The Focus of This Lesson Is Verbs in Romanian

1. Bună, clasă. Ce fac eu într-o zi obișnuită din viața mea?

"Hi, class. What do I do in a normal day of my life?"
2. După ce mă trezesc fac duș și apoi mănânc micul dejun.
"After I wake up, I take a shower and then I eat breakfast."

In this lesson, we will learn how to:

1. classify verbs by conjugation rules - groups I to IV

2. use the present simple tense

3. use irregular verbs

1. How to classify verbs by conjugation rules - groups I to IV

We have learned so far the conjugation for two verbs—a fi("to be,") in lesson 1 and a
lucra ("to work,") in lesson 6. As this lesson contains many verbs you should add to
your vocabulary, let me wrap up and explain how verbs conjugation works in Romanian.
With the exception of a few irregular ones, most of the verbs in Romanian are classified
into one of four conjugation groups. Usually, these are indicated using Roman numerals
- I, II, III, and IV for 1, 2, 3, and 4 respectively.

Let's see an overview of the Romanian verb conjugation groups below.

I will use a verb we've already learned and conjugate it in Simple Present Tense as an
example. The endings typical to each group will be in bold.

Romanian Verb Conjugation Groups

a exersa ("to practice") - GROUP I (present simple tense)

(EU) EXERSEZ
singular "I practice"

(tu) exersezi "you practice"

 (el/ea) exersează "he/she practices"

plural (noi) exersăm "we practice"

(voi) exersați "you practice"

(ei/ele) exersează "they practice"

a vedea ("to see") - GROUP II (present simple tense)

(EU) VĂD
singular "I see"

(tu) vezi "you see"

(el/ea) vede "he/she see"

plural (noi) vedem "we see"

(voi) vedeți "you see"

(ei/ele) văd "they see"

a face ("to do/to make") - GROUP III (present simple tense)

singular (eu) fac "I do" /" make"

(tu) faci "you do" /" make"

(el/ea) face "he/she does" /" makes"

plural (noi) facem "we do" /" make"

(voi) faceți "you do" /" make"

 (ei/ele) fac "they do" /" make"

a numi ("to name") - GROUP IV (present simple tense)

(EU) NUMESC
singular "I name"

(tu) numești "you name"

(el/ea) numește "he" /" she names"

plural (noi) numim "we name"

(voi) numiți "you name"

(ei/ele) numesc "they name"

So to wrap up,

Group I ends in -a,

Group II ends in -ea,
Group III in -e,
Group IV in -i (and sometimes in -î).

So the verb a lucra,"to work," whose conjugation we learned last lesson, is a Group I
verb. A fi,"to be," is one of the irregular verbs, so we simply have to memorize its
conjugations.

Sample sentences

1. Noi exersăm limba română.

"We are practicing the Romanian language."
2. Eu fac un suc.
"I am making a juice."
3. Ce vezi mâine la cinema?
"What are you seeing tomorrow at the cinema?"
2. How to use the present simple tense

Present simple tense is the basic verbal tense used in Romanian to express an action
that takes place in the present. Romanian does not have a tense equivalent to the
English present continuous (e.g. "I am reading"), so the present simple tense also
covers that function in Romanian.

We just learned above the conjugation rules for the present simple tense for each group
of verb.

The general pattern for the verbs conjugated in the present simple tense is:

verb stem + verb group specific conjugation suffix ex. fac + i = faci ("you do/ you make")

Now let's see below another conjugation example for a verb which appeared in the first
lesson's dialogue.

Conjugation chart for present simple tense - a merge "to walk" / "to go"

a merge ("to walk/to go") - present simple tense (group III)

singular (eu) merg "I walk/go"

(tu) mergi "you walk/go"

(el/ea) merge "he/she walks/goes"

plural (noi) mergem "we walk/go"

(voi) mergeți "you walk/go"

(ei/ele) merg "they walk/go"

Sample sentences

1. Eu învăț în fiecare zi.

"I study every day."
 2. Ei merg repede.
"They walk fast."
3. Cum te numești?
"What's your name?"

3. How to use irregular verbs

Apart from these four conjugation groups, there are also several irregular verbs that
must be memorized. For example, the verb we learned earlier a fi,"to be," is one of the
irregular ones.

Let's see the conjugation in simple present tense for a couple of other frequently used
irregular verbs.

Conjugation chart for irregular verbs

a mânca ("to eat") - present simple tense

(EU) MĂNÂNC "I EAT"

singular

(tu) mănânci "you eat"

(el/ea) mănâncă "he/she eats"

plural (noi) mâncăm "we eat"

(voi) mâncați "you eat"

(ei/ele) mănâncă "they eat"

a ști ("to know") - present simple tense

(EU) ȘTIU "I KNOW"

singular

(tu) știi "you know"

 (el/ea) știe "he/she knows"

plural (noi) știm "we know"

(voi) știți "you know"

(ei/ele) știu "they know"

Sample sentences

1. Voi nu mâncați cu noi?

"Won't you eat with us?"
2. Nu știu ce înseamnă. (singular 1st person)
"I don't know what it means."
3. El nu mănâncă niciodată dimineața.
"He never eats in the morning."

Examples from the Dialogue:

1. Bună, clasă. Ce fac eu într-o zi obișnuită din viața mea?

"Hi, class. What do I do in a normal day of my life?"
2. La opt și jumătate fac baie.
"At 8:30 I take a bath."
3. La ora opt plec la muncă. Iar la douăsprezece după-amiaza mănânc prânzul.
"At 8 o'clock I go to work. And at 12 o'clock in the afternoon I have lunch."

Sample Sentences

1. Ce facem la cursul acesta?

"What are we doing in this class?"
2. Mă numesc Andrei.
"My name is Andrei."
3. Eu mănânc mai încet decât tine.
"I eat slower than you."

Cultural Insights
Daily Life in Romania

In this episode, let's talk about daily life in Romania.

First, let's discuss work schedules. There is no unified working schedule for all types of
jobs around the country, but service related businesses, like grocery stores, malls, and
other shops as well as industry related workplaces, have generally early starting hours
such as 7 a.m. Also, while there are of course personal variations, in Romanian culture,
work is veiwed as an activity that exists in order to assure a good family life. Therefore,
there are very few cases where family is placed second, priority-wise. Even when a job
truly brings fulfillment and pleasure to the individual, work-life balance is praised—in
most cases there are not many overtime working hours.

However, due to this tendency, many families wait until around 3 p.m. to get back home
from work and eat lunch together. This in turn causes dinner to also be rather late—
sometimes as late as 9 p.m. This is not the case for families whose members have an
office job, because these jobs typically have a schedule from 9 a.m. to 5 or 6 p.m. In
this case, each member of the family eats away from home during the lunch break.

Useful expression

1. muncă
"job"