Verb lookup: find the shape that stopped you

Open this when an ending stops you mid-sentence. It lays out to be, to have and three ordinary verbs in full, plus the past shapes the stories use.

≈ 5 min of reading · Practise at your own pace

What’s in this chapter

Open this when an ending stops you mid-sentence. The readings ahead use only shapes the core path showed you.
A dictionary lists a verb with a in front of it: a merge, a vedea.
The story past is the same two-word build for every verb; only the second word has to be learned.
One să shape differs from the ordinary present, and it covers he-or-she and they alike.

You do not need this section to finish the lesson. Open it when an ending stops you mid-sentence and you want to see where that shape sits in its family. The two stories at the end use only shapes the core sections already showed you, so no table here has to be memorised — find the row, then go back to the line you were reading.

To be and to have, in full

The two verbs a Romanian sentence leans on hardest. Find the row for the person, then read across.

English	a fi“to be”	a avea“to have”
I	sunt	am
you	ești	ai
he, she, it	este	are
we	suntem	avem
you — more than one	sunteți	aveți
they	sunt	au

The a avea column doubles as the little word in front of a story past: am mers, ai mers, a mers.

Three ordinary verbs, in full

Three verbs the readings use, in every person. The shape of the endings is more useful here than the words themselves.

Who	a vedea“to see”	a merge“to go”	a veni“to come”
I	văd	merg	vin
you	vezi	mergi	vii
he, she, it	vede	merge	vine
we	vedem	mergem	venim
you — more than one	vedeți	mergeți	veniți
they	văd	merg	vin

The “I” row and the “they” row are the same word in all three. Reading the rest of the sentence, not the verb, is what settles which.

The two pasts, and the să shapes

One verb laid out in the three shapes a story needs. Read down a column to see what changes and what holds still.

Who	Story past — a merge	Describing past — a merge	With să
I	am mers	mergeam	să merg
you	ai mers	mergeai	să mergi
he, she, it	a mers	mergea	să meargă
we	am mers	mergeam	să mergem
you — more than one	ați mers	mergeați	să mergeți
they	au mers	mergeau	să meargă

Three things fall out of this grid. The second word of the story past never changes. For most verbs the să column holds one shape the ordinary present does not, and it fills both the he-or-she row and the “they” row. And the describing past is where a fable puts its scenery.

The second word of the story past, for the verbs on this path

The story past is two words, and the first comes from the a avea column above. Only the second has to be learned, so here it is for every verb this path uses.

a fi“to be” → a fost · a avea“to have” → a avut · a vedea“to see” → a văzut

a merge“to go” → a mers · a veni“to come” → a venit · a cădea“to fall” → a căzut

a spune“to say” → a spus · a întreba“to ask” → a întrebat · a răspunde“to answer” → a răspuns

a vrea“to want” · a putea“to be able” · a trebui“to have to” · a se numi“to be called”

The last row is the three door-opening verbs plus the one a fable introduces its characters with; they are listed here in the shape a dictionary uses.

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