In English, French, Spanish, Italian, and German, the verb after "want," "can," "must," or "like" is an infinitive: I want *to leave, je veux partir, quiero salir, voglio partire, ich will gehen. Speakers of all these languages reflexively reach for the infinitive in Romanian too, producing vreau *a pleca ("I want to leave"), trebuie a merge ("I must go"), îmi place a citi ("I like to read"). Every one of these is wrong. Romanian, alone in the western Romance world, dropped the complement infinitive and replaced it with să + conjunctiv (the subjunctive): Vreau *să plec, Trebuie să merg, Îmi place să citesc*. This is the famous "Balkan să-rule," and it is one of the most pervasive transfer errors learners make. The good news: the correction is almost entirely mechanical.
The Balkan să-rule
Romanian sits inside the Balkan linguistic area (the Sprachbund), a group of geographically neighboring but genetically unrelated languages — Greek, Bulgarian, Albanian, Macedonian, Romanian — that converged on shared features through centuries of contact. One of the most striking shared features is the loss of the infinitive in complement clauses: instead of "I want to go," these languages say the equivalent of "I want that I go." Romanian's version uses the particle să plus a finite subjunctive verb that agrees in person with the subject.
Vreau să plec mai devreme azi.
I want to leave earlier today.
Trebuie să merg la doctor mâine.
I have to go to the doctor tomorrow.
Îmi place să citesc înainte de culcare.
I like to read before bed.
Notice that plec, merg, citesc are finite — they carry person and number. After vrei ("you want") it becomes să pleci; after vrea ("he wants") it becomes să plece. The infinitive a pleca never enters this slot.
The verbs that trigger să
The error shows up after the high-frequency control and modal verbs, exactly the ones you use constantly as a beginner.
| English | ❌ infinitive (wrong) | ✅ să + conjunctiv (right) |
|---|---|---|
| I want to leave | vreau a pleca | vreau să plec |
| I must go | trebuie a merge | trebuie să merg |
| I like to read | îmi place a citi | îmi place să citesc |
| I'm trying to understand | încerc a înțelege | încerc să înțeleg |
| I'm starting to learn | încep a învăța | încep să învăț |
| I know how to swim | știu a înota | știu să înot |
| I forgot to call | am uitat a suna | am uitat să sun |
Încerc să înțeleg ce vrei să spui.
I'm trying to understand what you mean.
Copilul a început să meargă la zece luni.
The child started to walk at ten months.
Știu să gătesc, dar nu prea am timp.
I know how to cook, but I don't have much time.
The one big exception: a putea ("can")
There is a single modal where the infinitive does survive and is in fact common: a putea ("to be able to, can"). After a putea you may use the short infinitive (the infinitive without the a), and this is fully standard, even preferred in writing.
Pot să vin mâine. / Pot veni mâine.
I can come tomorrow. (both correct — să-form and bare-infinitive form)
Nu pot să te ajut acum. / Nu te pot ajuta acum.
I can't help you right now. (note: with the bare infinitive, the clitic te raises in front of pot)
So after a putea, both pot veni and pot să vin are correct. Note carefully: the surviving form is the bare/short infinitive (veni, vorbi, citi) — not the dictionary form with a (a veni). The a drops. Even here, a putea is the exception, not the rule; with virtually every other control verb you must use să.
Where the infinitive does live: after prepositions and a few fixed verbs
The infinitive is not dead in Romanian — it just lost the complement job. It is alive and obligatory after certain prepositions, especially fără ("without"), înainte de ("before"), în loc de / în loc să ("instead of"), and pentru ("for/in order to"). Here it appears in the long infinitive form with a (the -a/-ea/-e/-i/-î form preceded by a).
A plecat fără a spune un cuvânt.
He left without saying a word. (formal — colloquially: fără să spună)
Înainte de a începe, vreau să vă mulțumesc.
Before beginning, I want to thank you all.
Citește cu atenție pentru a înțelege textul.
