B2 Path: Advanced Structures | Romanian Grammar

By B2 you have the whole machine; what remains is learning to drive it well. The hallmark of this level is not new forms but choice: Romanian usually offers two or three ways to say the same thing — three passives, an indicative or a conjunctiv after a verb of opinion, an infinitive or a să-clause — and the advanced speaker is the one who picks the variant that fits the meaning and the register. This ordered study sequence is built around that idea. Each step takes a structure you can already half-produce and teaches you to select deliberately among its competing forms.

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The B2 mindset shift: stop asking "how do I form X?" and start asking "which form should I choose, and what does each one signal?" At this level se vorbește vs este vorbit vs se vorbește de către are all grammatical — the skill is knowing which one a native would actually use, and what register or nuance each carries. B2 is about choosing, not learning.

Step 1 — The full passive system and how to choose

Why here: it opens B2 because it's the clearest case of competing forms and it builds directly on the se you mastered at B1. Romanian has several ways to express the passive: the periphrastic passive with a fi + participle (ușa este deschisă de portar, "the door is opened by the doorman," agentive and somewhat formal); the reflexive passive with se (ușa se deschide, "the door opens / is opened," agentless, very common); the impersonal se (se spune că..., "it is said that..."); and the 3rd-person-plural dodge (spun că..., literally "they say that...", the most colloquial). Learning to choose among them — by formality, by whether you name the agent, by register — is the work.

Proiectul a fost aprobat de comisie săptămâna trecută.

The project was approved by the committee last week. (periphrastic passive, agent named, formal/written)

Cum se spune asta în română?

How do you say this in Romanian? (impersonal se — agentless, neutral)

Zice lumea că o să ningă.

People say it's going to snow. (3rd-person 'they/people say' — the colloquial passive dodge)

Step 2 — The supine and its constructions

Why here: the supine is the most distinctively Romanian non-finite form, and it's far more alive than its Latin name suggests, so an advanced speaker must command it. Formed as de + participle (de făcut, "to be done / for doing"), it appears in constructions English handles with the infinitive or gerund: am multe de făcut ("I have a lot to do"), e greu de explicat ("it's hard to explain"), mașină de spălat ("washing machine," literally "machine for washing"). Learning when Romanian reaches for the supine instead of the infinitive or conjunctiv is a real B2 discrimination.

Mai am două capitole de citit până mâine.

I still have two chapters to read by tomorrow. (supine de citit)

E ușor de zis, greu de făcut.

Easy to say, hard to do. (supine in the 'easy/hard to X' frame)

Step 3 — Causatives: a pune / a face / a lăsa să

Why here: with the passive and supine handled, causatives let you express making and letting someone do something — a high-level construction that combines a causative verb with a să-clause. A pune (pe cineva) să ("to make/get someone to"), a face să ("to cause to"), and a lăsa să ("to let / allow to") each carry a different flavour of control. These reuse the conjunctiv from earlier levels but stack it under a new main verb.

L-am pus pe fiul meu să-și facă temele.

I made my son do his homework. (causative a pune pe cineva să)

Lasă-mă să-ți explic.

Let me explain to you. (causative a lăsa să)

Step 4 — Advanced mood: cred că vs nu cred să, and să nu after fearing

Why here: once the conjunctiv is automatic, B2 refines exactly when it appears versus the indicative — the subtlest area of Romanian grammar. A verb of belief takes the indicative when affirmative (cred *că vine, "I think he's coming," presented as likely fact) but often the *conjunctiv when negated (nu cred *să vină, "I don't think he'll come," presented as doubtful). And verbs of fearing take a *să nu clause where the nu doesn't negate (mi-e teamă *să nu cadă*, "I'm afraid he'll fall," literally "afraid that-not he-fall"). These indicative/conjunctiv switches encode the speaker's stance toward reality.

Cred că are dreptate.

I think he's right. (affirmative belief → indicative că)

Nu cred să mai vină la ora asta.

I don't think he'll still come at this hour. (negated belief → conjunctiv să, marking doubt)

Mi-e teamă să nu răcească copilul.

