Romanian Prepositions: Overview | Romanian Grammar

Prepositions are the small words that pin a noun to a place, a time, a cause, or a relationship — la (at), în (in), cu (with), de (of/from). Romanian has a few dozen of them, and the encouraging news for a beginner is that the great majority work the way English prepositions do: you put the preposition in front of a noun and you are done. The single most important structural fact — the one this page exists to deliver — is this: most Romanian prepositions govern the accusative case, and for nouns the accusative is identical in form to the nominative. That means "case after prepositions" is, for nouns, almost completely invisible. The catch hides in two places: pronouns force a special strong form (cu mine, never cu eu), and a small class of relational prepositions demands the genitive or dative instead of the accusative. This page maps the whole territory so the rest of the prepositions syllabus has a frame to hang on.

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The headline rule: everyday prepositions (la, în, pe, cu, de, din, până, spre, fără, pentru, despre) take the plain accusative — which for a noun is just its ordinary form. So cu trenul, la masă, despre tine require no special ending. The only places case becomes audible are pronouns (strong forms) and the genitive/dative-governing prepositions.

The high-frequency prepositions

Here are the prepositions you will meet in your first weeks, all of them accusative-governing. Notice that the noun after each is simply the normal noun — no special object ending exists in Romanian.

Preposition	Core meaning	Example
la	at, to (a place/activity)	la școală — at school
în	in, into (an enclosure)	în casă — in the house
pe	on (and the object marker)	pe masă — on the table
cu	with	cu prietenii — with friends
de	of, from (general relation)	un pahar de apă — a glass of water
din	out of, from inside	din oraș — from town
până (la)	until, up to	până la gară — up to the station
spre	toward	spre nord — toward the north
fără	without	fără zahăr — without sugar
pentru	for	pentru tine — for you
despre	about	despre carte — about the book

Mergem cu mașina la mare în weekend.

We're driving to the seaside this weekend. (cu + la + în, all accusative)

Am cumpărat o carte despre istoria României.

I bought a book about the history of Romania.

Cafeaua fără zahăr, te rog.

Coffee without sugar, please.

Why the accusative is invisible for nouns

Romanian inherited a case system from Latin, but on ordinary nouns the nominative (subject) and accusative (object / after-preposition) forms collapsed into one. Trenul is "the train" whether it is the subject (trenul a întârziat, "the train was late") or sitting after a preposition (cu trenul, "by train"). So when a textbook says "this preposition takes the accusative," for nouns that simply means "use the ordinary noun form." There is nothing extra to memorize. The deeper account of why these two cases merged — and how Romanian rebuilds the subject/object distinction — is on the nominative and accusative page.

Vorbesc cu profesorul despre examen.

I'm talking with the teacher about the exam. (profesorul, examen — plain noun forms after cu, despre)

What does change after a preposition is whether the noun carries its definite article, and that is governed by reference, not by the preposition — la masă (generic, bare) vs la masa din colț (specific, articled). That whole pattern lives on the articles after prepositions page; for now, just know that the article comes and goes with definiteness, not with the preposition.

Pronouns: the one place case becomes audible

Here is the trap that catches every English speaker. After a preposition, a personal pronoun must appear in its strong (stressed) accusative form, not the subject form. English does the same thing — we say "with me," not "with I" — but learners reaching into Romanian for the first time tend to grab the dictionary subject pronoun (eu, tu, el) and end up with the ungrammatical cu eu.

Subject (nom.)	After a preposition (strong acc.)
eu (I)	mine — cu mine (with me)
tu (you)	tine — pentru tine (for you)
el (he)	el — cu el (with him)
ea (she)	ea — despre ea (about her)
noi (we)	noi — fără noi (without us)
voi (you pl.)	voi — la voi (at your place)
ei / ele (they)	ei / ele — spre ei (toward them)

Only eu and tu actually change shape (to mine and tine); the rest keep their form but are still grammatically accusative. The full paradigm and its emphatic uses are on the strong accusative pronouns page.

Vii cu mine sau rămâi cu ei?

Are you coming with me or staying with them?

Cadoul ăsta e pentru tine, nu pentru ea.

This present is for you, not for her.

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Burn this in early: after any preposition, the pronoun is mine, tine, el, ea, noi, voi, ei, ele — never eu or tu. Cu mine, pentru tine, despre noi. Saying cu eu is the pronoun equivalent of "with I."

