A da means to give, and it is one of the small set of irregular monosyllabic verbs in Romanian (alongside a sta, a lua, a bea). Beyond its literal meaning, a da is one of the most idiomatically productive verbs in the language — it powers expressions for making phone calls, sitting exams, broadcasting TV programmes, raining, and much more. Learn it well, because you will meet it everywhere.
Two features cause beginners trouble: the diphthongs in several forms (the eu/ei present dau, the imperfect dădeam with a doubled d), and the way a da almost always appears with an attached object clitic — Dă-mi!, Dă-i!, Dă-ne! — because giving normally has a recipient.
Prezent indicativ
Note the diphthong au in dau (1sg and 3pl), and the short bare dă in the 3rd singular.
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| eu | dau |
| tu | dai |
| el / ea | dă |
| noi | dăm |
| voi | dați |
| ei / ele | dau |
Îți dau banii înapoi mâine, promit.
I'll give you the money back tomorrow, I promise.
Ce mai dă pe la televizor diseară?
What's on TV tonight?
Imperfect
The imperfect is built on the stem dăd- — note the doubled d, which surprises learners. This is a genuine irregularity: you cannot derive it from any present-tense form.
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| eu | dădeam |
| tu | dădeai |
| el / ea | dădea |
| noi | dădeam |
| voi | dădeați |
| ei / ele | dădeau |
În fiecare seară îmi dădea câte un leu pentru înghețată.
Every evening she would give me a leu for ice cream.
Perfect compus
Auxiliary a avea plus the participle dat.
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| eu | am dat |
| tu | ai dat |
| el / ea | a dat |
| noi | am dat |
| voi | ați dat |
| ei / ele | au dat |
Mi-au dat o veste bună la telefon.
They gave me good news on the phone.
Mai-mult-ca-perfectul
Synthetic pluperfect on the stem dădus-.
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| eu | dădusem |
| tu | dăduseși |
| el / ea | dăduse |
| noi | dăduserăm |
| voi | dăduserăți |
| ei / ele | dăduseră |
Îi dădusem deja cheile când și-a dat seama că avea o copie.
I had already given him the keys when he realized he had a copy.
Viitor
| Person | Viitor (voi-form, formal) | Colloquial (o să) |
|---|---|---|
| eu | voi da | o să dau |
| tu | vei da | o să dai |
| el / ea | va da | o să dea |
| noi | vom da | o să dăm |
| voi | veți da | o să dați |
| ei / ele | vor da | o să dea |
O să-ți dau un telefon când ajung.
I'll give you a call when I arrive.
Conjunctiv prezent
The 3rd person is the irregular (să) dea — not dă. This -ea ending is the signature of monosyllabic verbs in the subjunctive (compare să stea, să bea).
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| eu | să dau |
| tu | să dai |
| el / ea | să dea |
| noi | să dăm |
| voi | să dați |
| ei / ele | să dea |
Poți să-mi dai sarea, te rog?
Can you pass me the salt, please?
Condițional prezent
Conditional auxiliary plus the short infinitive da.
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| eu | aș da |
| tu | ai da |
| el / ea | ar da |
| noi | am da |
| voi | ați da |
| ei / ele | ar da |
Aș da orice să fiu acum la mare.
I'd give anything to be at the seaside right now.
Imperativ
The affirmative singular is dă! and the plural dați! With pronouns, clitics attach with a hyphen: Dă-mi! (give me), Dă-i! (give him/her), Dă-le! (give them). The negative singular uses the infinitive: nu da!
| Affirmative | Negative | |
|---|---|---|
| tu (sg.) | dă! | nu da! |
| voi (pl.) | dați! | nu dați! |
Dă-mi cartea, te rog.
Give me the book, please.
Nu da cu piciorul în ușă!
Don't kick the door!
Forme nepersonale
The gerunziu dând carries the circumflex â.
| Form | Romanian |
|---|---|
| Infinitiv | (a) da |
| Gerunziu | dând |
| Participiu | dat |
| Supin | de dat |
Usage
A da heads many fixed expressions. Here are the most useful:
Trebuie să dau un examen greu săptămâna viitoare.
I have to take a hard exam next week.
Dă-mi un telefon când ajungi acasă.
Give me a call when you get home.
Mi-am dat seama că greșisem abia după aceea.
I realized I had made a mistake only afterwards.
Afară dă să plouă.
It looks like it's about to rain outside.
Source-language note for English speakers
English keeps give tightly bound to literal transfer, then reaches for other verbs in every figurative case: make a call, take an exam, be on TV. Romanian does the opposite — it lets a da spread across all of these. The mental model that helps is to read a da as "to put something into motion / release it": you release your voice into the phone (a da un telefon), you release your knowledge onto the exam paper (a da un examen), the broadcaster releases a programme onto the screen (a da la televizor). Once you see the verb as "to release/emit," the idioms stop looking arbitrary. Note too that a da is highly productive with prepositions and clitics — a da peste cineva ("to bump into someone"), a-și da seama ("to realize"), a da în clocot ("to come to a boil") — and these particle combinations carry the figurative weight that English would put on separate verbs.
Common Mistakes
❌ Eu dădeam → dadeam
Incorrect — never drop the second d or the diacritic; it is dădeam.
✅ Eu dădeam o mână de ajutor oricui.
I used to lend a hand to anyone.
❌ Vreau să dă cineva un răspuns.
Incorrect — the 3rd person subjunctive is dea, not dă.
✅ Vreau să dea cineva un răspuns.
I want someone to give an answer.
❌ Dă mie cartea.
Incorrect — the dative pronoun must cliticize: dă-mi.
✅ Dă-mi cartea.
Give me the book.
Now practice Romanian
Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.
Start learning Romanian→Related Topics
- Irregular Present: a da, a sta, a bea, a luaB1 — How to conjugate four high-frequency monosyllabic irregular verbs — a da, a sta, a bea, and the famously two-stemmed a lua — in the present indicative.
- Imperatives with Pronoun CliticsB1 — How object and reflexive clitics attach after affirmative imperatives with a hyphen, but move before negative ones.
- Irregular Conjunctiv: să fie, să aibă, să dea, să steaB1 — The handful of irregular 3rd-person conjunctiv forms — fie, aibă, dea, stea, știe, ia, bea, vrea — that you must memorize because they are the most frequent verbs in the language.
- a sta — to stay, to standA1 — Full conjugation of the irregular monosyllabic verb a sta, covering its meanings of staying, standing, residing, and the construction a sta să (to be about to).
- a lua — to takeA1 — Full conjugation of a lua (to take), the classic two-stem irregular verb that alternates between the strong stem ia- and the stem lu- across its present paradigm.