This is your phrasebook of feelings and bodily states — the things you say a hundred times a day: I'm hungry, I'm cold, I'm scared, I'm glad, I miss you, I like this. Romanian builds almost all of them on patterns that put you in the dative ("to-me") rather than as the subject. This page is the practical inventory: the ready-made chunks, grouped by how they behave, so you can grab the right one in conversation. For the underlying grammar — why hunger is a noun the dative experiences, and how it splits from ambient E frig — see a fi vs a avea for states and the focused drill at the Mi-e foame mistake. Here we just stock the shelves.
Family 1: Mi-e + noun (bodily and emotional states)
The biggest, highest-frequency family. The state is a noun, you are the dative experiencer, and the verb is just e ("is"). Literally "to-me is hunger."
| Romanian | English | Literal |
|---|---|---|
| Mi-e foame. | I'm hungry. | to-me is hunger |
| Mi-e sete. | I'm thirsty. | to-me is thirst |
| Mi-e somn. | I'm sleepy. | to-me is sleep |
| Mi-e frig. | I'm cold. | to-me is cold |
| Mi-e cald. | I'm hot. | to-me is warmth |
| Mi-e frică. | I'm afraid. | to-me is fear |
| Mi-e dor (de tine). | I miss (you). | to-me is longing |
| Mi-e rușine. | I'm ashamed / embarrassed. | to-me is shame |
| Mi-e lene. | I can't be bothered / I feel lazy. | to-me is laziness |
| Mi-e bine / rău. | I feel well / unwell. | to-me is well / bad |
To change who feels it, swap the dative clitic — mi-e, ți-e, îi e, ne e, vă e, le e — and keep e + the noun fixed:
Mi-e o foame de leșin, hai să mâncăm ceva.
I'm starving, let's grab something to eat.
Ți-e somn? Te culci dacă vrei, eu mai stau.
Are you sleepy? Go to bed if you want, I'll stay up a bit.
Nu mi-e frică de înălțime, dar de păianjeni, da.
I'm not afraid of heights, but of spiders, yes.
Mi-e lene să gătesc azi, comandăm ceva?
I can't be bothered to cook today, shall we order something?
For "I miss you," the same frame uses the famous noun dor: Mi-e dor de tine. It is the natural, idiomatic phrase — see the untranslatable dor.
Mi-e dor de bunici, nu i-am mai văzut de Paște.
I miss my grandparents, I haven't seen them since Easter.
Family 2: Îmi place — the dative psych-verbs
A second dative family uses real verbs, but still keeps you in the dative. The verb agrees with the thing, not with you. The flagship is a plăcea ("to please"): Îmi place = "it pleases me" = "I like it."
| Romanian | English | Literal |
|---|---|---|
| Îmi place / Îmi plac | I like (it / them) | (it / they) please(s) me |
| Îmi pare bine / rău | I'm glad / I'm sorry | (it) seems good / bad to me |
| Îmi vine să… | I feel like (doing)… | (it) comes to me to… |
| Mi-e milă de… | I feel sorry for… | to-me is pity for… |
Îmi place orașul ăsta, mai ales seara.
I like this city, especially in the evening.
Îmi plac filmele vechi mai mult decât cele noi.
I like old films more than new ones. (plural thing → plac)
Îmi pare rău, n-am vrut să te supăr.
I'm sorry, I didn't mean to upset you.
Family 3: Mă bucur — reflexive emotion verbs
A third group makes you the subject again, but the verb is reflexive (it carries mă, te, se…). These describe emotional reactions you do to yourself: rejoicing, getting upset, being afraid as an action.
| Romanian | English |
|---|---|
| Mă bucur (că…) | I'm glad (that…) |
| Mă supăr / M-am supărat | I get upset / I got upset |
| Mă tem (că…) | I'm afraid (that…) |
| Mă enervez | I get annoyed |
| Mă plictisesc | I get bored |
| Mă mir (că…) | I'm surprised (that…) |
Mă bucur că ai venit, chiar speram să te văd.
I'm glad you came, I really hoped to see you.
Nu te supăra, dar nu sunt de acord cu tine.
Don't take it the wrong way, but I don't agree with you.
Mă tem că n-o să ajung la timp.
I'm afraid I won't make it on time.
