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Romanian grammar A1: beginner

The complete guide from A1 to B1: the rules, examples to listen to, the usual mistakes.

Level A1 covers the grammar of first exchanges in Romanian: introducing yourself, naming and describing people and things, asking questions, talking about everyday actions, likes and needs, saying what you want, can or must do, telling what happened and what will happen, and giving an instruction to several people. The present is learnt verb family by verb family, and the level ends with a first past, the perfectul compus, and the two futures.

What is familiar to an English speaker

  • the order of a plain statement is subject, verb, object: Ana citește o carte;
  • the perfectul compus is formed, like the English present perfect, with an auxiliary taken from “to have” and a participle: am lucrat;
  • the future with voi is formed, like the future with “will”, with an auxiliary and the infinitive: voi pleca;
  • the adjective is compared with a word placed before it, as with English “more”: mai înalt decât.

What differs from English

  • every noun is masculine, feminine or neuter, and the neuter is masculine in the singular and feminine in the plural: un tren, două trenuri;
  • the definite article is added to the end of the noun: un student, studentul; o casă, casa;
  • the adjective comes after the noun and agrees with it: o casă albă, două case albe;
  • the verb has an ending for each person, so the subject pronoun is usually left out: Sunt din Cluj (“I’m from Cluj”);
  • English “you” has two equivalents for one person: tu for a friend, dumneavoastră with the second person plural for a stranger;
  • a question and a negative need no auxiliary like do, and nimic, nimeni and niciodată are used with nu: Nu am nimic (“I have nothing”);
  • “I like” is expressed with the thing liked as the subject: îmi place ceaiul, literally “the tea pleases me”.

The usual difficulties

  • the plural, with its changes in the stem: carte, cărți; masă, mese;
  • the verbs with -ez and -esc in the present, learnt with each verb: lucrez, citesc;
  • no article after a preposition (în parc), but the article before a possessive (cartea mea);
  • de between a number from twenty on and its noun: douăzeci de ani;
  • să followed by the verb in its person, never by the infinitive: vreau să plec.

  1. Introducing yourself

    The first sentences of a conversation in Romanian rest on the verb a fi (to be), on the subject pronouns, which are usually left out, and on the choice between tu and dumneavoastră for English “you”.

  2. Nouns

    Every Romanian noun is masculine, feminine or neuter, and the indefinite article, the numbers one and two, the adjective and the possessive agree with it.

  3. The article

    In Romanian, the definite article (English “the”) is not a separate word: it is added to the end of the noun.

  4. The present

    Romanian has one present tense where English has two: lucrez means “I work” and “I am working”, lucrezi? “do you work?” and nu lucrez “I don’t work”.

  5. Questions and negation

    A Romanian sentence is made negative with one word, nu, placed before the verb, and a yes-or-no question has the word order of a statement, said with a rising voice: no auxiliary like English do is used.

  6. Adjectives

    A Romanian adjective agrees in gender and number with the noun it describes, and it usually comes after the noun: o carte bună, două trenuri bune.

  7. Possessives

    In Romanian, the possessive comes after the noun, and the noun takes its definite article: cartea mea (“my book”), literally “the book my”.

  8. Liking and feeling

    English “I like” is turned round in Romanian: the thing liked is the subject of a-i plăcea, and the person who likes is in the dative, as in English “it pleases me”.

  9. Să

    A verb that depends on another verb, such as vreau (I want), pot (I can) or trebuie (must), is introduced by să and takes the person of its subject, where English uses “to” or the bare infinitive: Vreau să plec (“I want to leave”) is literally “I want that I leave”.

  10. The past

    The perfectul compus is the past tense of everyday Romanian.

  11. The future

    Romanian has two everyday futures.

  12. Reflexive verbs

    A reflexive verb is used with an unstressed pronoun that agrees with the subject: mă, te, se, ne, vă, se.

  13. Numbers and time

    Romanian numbers are placed before the noun.

  14. Prepositions

    Romanian prepositions are short, invariable words placed before a noun or a pronoun.

  15. Linking sentences

    Words and sentences are joined with și (and), sau (or) and dar (but); repeated, și … și, nici … nici and sau … sau express “both … and”, “neither … nor” and “either … or”.

  16. Instructions

    An instruction to several people is given with the voi form of the present, the form in -ți: Citiți! (“Read!”).

Contents · Romanian grammar