The Romanian infinitive and dictionary form

Romanian dictionaries normally name a verb with a plus its short infinitive: a merge (to go). In a sentence, the same verb may appear as Eu merg la serviciu. (I go to work.), so the dictionary form and the present-tense form are not the same thing.

What does a Romanian dictionary form look like?

The dictionary form is a plus the short infinitive: a merge, a vedea, or a hotărî. The particle a marks the infinitive here; it does not show a subject, person, or present tense.

The part after a is the short infinitive. When it stands alone as the topic or purpose of a phrase, it normally keeps a: A citi în fiecare zi este util. (Reading every day is useful.)

How do you find a useful verb stem?

Remove the infinitive marker a, identify the final infinitive ending, and treat what remains as a working stem; then check the actual form because Romanian can change the stem in conjugation.

1. Start with the dictionary form, for example a vedea.
2. Remove a: the short infinitive is vedea.
3. Recognize the ending, here -ea, and use ved- as a first working stem.
4. Check the form you need. The stem helps you organize the verb, but it does not predict every present form: văd, vezi, and vede do not all look like a simple unchanged ved- plus one ending.

This is a reading and lookup tool, not a complete conjugation rule. A fi is especially important and irregular: learn its present forms separately in the present tense of a fi.

Which infinitive endings should you recognize?

The most useful A1 recognition guide is the final vowel or vowel sequence of the short infinitive. These endings help you read a dictionary entry; they are not the full lesson on Romanian conjugation groups.

The ending is a useful clue, not a promise that two verbs will behave identically. For example, a putea has the ending -ea, but its present forms are pot, poți, and poate.

When does the short infinitive lose a?

The short infinitive appears without a when it is part of certain verb constructions, especially after the future auxiliary voi and after a putea.

Do not copy the English pattern after every modal or aspectual verb. In neutral Standard Romanian, use Vreau să merg. (I want to go.) and Trebuie să plec. (I have to leave.); the să clause is a different construction. Likewise, Încep să citesc. (I start reading.) is a safe contemporary pattern. The bare infinitive is not a general replacement for every să clause.

How is a different from a present-tense form?

In a merge, a introduces a non-finite infinitive; in El merge, merge is a finite present form for he or she. After Pot, however, merge is the bare infinitive, even though it has the same spelling as the third-person present form.

A finite verb carries tense and normally person and number. An infinitive names an action without agreeing with a subject. The surrounding construction tells you whether merge is a present form or a bare infinitive.

What is the long infinitive?

The long infinitive is a derived noun that you may recognize in vocabulary; it is not the normal dictionary label for the verb. It often ends in -are, -ere, -ire, or -âre.

Because it behaves as a noun, the derived form can take noun endings and an article: hotărârea (the decision). Its meaning can become lexicalized, so do not try to form or translate every long infinitive mechanically. For a dictionary lookup, return to a hotărî, not hotărâre.

Mistakes to avoid

• Do not put a before a conjugated verb: Eu merg, not Eu a merg.
• Do not assume that removing the ending predicts every present form: a vedea does not give vedesc for I see; use văd.
• Do not add a after the future auxiliary or after a putea: Voi merge and Pot merge, not Voi a merge or Pot a merge in the neutral patterns taught here.
• Do not mistake a derived noun for the dictionary infinitive: hotărâre means a decision, while a hotărî is to decide.