The relative pronoun care always leans on a noun: omul care..., cartea pe care.... But Romanian also has a set of headless relatives that need no antecedent at all — they bundle the antecedent inside themselves. cine means "whoever / the one who," for people only (Cine vine primul, alege — "Whoever comes first chooses"). ce means "what / that" for things and ideas (tot ce știu — "all that I know"). And ceea ce means "which / what," but pointing back to a whole clause or idea rather than a noun (A plouat, ceea ce ne-a bucurat — "It rained, which pleased us"). The defining trait of all three: unlike care, they do not attach to a preceding noun. This page is about them as relative pronouns; their use in direct questions (Cine e?, Ce vrei?) is covered on the interrogative pronouns page.
cine — the headless "whoever," for people only
cine is the headless relative for persons. It does the job of English "whoever / the one who / anyone who," compressing the antecedent and the relative into one word: Cine vine, plătește = "Whoever comes pays." There is no noun for it to attach to — cine itself is the subject of both clauses' logic.
Cine se scoală de dimineață departe ajunge.
The early bird gets the worm. (literally: whoever rises early gets far — a proverb)
Cine întreabă nu greșește.
Whoever asks doesn't go wrong. / There's no harm in asking.
Poate intra cine vrea.
Whoever wants to can come in.
Because cine refers to a person, it inflects for case exactly like the interrogative: pe cine (accusative), cui (dative), al cui (genitive). So "whoever you choose" — where the relative is a direct object — is pe cine alegi:
Pe cine inviți tu, invit și eu.
Whoever you invite, I'll invite too.
Cui îi place, îi place; cui nu, treaba lui.
Whoever likes it, likes it; whoever doesn't, that's their business. (dative cui + clitic îi)
ce — the headless "what / that," for things
ce is the headless relative for things and abstractions, matching English "what" in the sense of "that which." Its most common home is the fixed pair tot ce ("all that / everything that"), where tot supplies the quantity and ce the relative link.
Tot ce știu am învățat de la bunica mea.
Everything I know I learned from my grandmother.
Fă ce vrei, eu nu mă mai amestec.
Do what you want, I'm not getting involved anymore.
Ce-i prea mult strică.
Too much of anything is bad. (literally: what is too much spoils — a proverb)
When ce is a direct object, it does not take pe the way care does, and the doubling clitic is usually optional with tot ce: tot ce am (l-am) văzut. Keep it simple — tot ce văd is perfectly standard.
ceea ce — "which," pointing back to a whole clause
When the thing being relativized is not a noun but an entire idea, situation, or clause, Romanian uses the fixed phrase ceea ce — "which" in the sentence-commenting sense of English "..., which pleased everyone." You cannot use care here, because care needs a specific noun antecedent, and there is no noun — the antecedent is the whole preceding clause.
A întârziat din nou, ceea ce m-a supărat foarte tare.
He was late again, which annoyed me a lot. (ceea ce refers to the whole fact of being late)
Au câștigat campionatul, ceea ce nimeni nu se aștepta să se întâmple.
They won the championship, which nobody expected to happen.
Nu mi-a răspuns la mesaje, ceea ce mă îngrijorează.
He didn't reply to my messages, which worries me.
ceea ce also appears at the head of a clause meaning "what / that which," especially in formal or literary registers — Ceea ce mă deranjează cel mai mult este lipsa de respect ("What bothers me most is the lack of respect"). In everyday speech, ce alone often replaces it here (Ce mă deranjează cel mai mult...), but ceea ce is the more careful, written choice.
Ceea ce contează cu adevărat este să fii cinstit.
What truly matters is being honest. (formal/written; speech often uses bare ce)
When ceea ce is a direct object, it takes a doubling clitic just like other object relatives: ceea ce am spus → ceea ce am spus-o is heard, though the clitic-less version is common and fully acceptable.
