Embedding Questions and Statements | Romanian Grammar

To report what someone said, asked, or ordered, you embed a clause inside a larger sentence: not "He's coming" but "She says that he's coming"; not "Is he coming?" but "I don't know whether he's coming." Romanian embeds with just three connectors — că ("that") for statements, dacă ("whether") for yes/no questions, the bare wh-word for content questions, and să for commands and wishes. Two rules then govern every embedding: the embedded clause keeps normal statement word order with no question mark, and — the big surprise for English speakers — Romanian does not backshift the tense. Where English says "he said he was ill," Romanian says a spus că *este bolnav* — the original present tense stays. This page is the construction-level guide; for the finer points of indirect questions specifically, see indirect questions.

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Three connectors do everything: că embeds a statement, dacă embeds a yes/no question, the wh-word embeds a content question, and să embeds a command/wish. Whatever you embed keeps statement word order and takes no question mark — and its tense never shifts back.

Indirect statements: că = "that"

To embed a statement, introduce it with că ("that"). Unlike English, where "that" is often dropped ("She says he's coming"), Romanian normally keeps că.

Spune că vine imediat.

She says (that) she's coming right away.

Mi-a explicat că trenul a întârziat din cauza zăpezii.

He explained to me that the train was delayed because of the snow.

Toți cred că o să câștige echipa noastră.

Everyone thinks our team is going to win.

Don't confuse this că (the "that" of reported statements) with ca să ("in order to") or with the relative care ("which/who"). After verbs of saying, thinking, knowing, and feeling (a spune, a crede, a ști, a simți), it is the statement-embedding că.

Indirect yes/no questions: dacă = "whether"

A yes/no question embeds with dacă ("whether," informal "if"). The direct Vine? ("Is he coming?") becomes Nu știu *dacă vine ("I don't know *whether he's coming"). The clause that follows looks exactly like a statement.

Nu știu dacă vine la cină.

I don't know whether he's coming to dinner.

Întreabă-l dacă mai are bilete.

Ask him whether he still has tickets.

Mă întreb dacă merită să mai aștept.

I wonder whether it's worth waiting any longer.

The same word dacă also means conditional "if" (Dacă plouă, rămânem acasă, "If it rains, we stay home") — context, set by the matrix verb, tells the two apart. After a ști, a întreba, a se întreba it is the "whether" of an embedded question.

Indirect content questions: keep the wh-word

For a content question — with ce, cine, unde, când, cum, de ce, cât, care — you embed it by keeping the wh-word in front of an ordinary statement-order clause. No inversion, no extra connector.

Nu știu unde locuiește acum.

I don't know where he lives now.

Spune-mi cine a sunat adineauri.

Tell me who just called.

Nu-mi amintesc când pleacă ultimul autobuz.

I don't remember when the last bus leaves.

This is exactly where English reorders and Romanian does not. English flips direct "Where does he live?" into indirect "I don't know where he lives" — verb moves back. Romanian's direct Unde locuiește? and indirect Nu știu unde locuiește share the identical unde locuiește — you touch nothing.

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English shuffles the verb back in indirect questions ("where he lives"). Romanian moves nothing: the embedded clause is just wh-word + ordinary statement. If it reads like a statement after the wh-word, it's right — Nu știu unde locuiește, never unde locuiește?.

No question mark inside the embedded clause

Because the whole sentence is a statement (you are telling someone that you don't know, or asking them to tell you), 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. (a statement — ends with a period)

Spune-mi unde ai pus cheile.

Tell me where you put the keys. (a command — ends with a period, no '?')

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. The mark reflects the whole sentence's force, not the embedded clause.

The big one: Romanian does NOT backshift the tense

English obeys "sequence of tenses": after a past reporting verb, the embedded tense shifts back ("He said he was ill," "She thought it would rain"). Romanian does no such thing. The embedded clause keeps the tense the original speaker actually used. A spus că *este bolnav = "He said he *was ill" — but the Romanian verb is present (este), because at the moment he spoke, he said "I am ill."

