The Romanian imperative

The Romanian imperative gives a direct instruction, invitation, or request to the person addressed: Vino aici! (Come here!) Romanian has second-person singular and plural forms. The negative singular uses nu plus the verb without a.

How many imperative forms does Romanian have?

Romanian has imperative forms for tu (one familiar person) and voi (several people). Formal dumneavoastră uses the plural forms to address one person or several people. When the subject is not stated, the form and context identify the person addressed.

The imperative does not have a separate first- or third-person form. Romanian can express a suggestion or a command involving other people with the present subjunctive, for example Să intrăm! (Let us go in!). See the present subjunctive with să for that wider pattern.

How do you form the affirmative imperative?

For voi, use the second-person plural present form, usually unchanged; for tu, use the verb-specific affirmative form. The singular can match the third-person singular present, the second-person singular present, or neither, so do not apply one ending to every verb.

An affirmative singular imperative may match a present-tense form, but one conversion rule does not cover every verb. Some transitive verbs (verbs that take a direct object) use the same form as the second-person singular present, including a vedea (vezi). An intransitive verb (one that does not take a direct object) can also match the present form, as in a merge (mergi). A verb such as a trece can show different singular imperative shapes according to its use: Treci acolo! (Go over there!) but Trece-i strada! (Help them cross the street!).

How do you form a negative command?

For tu, use nu plus the bare infinitive. Remove the infinitive marker a from a cânta to get nu cânta. For voi, put nu before the second-person plural present form: cântați becomes nu cântați.

1. Start with the dictionary form, such as a veni or a hotărî; the infinitive is the form introduced by a. See the Romanian infinitive and dictionary form for this terminology.
2. For a singular negative, remove a: a veni gives veni, and a hotărî gives hotărî.
3. Put nu before that form: Nu veni! (Do not come!) and Nu hotărî! (Do not decide!).

Which irregular forms should you memorize?

Several frequent verbs have special affirmative singular forms. Their negative singular still follows the general nu plus bare infinitive pattern. The plural forms below are the standard forms for voi and formal dumneavoastră; a fi is exceptional in the plural too.

The affirmative and negative forms of a fi differ: Fii calm! (Stay calm!) but Nu fi zgomotos! (Do not be noisy!). The negative fi has one i; the affirmative fii has two. The pairs vino / nu veni and du-te / nu te duce also contrast an irregular affirmative with an infinitive-based negative.

Where do short pronouns go?

With an affirmative imperative, an unstressed object or reflexive pronoun follows the verb and is joined with a hyphen: Îmbracă-te! (Get dressed!), Ajută-mă! (Help me!), and Amintește-ți! (Remember!). With a negative imperative, the pronoun comes after nu and before the verb: Nu te îmbrăca! (Do not get dressed!), Nu mă ajuta! (Do not help me!), and Nu-ți aminti! (Do not remember!).

A reflexive verb keeps its reflexive meaning in the command: du-te is the imperative of a se duce, not a spelling variant of plain du. Do not move the pronoun after a negative verb, and do not omit the hyphen in affirmative combinations such as du-te, duceți-vă, or zi-i. For the larger reflexive system, see Romanian reflexive pronouns.

How can you make a request less direct?

The imperative is not automatically rude or polite. It can be a normal instruction, an invitation, a warning, or a firm order; relationship, intonation, setting, and words such as te rog or vă rog shape the effect. With an unfamiliar person or in a service context, speakers can frame the request with the present subjunctive.

In a request such as Vă rog să intrați, the să clause states the requested action instead of using a bare imperative. The să clause does not make the sentence polite by itself. Vă rog să intrați is formal because of vă rog and the formal address. A bare Intrați! can be normal in an appropriate setting. See polite pronouns for dumneavoastră and neutral, formal, and conversational Romanian for the role of context and register.

Mistakes to avoid

• Do not put the infinitive marker a after nu: write Nu cânta!, not Nu a cânta!.
• For one familiar person, do not replace the negative imperative with an ordinary present statement: Nu veni! means Do not come!, while Nu vii is a present-tense form whose meaning depends on context.
• Do not assume that every affirmative singular imperative equals the tu present or the el / ea present; compare mergi, cântă, vezi, and the irregular vino.
• Do not place a reflexive clitic before an affirmative imperative or after a negative verb: use Îmbracă-te! but Nu te îmbrăca!.
• Do not form the negative by adding nu to affirmative fii: write Fii! but Nu fi!.