Romanian draws a sharp line, lost in English, between the conjunctions of equality and those of inequality. To say two things are alike — "as… as," "like" — you use ca. To say one outdoes the other — "than" — you use decât. English buries both under flexible little words ("like," "as," "than") that overlap and blur; Romanian keeps them in separate boxes, and putting ca where decât belongs (or vice versa) is one of the most audible learner errors. On top of this split sits a third construction — the hypothetical comparison "as if" (ca și cum, de parcă) — which does something striking: it pulls in the conditional mood, tying the comparison system directly into Romanian's mood machinery.
ca — equality and likeness
ca expresses that two things are the same along some dimension, or that one resembles the other. It covers English "like" (resemblance) and the "as… as" of equal degree. With a pronoun, ca takes the accusative form: ca mine, ca tine, ca el ("like me, like you, like him").
E încăpățânat ca tatăl lui.
He's stubborn like his father.
Vreau și eu o cafea ca a ta.
I want a coffee like yours too.
For explicit equal degree — "as tall as" — Romanian pairs the adjective with la fel de… ca or tot atât de… ca: la fel de înalt ca mine ("as tall as me"). The bare ca alone handles the looser "like."
Sora ei e la fel de talentată ca ea.
Her sister is as talented as she is.
decât — inequality ("than")
decât is the conjunction of comparison of inequality: it follows a comparative (mai + adjective/adverb, "more…") to introduce the standard being exceeded. It is the only correct word for "than" in a comparative; ca cannot do this job.
Fratele meu e mai înalt decât mine.
My brother is taller than me.
Filmul a fost mult mai bun decât mă așteptam.
The film was much better than I expected.
Costă mai puțin decât credeam.
It costs less than I thought.
Decât has a second, non-comparative life as "only / nothing but" in negative sentences — Nu am decât zece lei ("I have only ten lei") — but in the comparative system its job is strictly "than." For the full machinery of comparative degree, see the comparative of adjectives and comparative clauses.
precum / ca și — "such as / like" (formal)
precum and ca și both mean "like / such as / just as," but in a more formal or literary register than plain ca. Precum in particular has an elevated, written flavor and often introduces an example or a fixed comparison; it appears in proverbs and careful prose. Ca și ("just like / as well as") emphasizes inclusion or close resemblance.
Orașe mari precum Bucureștiul atrag mulți tineri.
Large cities such as Bucharest attract many young people. (formal)
A dispărut precum fumul.
He vanished like smoke. (literary)
Ca și anul trecut, conferința va avea loc în mai.
Just like last year, the conference will take place in May.
Be aware of a notorious nuance: ca și before a noun can also be a stylistic "softener" some speakers use to avoid two clashing vowels (ca și consilier instead of ca consilier, "as a consultant"). Purists consider this overuse incorrect — the safe rule is to use plain ca for "in the capacity of" and reserve ca și for genuine comparison.
ca și cum / de parcă — "as if" (+ conditional)
This is the construction that links comparison to the mood system. To say "as if" — to compare a real situation to an imagined, contrary-to-fact one — Romanian uses ca și cum or its more colloquial twin de parcă, and both require the conditional mood (aș, ai, ar…). The logic is clean: "as if" sets up a hypothetical scenario that isn't true, and the conditional is precisely the mood of the hypothetical and the unreal.
Se poartă ca și cum ar ști tot.
He behaves as if he knew everything. (conditional: ar ști)
Vorbește de parcă ar fi expert.
He talks as if he were an expert. (conditional: ar fi)
Mă privea de parcă aș fi spus o prostie.
She was looking at me as if I'd said something stupid. (perfect conditional)
Notice that the conditional appears regardless of the main-clause tense: in the third example the main verb is past (mă privea) yet the de parcă clause uses the perfect conditional (aș fi spus) for an unreal anteriority. The pattern is robust — wherever you have "as if" with a hypothetical comparison, you have the conditional. This is one of the most elegant points of contact between Romanian's comparison system and its mood system, and it parallels the way the conditional works in if-clauses. De parcă is the everyday choice; ca și cum is a touch more neutral-to-formal. (You may also meet de parcă and parcă alone meaning "it's as though / it seems" — Parcă l-am mai văzut undeva, "I feel like I've seen him somewhere before" — a related but standalone use.)