Read carefully in order to understand the text. (formal)
These prepositional infinitives belong to a more formal / written register; in everyday speech Romanians often replace even these with să (fără să spună un cuvânt). But the construction is correct and worth recognizing. Crucially, it does not license you to put an infinitive after vreau or trebuie — those still require să.
Why the fix is mechanical
The reason this error is easy to correct (even if hard to suppress) is that the mapping is one-to-one. There is no nuance to weigh: after a control or modal verb, English "to V" becomes Romanian "să V-finite." You do not have to decide between two options the way you sometimes do in Spanish (infinitive vs. que + subjunctive depends on whether the subjects match). In Romanian, the subjects can even be the same and you still use să: Vreau să plec ("I want — that I — leave"), with no separate subject, just a finite verb. Once the reflex switches from "reach for the infinitive" to "reach for să + a conjugated verb," the error disappears wholesale.
Vreau să învăț să dansez.
I want to learn to dance. (two să-clauses in a row, no infinitive)
Trebuie să mă trezesc devreme ca să prind trenul.
I have to get up early in order to catch the train.
Common Mistakes
A consolidated recap of this single, pervasive error.
Don't use the infinitive after a vrea ("to want"):
❌ Vreau a pleca acum.
Incorrect — after a vrea, use să + conjunctiv: vreau să plec.
✅ Vreau să plec acum.
I want to leave now.
Don't use the infinitive after a trebui ("must"):
❌ Trebuie a merge la muncă.
Incorrect — trebuie governs să: trebuie să merg.
✅ Trebuie să merg la muncă.
I have to go to work.
Don't use the infinitive after a-i plăcea ("to like"):
❌ Îmi place a citi seara.
Incorrect — îmi place takes să + conjunctiv: îmi place să citesc.
✅ Îmi place să citesc seara.
I like to read in the evening.
Don't keep the a on the surviving infinitive after a putea:
❌ Pot a veni mâine.
Incorrect — after a putea the infinitive is bare (no a): pot veni, or use pot să vin.
✅ Pot veni mâine.
I can come tomorrow.
Don't forget to make the verb agree in person inside the să-clause:
❌ El vrea să plec mai devreme.
Wrong subject — if HE wants to leave, the verb agrees with him: să plece (să plec = that I leave).
✅ El vrea să plece mai devreme.
He wants to leave earlier.
Key Takeaways
- Romanian replaced the complement infinitive with să + conjunctiv (a Balkan Sprachbund feature shared with Greek, Bulgarian, Albanian).
- After a vrea, a trebui, a-i plăcea, a încerca, a începe, a ști and other control/modal verbs, use să + a conjugated verb, never the infinitive.
- The verb in the să-clause is finite and agrees with its subject (să plec / să pleci / să plece).
- Exception: after a putea the short infinitive without a survives (pot veni) alongside pot să vin.
- The infinitive still lives after prepositions like fără a, înainte de a, pentru a (formal register), but that never licenses an infinitive after vreau or trebuie.
Now practice Romanian
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Start learning Romanian→Related Topics
- Conjunctiv vs Infinitive: The Balkan ChoiceB1 — When Romanian uses a să-conjunctiv where its Romance cousins use the infinitive, and the handful of constructions where the infinitive survives — the structural signature of Romanian.
- 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.
- 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.
- Mistake: Putting 'the' Before the NounA1 — The number-one beginner error — English speakers reach for a separate word for 'the' before the noun. Romanian has none: 'the' is a suffix glued onto the end. Retrain the instinct so 'the X' triggers an ending on X.
- Light-Verb Collocations (a face, a da, a lua, a pune)B1 — Romanian builds dozens of everyday actions from four 'light' verbs — a face, a da, a lua, a pune — that carry almost no meaning of their own (a face baie, a da telefon, a lua masa, a pune întrebări). The right light verb is fixed per expression and rarely matches English, so learn each combination as a single unit.