A fi — "to be" — is the most frequent and most irregular verb in Romanian. It is the backbone of identity, location, age, time, and description, and it does double duty as the auxiliary for the passive voice and the presumptive mood. For English speakers there is one enormous relief: where Spanish splits ser and estar, Romanian uses a single a fi for both permanent identity and temporary state. The cost is that its forms are wildly suppletive — the present sunt, the imperfect eram, and the participle fost share no common stem — so this verb is learned by memory, not by rule. Below is the full paradigm across every tense and mood.
Present indicative (prezent)
| Person | Form | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| eu | sunt | I am |
| tu | ești | you are |
| el / ea | este (e) | he/she/it is |
| noi | suntem | we are |
| voi | sunteți | you (pl.) are |
| ei / ele | sunt | they are |
In speech, este very often reduces to e, and sunt may be heard as sînt/îs in some regions, but the standard written forms are those above. E (informal) is extremely common: El e acasă ("He's home").
Imperfect (imperfect)
| Person | Form | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| eu | eram | I was / used to be |
| tu | erai | you were |
| el / ea | era | he/she/it was |
| noi | eram | we were |
| voi | erați | you (pl.) were |
| ei / ele | erau | they were |
Perfect compus
Formed with the auxiliary a avea (am, ai, a, am, ați, au) + the participle fost.
| Person | Form | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| eu | am fost | I was / I have been |
| tu | ai fost | you were |
| el / ea | a fost | he/she/it was |
| noi | am fost | we were |
| voi | ați fost | you (pl.) were |
| ei / ele | au fost | they were |
Pluperfect (mai-mult-ca-perfectul)
A synthetic tense built on the stem fuse-.
| Person | Form | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| eu | fusesem | I had been |
| tu | fuseseși | you had been |
| el / ea | fusese | he/she/it had been |
| noi | fuseserăm | we had been |
| voi | fuseserăți | you (pl.) had been |
| ei / ele | fuseseră | they had been |
Future (viitor)
The literary/formal future uses voi, vei, va, vom, veți, vor + the infinitive fi. Everyday speech overwhelmingly prefers the o să + conjunctiv form.
| Person | Formal (voi fi) | Colloquial (o să fiu) |
|---|---|---|
| eu | voi fi | o să fiu |
| tu | vei fi | o să fii |
| el / ea | va fi | o să fie |
| noi | vom fi | o să fim |
| voi | veți fi | o să fiți |
| ei / ele | vor fi | o să fie |
Present subjunctive (conjunctiv prezent)
Introduced by să. The third person is the irregular and irreplaceable (să) fie — note it does not follow the indicative este.
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| eu | să fiu |
| tu | să fii |
| el / ea | să fie |
| noi | să fim |
| voi | să fiți |
| ei / ele | să fie |
Present conditional (condițional prezent)
The invariable auxiliary aș, ai, ar, am, ați, ar + the infinitive fi.
| Person | Form | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| eu | aș fi | I would be |
| tu | ai fi | you would be |
| el / ea | ar fi | he/she would be |
| noi | am fi | we would be |
| voi | ați fi | you (pl.) would be |
| ei / ele | ar fi | they would be |
Imperative (imperativ)
| Person | Affirmative | Negative |
|---|---|---|
| tu (sg.) | fii! | nu fi! |
| voi (pl.) | fiți! | nu fiți! |
Fii cuminte, mami se întoarce repede!
Be good, mum will be back quickly!
Non-finite forms
| Form | Romanian |
|---|---|
| Short infinitive | (a) fi |
| Long infinitive | fire |
| Gerund (gerunziu) | fiind |
| Participle (participiu) | fost |
| Supine | de fost (rare) |
Usage
A fi covers identity, profession, origin, location, time, and description — all the work English splits across "be" and that Spanish splits across ser/estar.
Sunt din Cluj, dar acum locuiesc în București.
I'm from Cluj, but now I live in Bucharest.
Cât e ceasul? — E aproape opt.
What time is it? — It's almost eight.
Ești sigur că ușa e încuiată?
Are you sure the door is locked?
Eram foarte obosiți, așa că am rămas acasă.
We were very tired, so we stayed home.
As an auxiliary, a fi builds the passive voice (a fi + participle agreeing in gender/number) and appears in the presumptive.
Proiectul a fost aprobat de comisie săptămâna trecută.
The project was approved by the committee last week. (passive)
O fi fiind acasă, dar nu răspunde nimeni.
He might well be home, but nobody's answering. (presumptive with 'fiind')
Common mistakes
❌ Trying to choose between two 'to be' verbs as in Spanish: 'Sunt + estar?'
Wrong: Romanian has only one verb, a fi, for both permanent and temporary states.
✅ „Sunt profesor.” / „Sunt obosit.”
Correct: the same a fi covers identity (a teacher) and state (tired).
❌ Using the indicative 'este' after 'să': „Vreau să este aici.”
Wrong: the subjunctive third person of a fi is 'fie', not 'este'.
✅ „Vreau să fie aici.”
Correct: 'să fie' is the irregular subjunctive form.
❌ Building the negative imperative as 'nu fii!'
Wrong: the negative singular imperative uses the infinitive, 'nu fi!'
✅ „Nu fi prost!”
Correct: negative imperative singular = nu + infinitive (nu fi).
❌ Omitting 'de' in age and forgetting a fi isn't used for age at all.
Wrong: English-speakers often say 'Sunt 20 de ani' (I am 20).
✅ „Am 20 de ani.”
Correct: age uses a avea (to have), not a fi: 'I have 20 years.'
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
- The Verb a fi (to be): PresentA1 — The present-tense forms of a fi — Romanian's single, all-purpose 'to be' — its colloquial reductions, and its core uses.
- Imperfect of a fi (eram)A2 — The irregular imperfect of a fi — eram, erai, era — the single most frequent imperfect form in Romanian and the engine of all past description.
- a avea — to haveA1 — Complete conjugation reference for a avea — Romanian's verb 'to have' — its uses for possession, age and need, and its role as the perfect-compus auxiliary.
- The Auxiliary Verbs: a fi, a avea, a vreaA2 — How Romanian's three auxiliary verbs — a fi, a avea, and a vrea — build the compound tenses, and why their auxiliary forms differ from the full verbs.
- The Passive with a fi + participleB2 — Romanian's periphrastic passive — a fi in any tense plus an agreeing participle, with an optional 'de (către)' agent — and the crucial fact that this participle agrees while the perfect-compus participle does not.