A spus că este bolnav și nu poate veni.

He said he was ill and couldn't come. (Romanian keeps the present 'este/poate' — no backshift)

Mi-a zis că vine mâine la prânz.

He told me he was coming tomorrow at noon. (present 'vine' stays — English backshifts to 'was coming')

Credeam că o să plouă, dar a ieșit soarele.

I thought it was going to rain, but the sun came out. (the future 'o să plouă' is preserved, not turned into 'would rain')

So translate from the original speaker's viewpoint, not the reporting verb's. If the person said "I am tired," you embed că *este obosit even under a past *a spus. This is one of the genuine reliefs of Romanian for English speakers: you never recalculate the tense — you keep it.

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Forget sequence of tenses. Romanian preserves the original tense: a zis că vine = "he said he was coming" (present vine stays). Ask yourself what tense the speaker actually used, and keep it — even under a past reporting verb.

Embedded commands and wishes: să-clauses

You can't report a command with că. An order, request, or wish embeds with să + the conjunctiv: I-am spus să vină ("I told him to come"). This is how Romanian handles English's "to"-infinitive after tell/ask/want.

I-am spus să vină mai devreme mâine.

I told him to come earlier tomorrow.

Vreau să închizi fereastra, te rog.

I want you to close the window, please.

Le-am rugat să facă liniște.

I asked them to be quiet.

English uses an infinitive with a new subject ("I told him to come"); Romanian cannot, so it switches to să + conjunctiv, and the embedded subject simply appears in the verb's person (să vină = "(that) he come"). After a vrea, a spune, a ruga, a cere, a sfătui in this directive sense, să — never că — is the connector. (See the subjunctive.)

You're embedding a...	Connector	Example
statement	că	Spune că vine.
yes/no question	dacă	Nu știu dacă vine.
content question	wh-word	Nu știu unde e.
command / wish	să	I-am spus să vină.

Common Mistakes

Backshifting the embedded tense, English-style, after a past reporting verb:

❌ A spus că era bolnav. [meaning 'he said: I am ill']

Over-shifted — if he said 'I am ill', keep the present: A spus că este bolnav. (the imperfect 'era' would mean he reported an even earlier state)

✅ A spus că este bolnav.

He said he was ill (= 'I am ill').

Putting a question mark on an embedded (statement) question:

❌ Spune-mi unde ai pus cheile?

Incorrect — this is a command, so it ends with a period: Spune-mi unde ai pus cheile.

✅ Spune-mi unde ai pus cheile.

Tell me where you put the keys.

Reordering the embedded content question the way English does:

❌ Nu știu unde locuiește el? / Nu știu unde el locuiește.

Two errors — no '?' on a statement and no English reordering: Nu știu unde locuiește (el).

✅ Nu știu unde locuiește.

I don't know where he lives.

Using că to report a command (calquing "that"), where Romanian needs să:

❌ I-am spus că vine mai devreme. [meaning 'I told him TO come']

That reports a statement ('I told him that he is coming'). For a command use să: I-am spus să vină mai devreme.

✅ I-am spus să vină mai devreme.

I told him to come earlier.

Inventing a separate word for "whether," instead of reusing dacă:

❌ Nu știu vine sau nu.

Incomplete — a yes/no embedding needs dacă: Nu știu dacă vine sau nu.

✅ Nu știu dacă vine sau nu.

I don't know whether he's coming or not.

Key Takeaways

Embed a statement with că ("that"), normally kept (not dropped as in English).
Embed a yes/no question with dacă ("whether"), a content question with the bare wh-word — both keep statement order.
Embed a command or wish with să
- conjunctiv (I-am spus să vină), since Romanian has no "tell him to come" infinitive with a new subject.
An embedded question inside a statement ends with a period, not a question mark.
Romanian does not backshift the tense: a spus că este bolnav = "he said he was ill" (present este preserved) — keep the tense the speaker originally used.

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