Graba strică treaba — "haste spoils the job" — is one of the shortest and most quoted proverbs in Romanian, the exact equivalent of English "haste makes waste" or "more haste, less speed." It warns that rushing a task ruins it. What makes the Romanian version unforgettable is its rhyme: grabA / treabA. And that rhyme is no accident — it is produced by the feminine definite article -a glued onto both nouns. This little proverb is therefore the perfect place to see how Romanian's enclitic article makes punchy, rhyming sayings possible, and how a complete subject–verb–object sentence can be packed into just three inflected words. This page takes it apart.
The text
Graba strică treaba.
A word-for-word gloss:
Graba strică treaba.
The-haste spoils the-work.
Idiomatically: haste spoils the job / more haste, less speed. Three words, a full SVO sentence, and a built-in rhyme.
The rhyme — and why the article makes it
Read it aloud: graba / treaba. The two nouns rhyme perfectly on their final syllable, -ba. This is what makes the proverb stick in the memory. But notice why they rhyme: the base nouns are grabă ("haste, hurry") and treabă ("work, task, business"), and both happen to end in -bă. When the feminine singular definite article -a attaches, it fuses with the final -ă:
- grabă
- -a → graba ("the haste")
- treabă
- -a → treaba ("the work")
The enclitic article lands on the same syllable shape in both words, locking in the rhyme. In a language like French or Spanish, where "the" is a separate word in front of the noun (la hâte, la prisa), you could never get this end-rhyme from the article — the article would sit at the front, far from the rhyming syllable. Romanian's habit of welding the article onto the end of the noun is exactly what lets proverbs rhyme on the article itself.
The feminine definite article -a
Both nouns are feminine, and both take the feminine singular definite article -a. The pattern is: a noun ending in -ă drops nothing visibly but absorbs the article, so the written form simply changes the final -ă to -a.
| Indefinite | Definite |
|---|---|
| o grabă — (a) haste | graba — the haste |
| o treabă — a task | treaba — the task |
| o casă — a house | casa — the house |
| o carte — a book | cartea — the book |
Note the last row: a feminine noun ending in -e (like carte) adds -a without dropping the -e, giving cartea. But for -ă nouns like grabă and treabă, the -ă simply becomes -a. The proverb uses the -ă → -a type.
Treaba e gata, putem pleca.
The job is done, we can leave.
Vezi-ți de treabă!
Mind your own business! (a very common fixed phrase using treabă)
Casa noastră e lângă parc.
Our house is next to the park.
The gnomic transitive present: strică
The single verb is strică, the third-person singular present of a strica ("to spoil, to ruin, to break, to damage"), a regular first-conjugation (-a) verb. It is transitive: it takes a direct object — you spoil something. Here that object is treaba ("the job").
As in every proverb, strică is in the gnomic present, expressing a timeless rule rather than a one-time event: haste always spoils the job. English keeps the same simple present ("haste makes waste").
| Person | a strica (present) |
|---|---|
| eu | stric |
| tu | strici |
| el / ea | strică |
| noi | stricăm |
| voi | stricați |
| ei / ele | strică |
Nu strica jucăria, te rog!
Don't break the toy, please!
Prea mult zahăr strică prăjitura.
Too much sugar ruins the cake.
O vorbă rea strică toată ziua.
One bad word ruins the whole day.
The reflexive a se strica means "to break down / go bad (by itself)" — mi s-a stricat mașina ("my car broke down"), s-a stricat laptele ("the milk has gone off"). But the proverb uses the plain transitive: graba (subject) actively spoils treaba (object).
S-a stricat frigiderul și s-a stricat toată mâncarea.
The fridge broke down and all the food went bad.
Compact SVO: three words, full sentence
The proverb is a complete sentence in three words, and it follows the neutral Romanian subject–verb–object order exactly:
[Graba] [strică] [treaba]. [Subject] [Verb] [Object].
This is the same SVO skeleton as English ("Haste spoils the-job"), which makes it easy to map. What lets Romanian be this compact is the enclitic article: because "the" is folded into the noun, the subject and object each need only one word (graba, treaba) instead of two ("the haste," "the job"). Romanian packs the article into the noun and the result is a saying so tight that every word earns its place.
Banii aduc fericirea? Nu întotdeauna.
Does money bring happiness? Not always. (another tight SVO: subject–verb–object)
Munca învinge totul.
Work conquers all.
Usage and register
This is a fully everyday, neutral proverb, said constantly to anyone rushing through a task — a child gulping homework, a colleague cutting corners, yourself when you feel the urge to hurry. It is gentle and good-humored, a reminder to slow down and do it properly. The word treabă (here in its definite form treaba) is one of the most common nouns in spoken Romanian, covering "work," "task," "matter," and "business," which makes the proverb feel completely natural and current.
Ia-o încet, nu te grăbi — graba strică treaba.
Take it slow, don't rush — haste spoils the job.
Common Mistakes
Don't use the indefinite o where the proverb needs the suffixed definite:
❌ O grabă strică o treabă.
Incorrect for the proverb — both nouns are definite (suffixed -a): graba, treaba.
✅ Graba strică treaba.
Haste spoils the job.
Don't add a separate word for "the" in front of the noun:
❌ Cea grabă strică cea treabă.
Incorrect — Romanian has no free-standing definite article; it is the suffix -a.
✅ Graba strică treaba.
Haste spoils the job.
Don't reflexivize the verb — here it is plainly transitive:
❌ Graba se strică treaba.
Incorrect — the subject graba actively spoils the object; no se. (se strica means 'to break down by itself')
✅ Graba strică treaba.
Haste spoils the job.
Don't drop the final -ă of treabă in the indefinite/bare form by analogy with the definite:
❌ am o treaba de făcut
Incorrect — bare/indefinite keeps -ă: am o treabă de făcut. The -a form is the definite (treaba).
✅ am o treabă de făcut
I have a task to do.
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