The preposition a verb takes is arbitrary in every language, and there is almost no reason a Romanian verb should choose the same one English does. Yet the strongest reflex a learner has is to translate the English preposition directly: "depend on" → depinde pe, "think about" → mă gândesc despre, "wait for" → aștept pentru. All three are wrong. Romanian says depinde de, mă gândesc la, and aștept with no preposition at all (a bare direct object). This is one of the most persistent intermediate errors precisely because the English preposition feels semantically "right" — but verb government is a lexical fact you memorize per verb, not a meaning you can reason out. For the systematic treatment, see verb-preposition government; this page drills the high-frequency traps.
Verb + preposition: the core traps
| English | ❌ literal transfer | ✅ correct Romanian | Government |
|---|---|---|---|
| depend on | depinde pe | depinde de | a depinde de |
| think about | mă gândesc despre | mă gândesc la | a se gândi la |
| wait for | aștept pentru / la | aștept (nothing) | a aștepta + direct object |
| look for / search for | caut pentru | caut (nothing) | a căuta + direct object |
| get married to | mă căsătoresc la | mă căsătoresc cu | a se căsători cu |
| be interested in | sunt interesat în | mă interesează / sunt interesat de | a fi interesat de |
| laugh at | râd la | râd de | a râde de |
| be afraid of | mi-e frică despre | mi-e frică de | a-i fi frică de |
depend ON → depinde DE
❌ Depinde pe vreme dacă mergem la munte.
Incorrect — a depinde governs 'de,' not 'pe.'
✅ Depinde de vreme dacă mergem la munte.
It depends on the weather whether we go to the mountains.
think ABOUT → mă gândesc LA
English "about" feels like it should be despre (which does mean "about" for topics of speech), but the verb a se gândi demands la. Use despre with verbs of saying/writing (vorbesc despre, o carte despre), not with a se gândi.
❌ Mă gândesc despre tine tot timpul.
Incorrect — a se gândi takes 'la': mă gândesc la tine.
✅ Mă gândesc la tine tot timpul.
I think about you all the time.
Am citit un articol despre schimbările climatice.
I read an article about climate change. (despre is correct here — topic of writing)
wait FOR → aștept + direct object
This one feels the strangest to English speakers: "wait for the bus" has no preposition in Romanian. A aștepta takes a plain direct object.
❌ Aștept pentru autobuz de douăzeci de minute.
Incorrect — a aștepta takes a direct object, no preposition.
✅ Aștept autobuzul de douăzeci de minute.
I've been waiting for the bus for twenty minutes.
Te aștept la intrare, nu întârzia.
I'll wait for you at the entrance, don't be late. (te = direct object clitic)
The same goes for a căuta ("look for / search for") — direct object, no pentru: Caut cheile ("I'm looking for the keys").
Caut un apartament cu două camere în centru.
I'm looking for a two-room apartment downtown.
The article traps
A second family of preposition errors isn't about which preposition, but about the article that follows it. English says "in town," "by bus" with bare nouns. Romanian frequently requires the enclitic definite article in exactly the spots where English uses none.
"in town" → în oraș (no article) but watch the generic vs specific
For the generic idea "in town / into town," Romanian uses the bare noun în oraș. Adding the article (în orașul) forces a specific, modified town and sounds wrong on its own.
❌ Mergem în orașul în weekend?
Incorrect — generic 'into town' is bare: în oraș. The article needs a modifier (în orașul vechi).
✅ Mergem în oraș în weekend?
Shall we go into town this weekend?
Locuiește în orașul în care m-am născut eu.
She lives in the town where I was born. (article OK — the noun is specified by a relative clause)
"by bus" → cu autobuzul (WITH the article)
Means of transport take cu + the noun with its definite article — the opposite of English's bare "by bus."
❌ Merg la birou cu autobuz.
Incorrect — transport means take the definite article: cu autobuzul.
✅ Merg la birou cu autobuzul.
I go to the office by bus.
Am venit cu trenul, e mai rapid decât mașina.
I came by train, it's faster than the car.
Why you cannot reason your way to the right preposition
The reason word-for-word transfer fails so reliably is that prepositional government is lexically stored, not derived from meaning. A râde ("laugh") takes de ("of") where English takes "at"; a se gândi takes la ("to") where English takes "about." There's no spatial or logical mapping that predicts these — de doesn't "mean" the English "of/from" sense here; it is simply the preposition that this verb's dictionary entry attaches. The competing Romanian preposition you'd reach for (pe for "on," despre for "about", pentru for "for") is a real word with the right surface meaning, which is exactly why the error is so seductive. The cure is to overwrite the English chunk with the Romanian chunk: learn, drill, and store a depinde de / a se gândi la / a aștepta as indivisible verb-plus-preposition units. Compare with false friends, where the same Latinate-cognate instinct leads you astray on individual words.
Quick fixes
- depend on → a depinde de (not pe).
- think about (mull over) → a se gândi la (not despre); reserve despre for saying/writing about a topic.
- wait for / look for → a aștepta / a căuta
- direct object, no preposition.
- laugh at → a râde de; be afraid of → mi-e frică de; be interested in → interesat de.
- get married to → a se căsători cu.
- "into town" generic → în oraș (no article); the article needs a modifier.
- "by bus/train/car" → cu autobuzul / trenul / mașina — keep the definite article.
- Store every verb together with its preposition as one chunk; never translate the English preposition directly.
Now practice Romanian
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Start learning Romanian→Related Topics
- Verbs and Their PrepositionsB1 — Romanian verbs lock onto a specific preposition that rarely matches the English one: a se gândi LA (think about), a depinde DE (depend on), a se uita LA (look at), a renunța LA (give up), a se teme DE (be afraid of). Learn each verb together with its preposition as a single unit.
- Common Preposition ErrorsB1 — The four habits behind almost every preposition mistake: over-articling generic nouns (în orașul → în oraș), translating the English preposition literally (depinde pe → depinde de), using the nominative pronoun after a preposition (cu eu → cu mine), and dropping the frozen transport article (cu autobuz → cu autobuzul).
- Mistake: False Friends Between Romanian and EnglishB1 — Romanian's Latin and French vocabulary layer creates dozens of words that look like English cognates but mean something else: a realiza is 'achieve,' sensibil is 'sensitive,' librărie is 'bookshop.' The cognate instinct actively misleads — learn these explicitly.
- Mistake: Misplacing Clitic PronounsB1 — English speakers put object pronouns after the verb (saw him), so they write *Am te văzut, *Am o văzut, *Mă ajută! as a command. Three constructions cause almost all clitic-placement errors: the perfect compus, the feminine 'o,' and the imperative. Fix those three.
- Romanian Prepositions: OverviewA1 — The lay of the land: most everyday Romanian prepositions (la, în, pe, cu, de, din, până, spre, fără, pentru, despre) govern the accusative — which for nouns looks identical to the nominative — while a class of relational prepositions demands the genitive (deasupra) or dative (datorită), and all of them take the strong form of a pronoun (cu mine, never *cu eu).