Most adverbs modify a single word — a verb, an adjective, another adverb. Sentence adverbs are different: they comment on the entire clause, expressing the speaker's stance toward what is said. They answer questions like "how sure am I?" (poate, probabil, sigur), "how do I feel about this?" (din păcate, din fericire), and "how does this connect to what came before?" (totuși, oricum, deci). Because they scope over the whole sentence, they are mobile: they often sit at the front, set off in speech by a slight pause, though many can also slip in next to the verb.
The single most important point on this page is a mood trap. The most common possibility adverb, poate ("maybe"), does not trigger the subjunctive (conjunctiv). This surprises learners, because Romanian's other main way of saying "possibly" — e posibil să — does require the conjunctiv. Romanian gives you two routes to possibility, and they take opposite moods. Confusing them is one of the most frequent intermediate errors.
Epistemic adverbs: how certain am I?
These mark the speaker's confidence, from a guess to a guarantee.
| Romanian | English | Register |
|---|---|---|
| poate | maybe, perhaps | neutral |
| probabil | probably | neutral |
| posibil | possibly | neutral |
| sigur | surely, for sure | neutral |
| desigur | of course, certainly | neutral / formal |
| bineînțeles | of course, naturally | neutral |
| negreșit | without fail, definitely | formal / literary |
Probabil a uitat, îi scriu eu un mesaj.
He probably forgot, I'll text him.
Sigur vine, mi-a promis aseară.
He'll surely come, he promised me last night.
Bineînțeles că te ajut, pentru ce sunt prietenii?
Of course I'll help you, what are friends for?
The poate trap: maybe without the conjunctiv
Here is the heart of the page. Poate is historically the 3rd-person singular of a putea ("it can be"), frozen into an adverb meaning "maybe." Because it is an adverb — not a verb introducing a subordinate clause — it does not govern the conjunctiv. The verb after poate stays in the indicative. You have two equally correct patterns:
- Poate + indicative directly: Poate vine.
- Poate că + indicative, with the optional linker că ("that"): Poate că vine.
Both mean "Maybe he's coming." The că version is a touch more deliberate; the bare poate is lighter and more conversational. Neither uses să.
Poate vine mai târziu, nu i-am dat încă de știre.
Maybe he'll come later, I haven't let him know yet.
Poate că ai dreptate, n-am privit lucrurile așa.
Maybe you're right, I hadn't seen it that way.
— Mergem la mare weekendul ăsta? — Poate, dacă e vreme bună.
— Shall we go to the seaside this weekend? — Maybe, if the weather's good.
Contrast this with the grammatical route to possibility, the impersonal expression e posibil să ("it's possible that"), which does trigger the conjunctiv exactly as you would expect from a verb-plus-să trigger:
E posibil să întârzii puțin la cină.
I might be a little late for dinner.
E posibil să nu ajungă la timp din cauza traficului.
He might not make it on time because of the traffic.
So Romanian offers a lexical path (the adverb poate + indicative) and a grammatical path (e posibil să + conjunctiv) to the same notion of possibility. Both are native and common; the mistake is to merge them and say poate să vine (a mood clash) or poate să vină as a flat statement (which actually means something else — "he is able to come," reviving the verbal sense of a putea).
Evaluative adverbs: how I feel about it
These let the speaker color the whole statement with an attitude — relief, regret, surprise.
| Romanian | English |
|---|---|
| din fericire | fortunately, luckily |
| din păcate | unfortunately |
| din nefericire | unfortunately (more formal) |
| spre surprinderea mea | to my surprise |
| din fericire / slavă Domnului | thank goodness (colloquial) |
Din păcate, magazinul era deja închis.
Unfortunately, the shop was already closed.
Din fericire, n-a pățit nimeni nimic în accident.
Fortunately, no one was hurt in the accident.