Note the overlap with Family 1: fear can be either Mi-e frică (a state — "I'm scared") or Mă tem (a verb — "I fear / I'm afraid that…"). Mi-e frică is the gut feeling; Mă tem că introduces a worry, usually with a clause.
Plain adjectives still work normally
Not every feeling uses the dative. Genuine adjectives behave like English — plain a fi with agreement, no clitic:
| Romanian | English |
|---|---|
| Sunt fericit / fericită. | I'm happy. |
| Sunt obosit / obosită. | I'm tired. |
| Sunt supărat / supărată. | I'm upset. |
| Sunt trist / tristă. | I'm sad. |
Sunt obosită, abia aștept să ajung acasă.
I'm tired, I can't wait to get home. (feminine speaker)
The quick test: if the English word maps to a Romanian noun (foame, sete, frică, dor, somn, lene), use Mi-e + noun. If it maps to a Romanian adjective (obosit, fericit, trist), use Sunt + adjective with agreement.
Common Mistakes
The classic transfer error — treating the state-noun as an adjective with "I am":
❌ Sunt foame.
Wrong — foame is the noun 'hunger,' not an adjective; you can't 'be hunger.'
✅ Mi-e foame.
I'm hungry.
Copying the French/Spanish "I have" pattern:
❌ Am frică de câini.
Wrong — Romanian doesn't 'have' fear like French/Spanish; use the dative Mi-e frică.
✅ Mi-e frică de câini.
I'm afraid of dogs.
Making a plăcea agree with "I" instead of with the liked thing:
❌ Îmi place dulciurile.
Wrong — dulciuri is plural, so the verb must be plac: Îmi plac dulciurile.
✅ Îmi plac dulciurile.
I like sweets.
Dropping the reflexive clitic from emotion verbs:
❌ Bucur că ai venit.
Wrong — a se bucura is reflexive; you must keep mă: Mă bucur că ai venit.
✅ Mă bucur că ai venit.
I'm glad you came.
Key Takeaways
- Family 1 — Mi-e + noun: bodily/emotional states (Mi-e foame, frică, somn, dor, lene). Swap the dative clitic by person; the "I" disappears.
- Family 2 — Îmi place: dative psych-verbs; the verb agrees with the thing (Îmi place / Îmi plac), not with you.
- Family 3 — Mă bucur: reflexive emotion verbs; keep the clitic (Mă bucur, Mă tem, Mă supăr).
- Genuine adjectives (obosit, fericit, trist) use plain Sunt
- agreement — the test is noun vs. adjective.
- "I miss you" = Mi-e dor de tine, a Family-1 chunk built on dor.
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Start learning Romanian→Related Topics
- a fi vs a avea for States (E frig / Mi-e frig / Am dreptate)A2 — How Romanian expresses physical sensations and states — bodily feelings use a fi + a dative clitic (Mi-e frig, Mi-e foame), ambient conditions use bare a fi (E frig afară), and a few states like 'be right' and 'need' use a avea (Am dreptate, Am nevoie).
- Mistake: Saying 'I am hungry / cold' with a fi + adjectiveA2 — English speakers say *Sunt foame* and Romance speakers say *Am foame* — both are wrong. Romanian sensations use a DATIVE clitic + a fi + a NOUN: Mi-e foame ('to-me is hunger'). Store them as fixed dative chunks.
- Dative Experiencer Verbs (a-i plăcea, a-i conveni)B1 — The Romanian 'gustar-type' verbs where the person is a dative clitic and the thing experienced is the grammatical subject that controls verb agreement — a-i plăcea, a-i păsa, a-i lipsi and friends.
- The Concept of 'dor' and Emotional Expressions (mi-e dor de)B1 — Romania's famous untranslatable noun dor (deep longing) and the dative-experiencer pattern that carries it — mi-e dor de tine (I miss you), mi se face dor, plus the related emotional datives mi-e drag de, mi se rupe inima and mi-e frică. Why English 'I miss you' has no verb in Romanian, and the cultural weight dor carries.
- The Possessive Dative (Mă doare capul)B1 — For body parts and close belongings Romanian marks the owner with a CLITIC — dative or accusative — plus the definite article, not a possessive adjective: MĂ doare capul (not capul MEU mă doare), MI-am rupt piciorul. So 'my head hurts' literally becomes 'the head hurts ME', the owner riding on the verb as a clitic. This page teaches when to use the clitic, dative vs accusative, and why the overt possessive sounds wrong.