The three side by side
| Relative | Refers to | Needs an antecedent? | Example |
|---|---|---|---|
| care | a specific noun (person/thing) | yes — sits after the noun | omul care vine |
| cine | a person, unspecified | no — headless "whoever" | cine vine, plătește |
| ce | a thing/idea, unspecified | no — headless "what" | tot ce știu |
| ceea ce | a whole clause/idea | no — points back to the clause | a plouat, ceea ce ne-a bucurat |
Common Mistakes
The recurring English-transfer errors here are using care for a headless "whoever," using ce as the everyday post-noun relative, and reaching for care when the antecedent is a whole clause.
Don't use care for a headless "whoever" — that's cine:
❌ Care vine primul, alege.
Incorrect — with no noun antecedent and a person meaning, use the headless cine.
✅ Cine vine primul, alege.
Whoever comes first chooses.
Don't use ce as the ordinary relative after a noun — that slot is care's:
❌ Omul ce locuiește aici e plecat.
Substandard — the post-noun relative is care, not ce.
✅ Omul care locuiește aici e plecat.
The man who lives here is away.
Don't use care to refer back to a whole clause — that's ceea ce:
❌ A întârziat, care m-a supărat.
Incorrect — there's no noun antecedent; clause-level 'which' is ceea ce.
✅ A întârziat, ceea ce m-a supărat.
He was late, which annoyed me.
Don't drop tot and overload ce when you mean "everything that" in careful speech:
❌ Ce am, îți dau — ca echivalent al lui 'tot ce am'.
Acceptable in speech as 'what I have', but for 'everything I have' the idiomatic form is tot ce am.
✅ Tot ce am, îți dau.
Everything I have, I'll give you.
Don't treat cine as if it could refer to a thing — it is persons-only:
❌ Cine e pe masă e al tău.
Incorrect — cine is persons-only; for a thing use ce: ce e pe masă.
✅ Ce e pe masă e al tău.
What's on the table is yours.
Key Takeaways
- cine = headless "whoever," persons only; inflects to pe cine / cui / al cui.
- ce = headless "what / that" for things, especially in tot ce ("all that"); never the post-noun relative.
- ceea ce = "which," referring back to a whole clause or idea (and "what / that which" at clause head in formal register).
- All three differ from care, which always attaches to a specific noun antecedent.
Now practice Romanian
Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.
Start learning Romanian→Related Topics
- Relative Pronoun care (who, which, that)B1 — care is the all-purpose Romanian relative pronoun covering English who, which, and that — invariable as a subject (omul care vine), but a direct object takes pe care plus a doubling clitic (cartea pe care o citesc), and possession uses the inflected genitive a cărui / a cărei / ale căror and the dative căruia / căreia / cărora.
- Relative cel ce / cel care (the one who)B1 — The headless 'the one who / those who' built by fusing the demonstrative cel / cea / cei / cele with the relative care or ce — cel care râde la urmă, cei care vin târziu, cel pe care l-am ales — plus the related ceea ce and tot ce.
- care vs ce vs cineA2 — Choosing between Romanian care, ce, and cine — which/that, what, and who — including why care is the all-purpose relative pronoun even where English uses 'that'.
- Interrogative Pronouns (cine, ce, care, cât)A2 — The question words cine (who), ce (what), care (which one), and cât (how much/many) — and how Romanian splits English's caseless 'who' into a full case paradigm: Pe cine? (whom, accusative), Cui? (to whom, dative), Al cui? (whose, genitive).
- Accusative Clitic Pronouns (mă, te, îl, o, ne, vă, îi, le)A2 — The unstressed direct-object clitics — mă, te, îl, o, ne, vă, îi, le — sit BEFORE the finite verb (Te văd, Îl cunosc), fuse with the perfect auxiliary (M-a văzut, L-am chemat), and hide one famous irregular: the feminine 'o' attaches AFTER the participle (Am văzut-o).
- Anaphora and Reference TrackingC1 — How Romanian keeps track of who is who across a stretch of discourse: pro-drop for subject continuity, clitic anaphora for objects, the decisive reflexive-vs-personal clitic contrast (și-a luat cartea 'took his own book' vs i-a luat cartea 'took his/someone's book'), demonstratives for switching reference, and dânsul to disambiguate. Includes a worked discourse analysis and the său 'own-vs-another's' trap.