Romanian verbs
Encyclopedia
This article on Romanian verbs is related to the Romanian grammar
and belongs to a series of articles on the Romanian language
.
Unlike English
but similar to other Indo-European languages
, verbs in Romanian are highly inflective. They conjugate
according to mood
, tense
, voice, person
and number
. Aspect
is not an independent feature in Romanian verbs. Also, gender
is only distinct in adjective
-like forms of the verb.
a verb can be put into, with five of them being personal — having a different form for each person
— and four non-personal. 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 pronoun
s are not included; unlike English verbs, Romanian verbs generally have different forms for each person and number, so that pronouns are most often dropped or only used for emphasis. The English equivalents in the tables (one for each mood and tense) are only an approximative indication of the meaning.
has been replaced by the compound perfect in most of the Romanian varieties; it is commonly used in the Oltenia
n vernacular (graiul oltenesc) to denote recent actions that still have an impact on the present situation: Mâncai (I have eaten). The simple perfect is the single most easily recognizable particularity of this vernacular.
In the literary standard, the simple perfect is used almost exclusively in writing, in places where the author refers to the characters' actions as they take place. For this reason, the second person is practically never used, while the first person appears only when the writer includes himself among the characters.
. As part of a verb in the passive voice, the past participle behaves like adjective
s, and thus must agree in number and gender with the subject. Examples:
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, verbs 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), showing 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.
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.
Romanian grammar
Standard Romanian shares largely the same grammar and most of the vocabulary and phonological processes with the other three surviving varieties of Eastern Romance, viz...
and belongs to a series of articles on the Romanian language
Romanian language
Romanian Romanian Romanian (or Daco-Romanian; obsolete spellings Rumanian, Roumanian; self-designation: română, limba română ("the Romanian language") or românește (lit. "in Romanian") is a Romance language spoken by around 24 to 28 million people, primarily in Romania and Moldova...
.
Unlike English
English language
English is a West Germanic language that arose in the Anglo-Saxon kingdoms of England and spread into what was to become south-east Scotland under the influence of the Anglian medieval kingdom of Northumbria...
but similar to other Indo-European languages
Indo-European languages
The Indo-European languages are a family of several hundred related languages and dialects, including most major current languages of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and South Asia and also historically predominant in Anatolia...
, verbs in Romanian are highly inflective. They conjugate
Grammatical conjugation
In linguistics, conjugation is the creation of derived forms of a verb from its principal parts by inflection . Conjugation may be affected by person, number, gender, tense, aspect, mood, voice, or other grammatical categories...
according to mood
Grammatical mood
In linguistics, grammatical mood is a grammatical feature of verbs, used to signal modality. That is, it is the use of verbal inflections that allow speakers to express their attitude toward what they are saying...
, tense
Grammatical tense
A tense is a grammatical category that locates a situation in time, to indicate when the situation takes place.Bernard Comrie, Aspect, 1976:6:...
, voice, person
Grammatical person
Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event; such as the speaker, the addressee, or others. Grammatical person typically defines a language's set of personal pronouns...
and number
Grammatical number
In linguistics, grammatical number is a grammatical category of nouns, pronouns, and adjective and verb agreement that expresses count distinctions ....
. Aspect
Grammatical aspect
In linguistics, the grammatical aspect of a verb is a grammatical category that defines the temporal flow in a given action, event, or state, from the point of view of the speaker...
is not an independent feature in Romanian verbs. Also, gender
Grammatical gender
Grammatical gender is defined linguistically as a system of classes of nouns which trigger specific types of inflections in associated words, such as adjectives, verbs and others. For a system of noun classes to be a gender system, every noun must belong to one of the classes and there should be...
is only distinct in adjective
Adjective
In grammar, an adjective is a 'describing' word; the main syntactic role of which is to qualify a noun or noun phrase, giving more information about the object signified....
-like forms of the verb.