Connective / discourse adverbs: oricum, totuși, deci
These hook the clause to the surrounding discourse — concession, consequence, dismissal.
| Romanian | English |
|---|---|
| totuși | still, nevertheless, however |
| oricum | anyway, in any case |
| deci / așadar | so, therefore |
| de fapt | actually, in fact |
| oarecum | somewhat, in a way |
A plouat toată ziua; totuși, ne-am distrat de minune.
It rained all day; still, we had a wonderful time.
Nu insista, oricum nu mă răzgândesc.
Don't push it, I'm not changing my mind anyway.
Deci ne vedem mâine la zece, da?
So we're meeting tomorrow at ten, right?
Common Mistakes
The flagship error — adding să (conjunctiv) after poate:
❌ Poate să vine mâine.
Incorrect — poate takes the indicative directly. And poate să vină would mean 'he is able to come.'
✅ Poate vine mâine. / Poate că vine mâine.
Maybe he'll come tomorrow.
Using poate when the grammatical e posibil să was intended, and dropping its conjunctiv:
❌ E posibil să vine întârzii.
Incorrect — e posibil să requires the conjunctiv: să întârzii.
✅ E posibil să întârzii.
I might be late.
Treating bineînțeles like a bare interjection without că before a clause:
❌ Bineînțeles vin la petrecere.
Incomplete — before a clause use bineînțeles că.
✅ Bineînțeles că vin la petrecere.
Of course I'm coming to the party.
Confusing concessive totuși with temporal "still":
❌ El este totuși la birou. (meaning 'he's still at the office')
Wrong adverb — temporal 'still' is încă. Totuși means 'however'.
✅ El este încă la birou.
He's still at the office.
Making the sentence adverb sigur agree as if it were the adjective:
❌ Sigură vine Maria.
Incorrect — as a sentence adverb, sigur is invariable, no agreement.
✅ Sigur vine Maria.
Maria will surely come.
Key Takeaways
- Sentence adverbs scope over the whole clause and express stance: certainty (poate, probabil, sigur, bineînțeles), feeling (din păcate, din fericire), or discourse links (totuși, oricum, deci).
- poate ("maybe") is an adverb and takes the indicative: Poate vine / Poate că vine. Never poate să for "maybe."
- The grammatical alternative e posibil să does take the conjunctiv. Two paths to possibility, opposite moods — keep them separate.
- totuși = "however/nevertheless," not the temporal "still" (that's încă); sentence adverbs like sigur don't agree, unlike their adjective twins.
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Start learning Romanian→Related Topics
- Romanian Adverbs: An OverviewA1 — A survey of Romanian adverb types — manner, time, place, degree, sentence adverbs — and the central fact that most manner adverbs are simply the bare masculine-singular adjective, with no '-ly' suffix.
- Adverbs of Affirmation and Doubt (da, ba, poate, sigur)A2 — Romanian's yes/no/contradiction system — da, nu, the contradiction particle ba (ba da, ba nu), and the certainty scale from sigur and firește down through poate and probabil to the skeptical hearsay marker cică.
- The Conjunctiv (să-Subjunctive): OverviewA2 — An introduction to Romanian's most important feature — the să + verb construction that replaces the infinitive after want, can, and must.
- Conjunctiv Triggers: A Reference ListB1 — A scannable, grouped reference of everything that forces să in Romanian — volition, necessity, permission, emotion, impersonals, purpose, aspectuals, and conjunctions — unified by one idea: the conjunctiv marks events not asserted as fact.
- să-Subjunctive vs InfinitiveB1 — When to chain verbs with the să-subjunctive (Vreau să plec) and the narrow set of cases where Romanian still uses the bare infinitive — almost exclusively after prepositions (pentru a reuși, fără a ști) and after a putea.
- Adverbs of Time (acum, ieri, mereu, deja, încă)A1 — Romanian time adverbs — deictic (acum, ieri, mâine), frequency (mereu, des, niciodată), and aspectual (deja, încă, mai, abia) — including how încă and mai carry the still/yet aspect English splits in two.