The system at a glance
| Conjunction | Relationship | English | Mood / form |
|---|---|---|---|
| ca | equality / likeness | like, as… as | indicative; pronoun in accusative (ca mine) |
| decât | inequality | than (after mai…) | indicative |
| precum / ca și | likeness (formal) | such as, just like | indicative (formal/literary) |
| ca și cum / de parcă | hypothetical | as if | conditional (ar fi, ar ști) |
Why English speakers stumble here
English "like," "as," and "than" do not line up neatly with Romanian's three boxes. "Like my father" and "taller than my father" both use a short comparison word in English, so a learner naturally tries one Romanian word for both — and produces mai înalt ca tatăl meu (wrong) instead of mai înalt decât tatăl meu. And English "as if he knew" uses a past-tense (the English subjunctive) that gives no hint a conditional is wanted; Romanian's ar ști feels alien because English marks the same idea with an ordinary-looking past. Keeping the equality/inequality/hypothetical triage explicit is the cure.
Common Mistakes
❌ Fratele meu e mai înalt ca mine.
Incorrect — comparison of inequality (after mai…) requires decât, not ca: mai înalt decât mine. (Note: 'mai… ca' is heard regionally/colloquially but is non-standard.)
✅ Fratele meu e mai înalt decât mine.
My brother is taller than me.
❌ E încăpățânat decât tatăl lui.
Incorrect — for likeness/equality (no 'mai'), use ca: ca tatăl lui. Decât only follows a comparative.
✅ E încăpățânat ca tatăl lui.
He's stubborn like his father.
❌ Se poartă ca și cum știe tot.
Incorrect — 'as if' is hypothetical and needs the conditional: ca și cum ar ști tot.
✅ Se poartă ca și cum ar ști tot.
He behaves as if he knew everything.
❌ E talentat ca eu.
Incorrect pronoun — after ca, the pronoun goes in the accusative: ca mine.
✅ E la fel de talentat ca mine.
He's as talented as I am.
❌ Vorbește de parcă este expert.
Incorrect — de parcă triggers the conditional, not the plain indicative: de parcă ar fi expert.
✅ Vorbește de parcă ar fi expert.
He talks as if he were an expert.
Key Takeaways
- ca = equality/likeness ("like, as… as"), with the following pronoun in the accusative (ca mine).
- decât = inequality ("than"), used only after a comparative mai…; never use ca for "than" in standard Romanian.
- precum / ca și = "such as / just like," the more formal or literary likeness words.
- ca și cum / de parcă = "as if," and they trigger the conditional (ar fi, ar ști) because the comparison is hypothetical — the clearest link between comparison and the mood system.
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Start learning Romanian→Related Topics
- Conjunctions: An OverviewA1 — A map of the Romanian conjunction system — the coordinators (și, sau/ori, dar/iar/însă, deci, nici) that join equals, and the subordinators (că, să, dacă, când, pentru că, deși) that hang one clause off another. The organizing insight is the că vs să split: că introduces asserted facts and takes the indicative, while să introduces wanted, possible, or commanded actions and takes the conjunctiv — the very same fact/non-fact decision that runs the whole mood system.
- The Comparative (mai, mai puțin, la fel de)A2 — How Romanian builds all comparatives analytically with mai, and how the than-word splits into decât (for inequality) and ca (for equality).
- Comparative Clauses and 'decât' (only/than)B2 — decât is the comparative 'than' (mai bun decât credeam, 'better than I thought'), but the same word flips to mean 'only/except' under negation: Nu am decât zece lei = 'I have only ten lei', Nu face decât să se plângă = 'he does nothing but complain'. This page covers full comparative than-clauses with ellipsis, the negative-restrictive nu… decât = 'only' (a major idiom with no English 'than' parallel), the decât/ca split, and ca și 'as well as'.
- Temporal Conjunctions in Depth (când, pe când, de când, până când)B2 — The fine-grained system of Romanian time conjunctions and — crucially — the mood each one selects: când, pe când / în timp ce, de când, până / până când, îndată ce / cum / de cum and ori de câte ori all take the indicative because their event is realized, while the prospective înainte să and până să take the conjunctiv because their event is still unrealized at the reference point.
- Conditionals: dacă-clauses and the Conditional MoodB1 — How the conditional mood pairs with dacă (if) clauses across the three conditional types — real, hypothetical, and past counterfactual — and why Romanian uses the plain indicative, not a special form, after dacă in real conditionals.