There are nine moods 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 pronouns 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.
The simple perfect tense has been replaced by the compound perfect in most of the Romanian varieties; it is commonly used in the Oltenian vernacular (graiul oltenesc) to denote recent actions that still have an impact on the present situation: Māncai (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 voice. As part of a verb in the passive voice, the past participle behaves like adjectives, and thus must agree in number and gender with the subject. Examples:
Active voice: Am f?cut curat īn cas?. (I cleaned the house.)
Passive voice: Echipa advers? a fost f?cut? 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 hiatusea 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 c?dea (to fall) a vedea (to see)
a vinde (to sell) a crede (to believe) a alege (to choose)
IV
?i or ?ī
a ?ti (to know) a veni (to come) a hot?rī (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 cānta (to sing) and a lucra (to work) both belong to the first conjugation group, but their indicative first person singular forms are eu cānt (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 ar?ta, a a?tepta, a ierta, a toca, a ap?ra, a īmbr?ca, a prezenta, a ap?sa, a m?sura, a c?p?ta, a sem?na, a piept?na, a amāna, a intra, a l?tra, a apropia, a māngāia, a t?ia, a despuia, deochea
V2
infinitive ending in -a, present indicative with infix -ez-
a lucra, a studia, īmperechea
V3
infinitive ending in -i, present indicative singular 3rd person ending in -e
a fugi, a desp?r?i, a ie?i, a repezi, a dormi, a muri, a veni, a sui, a īndoi, a jupui
V4
infinitive ending in -i, present indicative singular 3rd person ending in -?
a oferi, a suferi
V5
infinitive ending in -i, present indicative singular 3rd person ending in -e?te
a povesti, a tr?i
V6
infinitive ending in -ī, present indicative singular 3rd person ending in -?
a vārī, a coborī
V7
infinitive ending in -ī, present indicative singular 3rd person ending in -??te
a hot?rī
V8
infinitive ending in diphthong -ea
a ap?rea, a c?dea, a ?edea, a vedea, a putea
V9
infinitive ending in -e, past participle ending in -ut
a pierde, a cere, a crede, a bate, a cunoa?te, a coase, a vinde, a ?ine, a umple
V10
infinitive ending in -e, past participle ending in -s
a prinde, a rade, a roade, a plānge, a trage, a merge, a zice, a īntoarce, a permite, a scoate, a pune, a r?māne, a purcede, a scrie
V11
infinitive ending in -e, past participle ending in -t or -pt
a rupe, a fierbe, a īnfrānge, 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 azvārli (to throw), a lua (to take), a bea (to drink), a ?ti (to know), a usca (to dry), a continua (to continue), a mānca (to eat), a face (to do), a zice (to say), a duce (to carry).
References
Maria Iliescu et al., Vocabularul minimal al limbii romāne, Editura Didactic? ?i Pedagogic?, 1981
Valeria Gu?u Romalo et al., Gramatica limbii romāne, Editura Academiei Romāne, 2005
Notes
↑ In contemporary Romanian there is a tendency towards replacing o s? with or s? for the plural third person. See Gramatica limbii romāne, vol. I, p. 441.
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