A costa means to cost. It belongs to the first conjugation (short infinitive in -a, like a cânta, a lucra), but it behaves very differently from a typical first-conjugation verb: in real Romanian it is used almost exclusively in the third person, with the price tag — the thing being bought — as its grammatical subject. Things cost; people, by contrast, do not "cost." This is why you ask Cât costă? ("How much does it cost?") and never Cât coști? You are addressing the object, not the person.
Full personal forms (cost, coști) do exist on paper and you will see them in complete conjugation tables, but in everyday and even formal Romanian they are vanishingly rare — you would only meet them in a deliberately playful sentence like Cât cost eu? ("How much am I worth?"). For practical purposes, treat a costa as a 3rd-person verb and master costă (3sg and 3pl, identical) plus the imperfect costa.
Prezent indicativ
The forms below are complete, but the shaded reality is that only the 3rd-person costă is in living use. Note that 3sg and 3pl are identical: cartea costă / cărțile costă.
| Person | Form | Frequency |
|---|---|---|
| eu | cost | vanishingly rare |
| tu | coști | vanishingly rare |
| el / ea | costă | everyday |
| noi | costăm | vanishingly rare |
| voi | costați | vanishingly rare |
| ei / ele | costă | everyday |
Cât costă o cafea aici?
How much does a coffee cost here?
Biletul costă zece lei.
The ticket costs ten lei.
Imperfect
The imperfect stem is costa-; the 3rd-person forms are costa (sg.) and costau (pl.).
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| eu | costam |
| tu | costai |
| el / ea | costa |
| noi | costam |
| voi | costați |
| ei / ele | costau |
Pe vremuri, o pâine costa câțiva bani.
Back in the day, a loaf of bread cost a few pennies.
Perfect compus
Auxiliary a avea plus the participle costat. In practice you meet only a costat (3sg) and au costat (3pl).
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| eu | am costat |
| tu | ai costat |
| el / ea | a costat |
| noi | am costat |
| voi | ați costat |
| ei / ele | au costat |
Reparația mașinii m-a costat o avere.
The car repair cost me a fortune.
Mai-mult-ca-perfectul
Synthetic pluperfect on the participle stem costas-; in real use only costase (3sg) and costaseră (3pl) appear.
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| eu | costasem |
| tu | costaseși |
| el / ea | costase |
| noi | costaserăm |
| voi | costaserăți |
| ei / ele | costaseră |
Habar n-aveam cât costase de fapt apartamentul.
I had no idea how much the apartment had actually cost.
Viitor
| Person | Viitor (voi-form, formal) | Colloquial (o să) |
|---|---|---|
| eu | voi costa | o să cost |
| tu | vei costa | o să coști |
| el / ea | va costa | o să coste |
| noi | vom costa | o să costăm |
| voi | veți costa | o să costați |
| ei / ele | vor costa | o să coste |
Mă tem că renovarea o să coste mai mult decât credem.
I'm afraid the renovation is going to cost more than we think.
Conjunctiv prezent
The living 3rd-person subjunctive is (să) coste.
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| eu | să cost |
| tu | să coști |
| el / ea | să coste |
| noi | să costăm |
| voi | să costați |
| ei / ele | să coste |
Vreau un cadou frumos, dar care să nu coste o avere.
I want a nice gift, but one that doesn't cost a fortune.
Condițional prezent
Conditional auxiliary plus the short infinitive costa.
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| eu | aș costa |
| tu | ai costa |
| el / ea | ar costa |
| noi | am costa |
| voi | ați costa |
| ei / ele | ar costa |
Cât ar costa să trimit coletul în Germania?
How much would it cost to send the parcel to Germany?
Imperativ
Because a costa is an inanimate, impersonal verb, it has no real imperative — you cannot order a price to behave. Tables that list costă! are filling a slot, not describing usage. The honest answer is: this cell is empty in living Romanian.
Forme nepersonale
| Form | Romanian |
|---|---|
| Infinitiv | (a) costa |
| Gerunziu | costând |
| Participiu | costat |
| Supin | de costat |
Usage
The bread-and-butter use is asking and stating prices, with the item as subject:
Cât costă astea? — Costă cincisprezece lei bucata.
How much are these? — They're fifteen lei each.
Cărțile de artă costă mult, dar merită.
Art books cost a lot, but they're worth it.
The key idiom is the dative-experiencer construction: a clitic pronoun (mă, te, îl, ne...) marks the person who bears the cost. Mă costă literally lays the price on me. It works for both money and, figuratively, hardship:
Greșeala asta m-a costat scump.
This mistake cost me dearly.
Te costă ceva dacă întrebi? Nu.
Does it cost you anything to ask? No.
O să mă coste o grămadă de bani, dar n-am de ales.
It's going to cost me a ton of money, but I have no choice.
Source-language note for English speakers
English lets you say "I cost the company a lot" with a personal subject fairly freely. Romanian resists this: the natural subject of a costa is the thing that carries the price, and the affected person rides along as a clitic — M-a costat, not Eu am costat. Treat a costa less like the English verb "cost" and more like a small impersonal machine whose subject is a price, with you attached to the side.
Common Mistakes
❌ Cât coști biletul?
Incorrect — the subject is the ticket (3rd person), so it's costă, not the 2sg coști.
✅ Cât costă biletul?
How much does the ticket cost?
❌ Cărțile costează mult.
Incorrect — a costa is not an -ez verb; the form is the plain costă.
✅ Cărțile costă mult.
The books cost a lot.
❌ Eu am costat o avere pentru reparație.
Incorrect — don't put the person as subject; use the experiencer idiom.
✅ Reparația m-a costat o avere.
The repair cost me a fortune.
❌ Cât costează să intri?
Incorrect — again no -ez infix; and the subject is the implied price.
✅ Cât costă să intri?
How much does it cost to get in?
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- a cumpăra — to buyA1 — Full conjugation of the first-conjugation verb a cumpăra, with its ă/e stem alternation (cumpăr but cumperi, să cumpere) and its regular -at participle, cumpărat.
- a plăti — to payA1 — Full conjugation of the fourth-conjugation verb a plăti, which takes the -esc infix in the present and subjunctive and governs a direct object (plătesc factura).