An indirect (or embedded) question is a question tucked inside a larger sentence: not "Is he coming?" but "I don't know whether he's coming"; not "Where are you going?" but "Tell me where you're going." Romanian handles these cleanly with one new word for yes/no embeddings — dacă ("whether") — and otherwise just reuses the wh-words you already know. The single rule that ties everything together is that an embedded question looks like a statement: the word order does not invert, and there is no question mark on the embedded clause.
Embedded yes/no questions: dacă = "whether"
To embed a yes/no question, Romanian opens the clause with dacă, the equivalent of English "whether" (and informal "if"). A direct Vine? ("Is he coming?") becomes Nu știu *dacă vine ("I don't know *whether he's coming").
Nu știu dacă vine la petrecere.
I don't know whether he's coming to the party.
Mă întreb dacă merită să mai aștept.
I wonder whether it's worth waiting any longer.
Întreabă-l dacă a luat cheile.
Ask him whether he took the keys.
Spune-mi dacă ai înțeles sau nu.
Tell me whether you understood or not.
Here is the trap built into dacă: the very same word also means "if" in conditional sentences (Dacă plouă, rămânem acasă — "If it rains, we stay home"). Romanian does not distinguish "whether" from conditional "if" with separate words the way careful English does. Context disambiguates. After verbs of knowing, asking, wondering, or doubting (a ști, a întreba, a se întreba, a se îndoi), dacă is the "whether" of an embedded question; introducing a real condition with a consequence, it is conditional "if." You read the verb in front of it to know which is meant.
Nu sunt sigur dacă are dreptate.
I'm not sure whether he's right. (after 'sigur' → whether)
Dacă are dreptate, îmi cer scuze.
If he's right, I'll apologize. (real condition + consequence → if)
Embedded content questions: keep the wh-word
For a content question — one with ce, cine, unde, când, cum, de ce, cât, care — you embed it by simply keeping the wh-word in front of a statement-order clause. No special connector, no inversion.
Mă întreb unde e telefonul meu.
I wonder where my phone is.
Spune-mi ce vrei să mănânci.
Tell me what you want to eat.
Întreabă-l cine vine cu noi.
Ask him who's coming with us.
Nu-mi amintesc când a plecat ultimul autobuz.
I don't remember when the last bus left.
Compare the direct and indirect versions side by side — in Romanian, almost nothing changes after the wh-word:
| Direct question | Embedded version |
|---|---|
| Unde e gara? (Where is the station?) | Nu știu unde e gara. (I don't know where the station is.) |
| Ce vrei? (What do you want?) | Spune-mi ce vrei. (Tell me what you want.) |
| Cine a sunat? (Who called?) | Mă întreb cine a sunat. (I wonder who called.) |
This is where English speakers most often go wrong, because English famously does reorder. English flips the direct "Where is the station?" into the indirect "I don't know where the station is" — subject and verb swap back. Romanian has nothing to swap, because its direct questions already allow statement order; the embedded clause is simply a statement introduced by a wh-word. So Unde e gara? and Nu știu unde e gara share the identical unde e gara — you do not touch it.
Case and prepositions carry over
Everything you learned about the case forms of cine and about leading prepositions applies inside the embedded clause too. Pe cine, cui, cu cine, despre ce keep their shapes.
Nu știu pe cine să întreb.
I don't know whom to ask. (object → pe cine; embedded with conjunctiv să)
Spune-mi cui i-ai dat banii.
Tell me who you gave the money to. (recipient → cui)
Mă întreb despre ce vorbeau atât de mult.
I wonder what they were talking about for so long. (despre + ce, preposition leads)
Embedding with the conjunctiv (să)
A very common pattern, especially after "I don't know," embeds a deliberative question with să + verb: "I don't know what to do," "I don't know where to go." Romanian uses the wh-word + să + conjunctiv.
Nu știu ce să fac.
I don't know what to do.
Nu știe unde să meargă în vacanță.
He doesn't know where to go on holiday.
This mirrors the standalone deliberative Ce să fac? ("What am I to do?") — see să in questions and commands for the wider use of să in interrogatives.
Punctuation: no question mark inside
Because the whole sentence is a statement (you are telling or saying that you don't know something), it ends with a period, not a question mark — even though it contains a question word.
Mă întreb dacă o să ningă mâine.
I wonder whether it'll snow tomorrow. (statement → ends with a period)
The exception is when the main clause is itself a question: Știi unde e gara? ("Do you know where the station is?") takes a question mark because the matrix verb știi heads a direct question.
Common Mistakes
The big three: reordering the embedded clause English-style, using a question mark on a statement, and mis-handling the dacă / "if" overlap.
Don't reorder the embedded clause — keep statement word order:
❌ Nu știu unde este gara? / Nu știu unde gara este.
Two errors at once — no question mark on a statement, and no English-style reordering: Nu știu unde e gara.
✅ Nu știu unde e gara.
I don't know where the station is.
Don't use a question mark on an embedded (statement) question:
❌ Spune-mi ce vrei să mănânci?
Incorrect — the sentence is a command/statement, so it ends with a period: Spune-mi ce vrei să mănânci.
✅ Spune-mi ce vrei să mănânci.
Tell me what you want to eat.
Don't invent a separate word for "whether" — Romanian uses dacă for both "whether" and "if":
❌ Nu știu cine vine sau nu.
Incorrect for a yes/no embedding — 'whether (or not)' is dacă: Nu știu dacă vine sau nu.
✅ Nu știu dacă vine sau nu.
I don't know whether he's coming or not.
Don't drop pe on an embedded object "whom":
❌ Nu știu cine să sun.
Incorrect — the object 'whom' needs pe: Nu știu pe cine să sun.
✅ Nu știu pe cine să sun.
I don't know whom to call.
Key Takeaways
- Embedded yes/no questions use dacă = "whether" (same word as conditional "if"; context tells them apart).
- Embedded content questions keep the wh-word
- statement word order — Romanian does no English-style reordering.
- A direct Unde e gara? and an indirect Nu știu unde e gara share the identical unde e gara.
- Case and prepositions carry over: pe cine, cui, despre ce keep their forms inside the clause.
- Deliberative embeddings use the conjunctiv: Nu știu ce să fac.
- An embedded question inside a statement ends with a period, not a question mark.
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- Yes/No QuestionsA1 — A Romanian yes/no question is spelled identically to the statement — only the question mark and the rising pitch differ (Vii. / Vii?). There is no 'do', no auxiliary, and no inversion. The optional particle oare adds an 'I wonder…' nuance (Oare a uitat?), and answers use da/nu — plus ba da and ba nu to contradict a negative question.
- Asking Questions: An OverviewA1 — Romanian forms yes/no questions with intonation alone — no 'do', no auxiliary, no word-order change: the statement Vii ('you're coming') becomes the question Vii? ('are you coming?') just by raising the pitch. Content questions simply front a question word (Ce faci? Unde mergi? Cine e?). This is the single biggest relief and trap for English speakers, who keep trying to invent an auxiliary or invert the subject.
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