The Romanian language. Verbs

Linguata

The Romanian language.  Verbs

Compared with their English equivalents, Romanian verbs appear formidable. They are highly inflected i.e. they modify their form, especially endings, according to person, number, tense, mood and voice. The purpose of these notes is simply to make it easier to understand the verbs that occur in the Linguata phrases.

The verbs for ‘to be’ and ‘to have’ occur frequently in various forms, and you will recognize examples of their present tenses in Linguata:

Pronoun

 

To be

A fi

 

To have

A avea

 

Pron.

I

 

am

s înt

 

have

am

 

eu

You (Sng)

 

are

e şti

 

have

ai

 

tu

He/She/It

 

is

este

 

has

are

 

el/ea

We

 

are

s întem

 

have

avem

 

noi

You (Plur)

 

are

s înteţi

 

have

ave ţi

 

voi

They

 

are

s înt

 

have

au

 

ei/ele

There are four groups of regular verbs, of which Groups 1 and 4 are the most important, accounting for the majority of Romanian verbs, including new formations.

Group 1 covers verbs whose infinitives end in –a, such as a accepta (to accept) as in Acceptaţi cărţi de credit? (Buying things. General phrases), a vizita (to visit) in Aţi vizitat vreodată ţara mea? (Conversation. Small talk. 1), a mănca (to eat) in Nu mănânc carne (Eating. Phrases. 2) and a lăsa (to leave, let) in Lăsaţi-mă în pace (Emergencies).

Group 4 contains verbs ending in –i and î, such as a locui (to reside) in Locuiesc în oraşul …(Conversation. Small talk. 1), a vorbi (to speak) in Vă rog vorbiţi mai rar (Communication problems) and a călători (to travel) (Conversation. Small talk. 2).

To provide a flavour of how such verbs work in the present tense, here are two Group 1-type verbs, one regular (a lăsa) and the other irregular (so called because the verb stem changes):

Pronoun

A lăsa

 

A m ănca

 

I

las

 

mănânc

 

You (Sng)

la şi

 

mănânci

 

He/She/It

lasă

 

mănâncă

 

We

lăs ăm

 

mâncăm

 

You (Plur)

lăsaţi

 

mâncaţi

 

They

lasă

 

mănâncă

 

From this table, you can see that in the examples above acceptaţi and lăsaţi are both second person plural present tense, ‘you accept’, ‘you leave’, one used as a question, the other as a command i.e. an imperative. You may also realize that aţi in aţi vizitat is a second person plural: in fact it is a ‘reduced’ form of aveţi above, used with vizitat, the past participle of a vizita, to form the past tense, ‘you have visited’, which here becomes a question through the upward lilt of the voice at the end of the sentence. Aţi fost în ..? ‘Have you been to..?’ (Conversation. Small talk. 2) is a similar construction for a fi, to be.

Here are the present tenses of two verbs from Group 4:

Pronoun

A vorbi

 

A călători

 

I

vorbesc

 

călătoresc

 

You (Sng)

vorbe şti

 

călătoreşti

 

He/She/It

vorbe şte

 

călătoreşte

 

We

vorbim

 

călătorim

 

You (Plur)

vorbi ţi

 

călătoriţi

 

They

vorbesc

 

călătoresc

 

Not surprisingly you will come across many examples of first person singular usage in Linguata Romanian much of which is designed to be spoken by you in the first person. Many of these, such as mănânc, ‘I eat’, vreau, ‘I want’, vorbesc, ‘I speak’ and înţeleg, ‘I understand’, are in the present tense; others, such as am rezervat in Nu am rezervat o cameră, ‘I haven't booked a room’ use the first person in a past tense in which am is the reduced form replacing s înt and rezervat is a past participle (Somewhere to stay. 1).

Other examples of the use of past participles can be seen in Încântat să vă întâlnesc, where încântat, ‘pleased’, is the past participle of a încânta (A few first words. 3) and in Mi s-a terminat benzina, ‘I've run out of petrol’ (Getting around by car), where terminat is the past participle of a termina, ‘to finish’, combined with s-a, the reflexive third person form of the reduced a avea.

Another example of a reflexive third person present occurs in În cât timp se ajunge la ..? ‘How long does it take to get to ..?’ (Getting around. General phrases) from a ajunge (to reach). The third person present is also used in the useful phrase Îmi place, ‘I like’ as in Îmi place camera, ‘I like the room’ (Somewhere to stay. 1).

Other useful ways of expressing liking and wanting are vreau, ‘I want’, from a vrea, as in vreau să cumpăr…, ‘I want to buy …’ and aş dori, ‘I would like’, first person conditional of a dori, ‘to wish’, as in aş dori o restituire, ‘I'd like a refund’ (Buying things. General phrases).