Romanian verbs
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Contents |
Conjugation
Classes
There are four conjugations in Romanian:
First, -a: cânta "to sing", lucra "to work"
Second*, -ea: vedea "to see"
Third*, -e: face "to do", merge "to go"
Fourth, -i/-î: dormi "to sleep", vorbi "to speak", coborî "to go down/to lower", hotărî "to decide"
*The second and third have basically merged.
Tenses and Mood
There are four moods: indicative, subjunctive, conditional and imperative. Of those, the indicative and subjunctive have tense distinctions.
Within the indicative there are four simple tenses: present, imperfect, (simple) perfect and pluperfect. There are also two compound tenses: future and (compound) perfect. [To prevent confusion, the simple perfect will be called the preterite, and the compound perfect will be the perfect]
Within the subjunctive there is one simple tense (present) and one compound tense (perfect).
Both forms of the conditional are compound, the non-past (present) and the past (perfect).
The imperative has no temporal distinctions.
Formation
Present (Indicative and Subjunctive)
There are six forms in the present indicative, based on three persons and two numbers (singular, plural). The present subjunctive in Romanian is identical to all forms of the present indicative, except the 3rd person singular and plural:
Pres. Ind. cântă he/she/it sings, they sing
Pres. Subj. cânte (that) he/she/it/they sing
First and Fourth Conjugation
Within the first conjugation, the 3rd person singular and plural forms are identical (e.g. cântă "he/she/it sings" and "they sing"), while the fourth conjugation has the 1st person singular and the 3rd person plural identical (e.g. dorm "I sing" and "they sing").
Also within the first and fourth, there are subgroups based on how the present tense (and present subjunctive) are formed. The first conjugation has the zero-infix (e.g. cânta) and the -ez-infix (e.g. lucra). The fourth conjugation has four outcomes, two with zero infix (e.g. dormi, coborî) and two with -sc-infix (e.g. vorbi, hotărî):
| First | |||||
| "to sing" | "to work" | ||||
| 1sg
| eu
| cânt
| lucrez
| ||
| Fourth | |||||
| "to sleep" | "to descend" | "to speak" | "to decide" | ||
| 1sg
| eu
| dorm
| cobor
| vorbesc
| hotărăsc
|
A note on stress:
Because of the description of the vowel ă (as a schwa sound, which is unstressed in English), the tendency is to think that it isn't stressed. However, the first conjugation 1st person plural forms are stressed on that vowel: cântăm /kïn 'tëm/; other forms with this vowel also carry stress: hotărăsc /ho të 'rësc/.
Second and Third Conjugation
Within both conjugations, the 1st person singular and the 3rd person plural are identical (e.g. văd "I see" and "they see"; fac "I do" and "they do").
For all intents and purposes, the second and third conjugations have merged, only their infinitives are distinct (e.g. vedea vs. face):
| Second | Third | ||||
| "to see" | "to drink" | "to do" | "to go" | ||
| 1sg
| eu
| văd
| beau
| fac
| merg
|
A note on pronunciation:
As is the case with Italian, Romanian verbs with stems in c and g feature sound changes depending on the ending. In the 1sg/3pl, the zero ending makes c and g like /k/ and /g/, while the other endings make them /tS/ and /d3/:
merg "I/they go" /merg/
merge "he/she goes" /'mer d3e/
Ending Variation: -u versus "zero"
One more issue with the present tense is that of the -u ending. In the first person singular, as well as the second and third conjugation third person plural, most verbs take a zero affix. However, where there is a consonant cluster that would be unpronounceable, a -u is added:
cânt "I sing" [1st conj.]
vs. aflu "I find" [1st conj.]
Past Participle and the Preterite
[Ed: Why discuss the past participle so early? Well, Romanian verbs, with some notable exceptions, have reanalyzed the formation of the preterite. The "quick and dirty" rule is the stem of the preterite is identical to the stem of the past participle minus the ending.]
In Romanian, the preterite is not used nearly as much as the perfect (similar to the situation in Italian).
Past Participle Formation
The past participle is formed regularly in the first and fourth conjugations by adding -t to the thematic stem (i.e. the root plus theme vowel):
1st conj.
cânta "to sing" --> cântat "sung"
lucra "to sing" --> lucrat "worked"
4th conj.
dormi "to sleep" --> dormit "slept"
vorbi "to speak" --> vorbit "spoken"
coborî "to lower" --> coborît "lowered"
hotărî "to decide" --> hotărît "decided"
The story of the past participle in the second and third conjugations is muddied by the fact that Romanian, like Italian and French, retained more of their irregular past participles from Latin (than, say, Spanish or Portuguese*).
*Both Spanish and Portuguese still have the forms, but in Spanish (less so in Portuguese), many irregular forms are used not as verbals, but as adjectives. Only "high-usage" verbs tend to retain their irregular participles.
There are two endings possible for Romanian 2d/3d conj. past participles: those in -s and those in -t. For those in -t, there are two possible variants, plain and -ut (which is found more):
fi "to be" --> fost "been"
vedea "to see" --> văzut "seen"
face "to do" --> făcut "done"
ţine "to hold" --> ţinut "held"
merge "to go" --> mers "went"
spune "to say" --> spus "said"
inchide "to close" --> inchis "closed"
Preterite Formation
As said before the easiest way to find the preterite stem is to remove the past participle ending. There is a catch: you only remove the -t ending; those participles ending in -s become the preterite stem:
cânta "to sing" --> cânta-
cânta "to sing" --> lucra-
dormi "to sleep" --> dormi-
vorbi "to speak" --> vorbi-
coborî "to lower" --> coborî-
hotărî "to decide" --> hotărî-
fi "to be" --> fus-(!)
vedea "to see" --> văzu-
face "to do" --> făcu-
ţine "to hold" --> ţinu-
merge "to go" --> mers-
spune "to say" --> spus-
inchide "to close" --> inchis-
| 1st conj. | 2d/3d conj. (u) | 2d/3d conj. (s) | 4th conj. | ||
| 1sg
| eu
| cântai
| făcui
| mersei
| dormii
|
*The theme vowel a is replaced by ă in the 3d person singular.
A note on stress:
For the first and fourth conjugations, and for second and third conjugation forms in u, the stress is on the "theme" vowel throughout (e.g. cântái, cântáşi, etc.) This also includes 3sg. cântă [kïn 'tә].