Verb paradigm
There are nine moodsGrammatical mood
In linguistics, grammatical mood is a grammatical feature of verbs, used to signal modality. That is, it is the use of verbal inflections that allow speakers to express their attitude toward what they are saying...
a verb can be put into, with five of them being personal — having a different form for each person
Grammatical person
Grammatical person, in linguistics, is deictic reference to a participant in an event; such as the speaker, the addressee, or others. Grammatical person typically defines a language's set of personal pronouns...
— and four non-personal. 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 pronoun
Personal pronoun
Personal pronouns are pronouns used as substitutes for proper or common nouns. All known languages contain personal pronouns.- English personal pronouns :English in common use today has seven personal pronouns:*first-person singular...
s are not included; unlike English verbs, Romanian verbs generally have different forms for each person and number, so that pronouns are most often dropped or only used for emphasis. The English equivalents in the tables (one for each mood and tense) are only an approximative indication of the meaning.
| Personal moods | ||||||||
| Mood | Tense | Number and person | English equivalent (only sg. 1st) |
|||||
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Singular | Plural | |||||||
| 1st | 2nd | 3rd | 1st | 2nd | 3rd | |||
| Indicative | Pluperfect | făcusem | făcuseşi | făcuse | făcuserăm | făcuserăţi | făcuseră | I had done |
| Imperfect | făceam | făceai | făcea | făceam | făceaţi | făceau | I was doing | |
| Compound perfect | am făcut | ai făcut | a făcut | am făcut | aţi făcut | au făcut | I have done | |
| Simple perfect | făcui | făcuşi | făcu | făcurăm | făcurăţi | făcură | I did | |
| Future in the past (popular) | aveam să fac | aveai să faci | avea să facă | aveam să facem | aveaţi să faceţi | aveau să facă | I was going to do | |
| Present | fac | faci | face | facem | faceţi | fac | I do, I am doing | |
| Future | voi face | vei face | va face | vom face | veţi face | vor face | I will do | |
| Future (popular, 1) | am să fac | ai să faci | are să facă | avem să facem | aveţi să faceţi | au să facă | I'll do | |
| Future (popular, 2) | o să fac | o să faci | o să facă | o să facem | o să faceţi | o să facă | I'll do | |
| Future perfect | voi fi făcut | vei fi făcut | va fi făcut | vom fi făcut | veţi fi făcut | vor fi făcut | I will have done | |
| Subjunctive | Past | să fi făcut | să fi făcut | să fi făcut | să fi făcut | să fi făcut | să fi făcut | that I did, to have done |
| Present | să fac | să faci | să facă | să facem | să faceţi | să facă | that I do, to do | |
| Optative & Conditional |
Past | aş fi făcut | ai fi făcut | ar fi făcut | am fi făcut | aţi fi făcut | ar fi făcut | I would have done |
| Present | aş face | ai face | ar face | am face | aţi face | ar face | I would do | |
| Presumptive | Past | oi fi făcut | oi fi făcut | o fi făcut | om fi făcut | oţi fi făcut | or fi făcut | I might have done |
| Present | oi face | oi face | o face | om face | oţi face | or face | I might do | |
| Present progressive | oi fi făcând | oi fi făcând | o fi făcând | om fi făcând | oţi fi făcând | or fi făcând | I might be doing | |
| Imperative | Present | – | fă! | – | – | faceţi! | – | do! (2nd person only) |
| Non-personal moods | |||
| Mood | Tense | Verb forms | English equivalent |
|---|---|---|---|
| Infinitive | Past | a fi făcut | to have done |
| Present | a face | to do | |
| Participle | Past | făcut (sg., masc.) făcută (sg., fem.) făcuţi (pl., masc.) făcute (pl., fem.) |
done |
| Gerund | – | făcând | doing |
| Supine | – | de făcut | (something) to do |
Simple perfect
The simple perfectPreterite
The preterite is the grammatical tense expressing actions that took place or were completed in the past...
has been replaced by the compound perfect in most of the Romanian varieties; it is commonly used in the Oltenia
Oltenia
Oltenia is a historical province and geographical region of Romania, in western Wallachia. It is situated between the Danube, the Southern Carpathians and the Olt river ....
n vernacular (graiul oltenesc) to denote recent actions that still have an impact on the present situation: Mâncai (I have eaten). The simple perfect is the single most easily recognizable particularity of this vernacular.
