-vă.
• Next step: The Romanian subjunctive — needed for suggestions with hai să and command-like expressions such as să intre.