The exceptions: prepositions that take the genitive or dative

Not every preposition takes the accusative. A class of longer, more "relational" prepositions — mostly spatial — governs the genitive instead. You will recognize them because they often contain a buried, articled noun: în fața ("in the face of"), în jurul ("in the circle of"), deasupra ("above"), împotriva ("against"). Their object goes into the genitive, which does change the noun's ending.

Ne vedem în fața cinematografului la șapte.

Let's meet in front of the cinema at seven. (cinematografului — genitive)

Un nor mare s-a strâns deasupra orașului.

A big cloud gathered above the city. (orașului — genitive)

A second, much smaller group — datorită ("thanks to"), grație ("owing to"), mulțumită ("thanks to") — governs the dative. These three express a cause or a benefactor, and they happen to be the everyday survivors of dative-governing prepositions.

Am reușit datorită prietenilor mei.

I succeeded thanks to my friends. (prietenilor — dative)

Don't try to absorb these now — just register that they exist, so that when a noun after a preposition suddenly takes a -lui or -ei ending, you know you have hit a genitive/dative preposition rather than a mistake. The complete list, the "hidden noun" logic, and the pronoun forms are covered on the prepositions governing the genitive page.

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A quick diagnostic: if the preposition is short and common (cu, la, în, pe, de, din, spre, fără, pentru, despre, până), it takes the plain accusative. If it is longer and "positional" (deasupra, dedesubtul, în fața, în spatele, în jurul, împotriva, de-a lungul, asupra), expect the genitive. The three datorită / grație / mulțumită are the dative oddballs.

A preview of pe's double life

One preposition deserves a flag right at the start because it does two unrelated jobs. As a plain preposition, pe means "on": pe masă ("on the table"), pe stradă ("on the street"). But pe is also Romanian's direct-object marker — a grammatical particle placed before specific, usually human, direct objects, working together with a doubling pronoun: O văd pe Maria ("I see Maria"). That second use has nothing to do with location and is one of the genuinely hard features of Romanian for English speakers. It gets its own pages — pe as the object marker and when pe is required — so we only signpost it here.

Pisica doarme pe canapea.

The cat is sleeping on the couch. (pe = locative 'on')

O sun pe mama în fiecare seară.

I call my mom every evening. (pe = object marker, with clitic o)

Common Mistakes

The errors below are the ones English speakers make in their first months, and almost all of them come from the same source: forgetting that pronouns change after a preposition, or importing an English preposition wholesale.

Don't use the subject pronoun after a preposition:

❌ Vrei să vii cu eu?

Incorrect — after a preposition the pronoun is the strong form mine, not eu.

✅ Vrei să vii cu mine?

Do you want to come with me?

Don't use tu where tine is required:

❌ Am adus o cafea pentru tu.

Incorrect — after pentru the pronoun is tine.

✅ Am adus o cafea pentru tine.

I brought a coffee for you.

Don't invent an object ending on a noun after a common preposition — the plain form is correct:

❌ Stau pe scaunul. (as a generic 'on a chair')

Incorrect — pe takes the plain accusative; for 'on a chair' generically it's pe scaun, and the bare noun, not an added ending, is what's needed.

✅ Stau pe scaun.

I'm sitting on a chair.

Don't put a genitive/dative preposition's noun in the plain form:

❌ Mașina e parcată în fața casa.

Incorrect — în fața governs the genitive: în fața casei.

✅ Mașina e parcată în fața casei.

The car is parked in front of the house.

Don't translate English "of" automatically as de when origin/source is meant:

❌ Sunt de România.

Incorrect — origin from a place uses din: sunt din România.

✅ Sunt din România.

I'm from Romania.

Key Takeaways

The majority of Romanian prepositions (la, în, pe, cu, de, din, până, spre, fără, pentru, despre) govern the accusative, which for nouns is identical to the nominative — so no special ending appears.
Pronouns are the audible exception: after any preposition use the strong accusative (cu mine, pentru tine, despre ei), never the subject form eu/tu.
A class of relational prepositions (deasupra, în fața, în jurul, împotriva, asupra…) governs the genitive, and datorită / grație / mulțumită govern the dative — these do change the noun ending.
The definite article after a preposition tracks the noun's definiteness, not the preposition (la masă vs la masa din colț).
Pe leads a double life: locative "on" and the direct-object marker — a separate, demanding topic of its own.

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