I'm afraid the child might catch a cold. (fear-clause: să nu doesn't negate)

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The nu cred să and mi-e teamă să nu patterns are where the conjunctiv stops being mechanical and starts encoding stance. The mood choice tells your listener how real you consider the event: indicative că = "I'm treating this as fact"; conjunctiv să = "this lives in the realm of doubt or fear." Master this and your Romanian gains a layer of nuance most learners never reach.

Step 5 — Reported speech and the sequence of tenses

Why here: with the mood system fully refined, you can handle indirect speech, which weaves tenses and moods together across clauses. Learn how a direct statement shifts when reported: pronouns and time-words move, and Romanian — unlike English — does not rigidly "back-shift" the tense (English "he said he was tired" vs Romanian a spus că *e obosit, keeping the present). Reported questions use *dacă ("whether") and reported commands use the conjunctiv (mi-a spus să plec, "he told me to leave").

Mi-a spus că este foarte ocupat zilele astea.

He told me he's very busy these days. (note: present 'este' kept, no English-style back-shift)

M-a întrebat dacă vreau să rămân.

He asked me whether I wanted to stay. (reported question with dacă)

Step 6 — Correlatives and complex comparison

Why here: a polish step that gives your sentences architectural balance — the paired connectors that structure sophisticated prose and speech. Learn the correlative pairs: atât... cât și ("both... and"), nici... nici ("neither... nor"), fie... fie ("either... or"), cu cât... cu atât ("the more... the more"), nu numai... ci și ("not only... but also"). These let you build the balanced, hypotactic sentences expected at an advanced level.

Cu cât citești mai mult, cu atât înțelegi mai bine.

The more you read, the better you understand. (correlative cu cât... cu atât)

Vorbește nu numai româna, ci și maghiara.

She speaks not only Romanian but also Hungarian. (correlative nu numai... ci și)

Step 7 — Register awareness

Why here: it caps B2 because everything above offers choices, and register is what guides those choices in real use. Consolidate your sense of the levels: the formal voi merge future and periphrastic passive for writing and officialdom; the neutral o să future and impersonal se for everyday speech; the colloquial am să future and 3rd-plural passive for casual talk. Knowing not just how to form each variant but where it belongs is the difference between correct Romanian and natural Romanian.

Guvernul va lua măsuri în perioada următoare.

The government will take measures in the period ahead. (formal/written register)

O să-mi iau ceva de mâncare, vrei și tu?

I'm gonna grab something to eat, want some too? (colloquial register)

How the steps connect

This path is organized around competition between forms. Step 1 (the passive system) is the purest example — four ways to demote an agent — and it grows out of the B1 se. Step 2 (the supine) adds a distinctively Romanian non-finite form that competes with the infinitive and conjunctiv. Step 3 (causatives) stacks the conjunctiv under a new main verb. Step 4 (advanced mood) is the conceptual heart: the indicative/conjunctiv choice as a marker of the speaker's stance toward reality. Step 5 (reported speech) then orchestrates all the tenses and moods across clauses. Steps 6–7 (correlatives and register) are the finishing polish — architecture and appropriateness. Throughout, the question is never "what's the form?" but "which form, and why?"

A few things to watch out for

The errors that mark even advanced learners:

❌ Cred să are dreptate. (using the conjunctiv after affirmative belief)

Wrong — affirmative belief takes the indicative că: cred că are dreptate. The conjunctiv belongs with the negated nu cred să.

✅ Cred că are dreptate.

I think he's right.

❌ Mi-e teamă că nu răcește. (reading the fear-clause's nu as a real negation)

Tricky — for 'I'm afraid he'll catch cold', the fear-clause is mi-e teamă să nu răcească, where să nu doesn't negate.

✅ Mi-e teamă să nu răcească.

I'm afraid he might catch a cold.

❌ A spus că era obosit. (back-shifting the tense English-style)

Usually wrong — Romanian keeps the original tense: a spus că este obosit ('he said he is tired').

✅ A spus că este obosit.

He said he was tired.

What B2 unlocks

By the end of this path you can choose deliberately among Romanian's competing constructions: which passive to demote an agent, when the supine beats the infinitive, how mood encodes your stance toward what you're saying, and which register a situation demands. You can report what others said, build balanced correlative sentences, and shift smoothly between formal and colloquial. The forms were all in place before; what B2 adds is judgment — the ability to say a thing not just correctly but the way a native actually would, which is precisely the threshold to C1.

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