Sentence Types: Declarative, Interrogative, Imperative, Exclamative

Every sentence does one of four basic jobs: it states something, asks something, commands something, or exclaims something. Linguists call these the four illocutionary (speech-act) types — declarative, interrogative, imperative, exclamative — and they are the thread that ties the whole Sentences group together. The good news for an English speaker is how little Romanian reorganizes to switch between them. English flips its word order to ask ("You are coming" → "Are you coming?") and inserts "do" ("Do you like it?"). Romanian does neither: it leans on intonation and a small handful of function words. The very same string of words — Vii — is a statement with a falling tone (Vii.) and a question with a rising one (Vii?). The only change is pitch in speech, and the final punctuation mark in writing.

This is the capstone overview of the group: each type gets a brief, accurate treatment of how Romanian forms and punctuates it, with pointers to the dedicated pages where you can go deeper.

Declarative: the neutral statement

The declarative is the default — it reports, describes, asserts. Romanian's neutral order is Subject–Verb–Object (and, because the language is pro-drop, the subject is often dropped, leaving the verb to carry the person). A declarative ends in a period and falls in pitch at the end.

A statement can be positive or negative (negation is built with nu before the verb — see negative sentences), but negating it does not change its type: it is still a declarative, still ending in a period. The declarative is the baseline against which the other three types are defined.

Interrogative: the same words, a rising tone

This is where Romanian most surprises English speakers. To turn a statement into a yes/no question, you change nothing about the words or their order — you raise the pitch at the end (in writing, swap the period for a question mark). There is no subject–verb inversion, no auxiliary "do."

For information questions, Romanian opens with a wh-word — cine (who), ce (what), unde (where), când (when), cum (how), de ce (why), cât (how much) — and the verb typically follows it. The wh-word does the asking; the rest of the clause stays close to statement order.

Both kinds end in a question mark. For the full picture — oare, tag questions, embedded questions, intonation patterns — see questions overview.

Imperative: the command form or a să-command

A command (imperative) gets someone to act. Romanian has a dedicated imperative verb form for the tu (singular informal) and voi (plural / polite) addressees. The voi imperative simply reuses the present-tense voi form (mergeți!); the tu imperative has its own shape, which often matches the 2nd-person present but can differ — Vino! (Come!), not vii.

Note the negative singular command: Nu pleca!, not nu pleci — the negative tu imperative uses the infinitive form after nu. For persons that have no synthetic imperative (1st person plural "let's…", 3rd person "let him…"), Romanian uses a să-command: Să mergem! ("Let's go!"), Să intre! ("Let him come in!"). This is the same să-conjunctiv you meet everywhere, recruited here as a softened or indirect command (see standalone imperative).

Commands take either a period or, when forceful, an exclamation mark — Romanian uses the exclamation mark for commands more readily than English, because commanding is felt as an emphatic act.

Exclamative: ce / cât de and intonation

The exclamative broadcasts strong feeling. Romanian builds it most often with ce ("how…!" before an adjective, "what a…!" before a noun) or cât de ("just how…!" before an adjective/adverb), and finishes with an exclamation mark and a sharp, falling-then-emphatic tone. Crucially, ce is also the question word "what?" — so the exclamation Ce frumos! and the question Ce frumos? differ only in intonation and the final mark.

A plain declarative can also become an exclamation through intonation alone, with no special word — just the exclamation mark and an emphatic delivery: A câștigat! ("He won!"). The full toolkit (ce de, the colloquial ce mai…!, telling the exclamation from the question) is covered on exclamative sentences.

The four types at a glance

Look at the Vii column running down it: the same two letters serve as a statement, a question, and (in the imperative family) the seed of a command — distinguished by tone and punctuation, not by a reshuffled clause. That is the throughline of this whole group.

Common Mistakes

Assuming a yes/no question needs inverted word order or "do," as in English:

Using the present tu form for a negative command instead of the infinitive:

Ending an exclamation with a question mark because ce looks like the question word:

Reaching for a new verb form to ask a question, instead of keeping the statement's words:

Key Takeaways

• The four types are declarative (states), interrogative (asks), imperative (commands), exclamative (exclaims).
• Romanian switches type with intonation and a few function words, not by overhauling word order — Vii. and Vii? are the same words.
• Yes/no questions need no inversion and no "do": keep the statement, raise the pitch; information questions add a wh-word.
• Commands use the imperative form or a să-command (Să mergem!); the negative tu command uses the infinitive (Nu pleca!).
• Exclamations use ce / cât de
  • an exclamation mark, or a plain statement with exclamatory intonation; the final punctuation mark encodes the speech-act.