In the literary standard, the simple perfect is used almost exclusively in writing, in places where the author refers to the characters' actions as they take place. For this reason, the second person is practically never used, while the first person appears only when the writer includes himself among the characters.
Past participle
Verbs in the past participle are used invariably in their singular masculine form when they are part of compound tenses (compound perfect, future perfect, past subjunctive, etc.) in the active voiceActive voice
Active voice is a grammatical voice common in many of the world's languages. It is the unmarked voice for clauses featuring a transitive verb in nominative–accusative languages, including English and most other Indo-European languages....
. As part of a verb in the passive voice, the past participle behaves like adjective
Adjective
In grammar, an adjective is a 'describing' word; the main syntactic role of which is to qualify a noun or noun phrase, giving more information about the object signified....
s, and thus must agree in number and gender with the subject. Examples:
- Active voice: Am făcut curat în casă. (I cleaned the house.)
- Passive voice: Echipa adversǎ a fost fǎcutǎ praf. (The opposing team was laid to waste.)
Conjugation groups
From an etymologycal point of view, Romanian verbs are categorized into four large conjugation groups depending on the ending in the infinitive mood. This categorization is currently taught in schools.| Conjugation | Ending | Examples | Notes |
|---|---|---|---|
| I | –a | a da (to give) a crea (to create) a veghea (to ward) |
Verbs ending in hiatus Hiatus (linguistics) In phonology, hiatus or diaeresis refers to two vowel sounds occurring in adjacent syllables, with no intervening consonant. When two adjacent vowel sounds occur in the same syllable, the result is instead described as a diphthong.... 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, to can do) a cădea (to fall) a vedea (to see) |
only when ea is a diphthong Diphthong A diphthong , also known as a gliding vowel, refers to two adjacent vowel sounds occurring within the same syllable. Technically, a diphthong is a vowel with two different targets: That is, the tongue moves during the pronunciation of the vowel... (also see above) |
| III | –e | a vinde (to sell) a crede (to believe) (to choose) |
|
| IV | –i or –î | a şti (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, verbs 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), showing 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.
| Class | Identification | Examples (one from each sound change type) |
|---|---|---|
| V1 | infinitive ending in -a, present indicative without infix | a ajuta, a arăta, a aştepta, 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 |
| V2 | infinitive ending in -a, present indicative with infix -ez- | a lucra, a studia, împerechea |
| V3 | infinitive ending in -i, present indicative singular 3rd person ending in -e | a fugi, a despărţi, a ieşi, a repezi, a dormi, a muri, a veni, a sui, a îndoi, a jupui |
| V4 | infinitive ending in -i, present indicative singular 3rd person ending in -ă | a oferi, a suferi |
| V5 | infinitive ending in -i, present indicative singular 3rd person ending in -eşte | a povesti, a trăi |
| V6 | infinitive ending in -î, present indicative singular 3rd person ending in -ă | a vârî, a coborî |
| V7 | infinitive ending in -î, present indicative singular 3rd person ending in -ăşte | a hotărî |
| V8 | infinitive ending in diphthong -ea | a apărea, a cădea, a şedea, a vedea, a putea |
| V9 | infinitive ending in -e, past participle ending in -ut | a pierde, a cere, a crede, a bate, a cunoaşte, a coase, a vinde, a ţine, a umple |
| V10 | infinitive 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 |
| V11 | infinitive 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, remain), a da (to give), a azvârli (to throw), a lua (to take), a bea (to drink), a şti (to know), a usca (to dry), a continua (to continue), a mânca (to eat), a face (to do), a zice (to say), a duce (to carry).External links
- Detailed Romanian grammar with a good section on verbs (PDF, 183 pages, 4.6 MB)
- Verbix.com: Romanian verbs conjugation (Attention: Generally good output, but a few verbs are not conjugated correctly.)
- Castingsnet.com: Romanian ↔ English online dictionary also providing a Romanian verb conjugator (few mistakes)