A muri means to die. It is a fourth-conjugation verb (short infinitive in -i), but — crucially — it belongs to the plain -i subclass with no -esc infix, unlike a citi or a trăi. Instead of an infix, its difficulty lives in two stem-vowel alternations: the root vowel surfaces as o in some persons (mor, mori, mor), breaks to the diphthong oa in the 3rd singular (moare), and shifts to u in the 1st and 2nd plural (murim, muriți). These alternations are conditioned by where the stress falls and which ending follows — a pattern shared by other plain Class IV verbs like a dormi (dorm/doarme/dormim).
Beyond its literal meaning, a muri drives some of the most common hyperbolic idioms in Romanian: mor de foame ("I'm starving"), mor de râs ("I'm dying of laughter"), mor de plictiseală ("I'm bored to death"). These are everyday speech, not literary flourish.
Prezent indicativ
Watch all three alternations: o (mor, mori), oa (moare), u (murim, muriți). As usual, 1sg = 3pl (mor).
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| eu | mor |
| tu | mori |
| el / ea | moare |
| noi | murim |
| voi | muriți |
| ei / ele | mor |
Mor de foame, hai să mâncăm ceva.
I'm starving, let's grab something to eat.
Florile mor dacă nu le uzi.
The flowers die if you don't water them.
Imperfect
No diphthong here — the imperfect levels everything to the mure- stem with -am endings: muream, mureai, murea...
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| eu | muream |
| tu | mureai |
| el / ea | murea |
| noi | muream |
| voi | mureați |
| ei / ele | mureau |
Muream de curiozitate să aflu cum se termină.
I was dying of curiosity to find out how it ends.
Perfect compus
Auxiliary a avea plus the participle murit.
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| eu | am murit |
| tu | ai murit |
| el / ea | a murit |
| noi | am murit |
| voi | ați murit |
| ei / ele | au murit |
Bunicul a murit acum un an, ne lipsește mult.
Grandpa died a year ago, we miss him a lot.
Mai-mult-ca-perfectul
Synthetic pluperfect on the participle stem muris-.
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| eu | murisem |
| tu | muriseși |
| el / ea | murise |
| noi | muriserăm |
| voi | muriserăți |
| ei / ele | muriseră |
Când am ajuns la spital, deja murise.
By the time we got to the hospital, he had already died.
Viitor
| Person | Viitor (voi-form, formal) | Colloquial (o să) |
|---|---|---|
| eu | voi muri | o să mor |
| tu | vei muri | o să mori |
| el / ea | va muri | o să moară |
| noi | vom muri | o să murim |
| voi | veți muri | o să muriți |
| ei / ele | vor muri | o să moară |
Dacă nu mănânc ceva acum, o să mor de foame.
If I don't eat something now, I'm going to starve.
Conjunctiv prezent
The 3rd person breaks to (să) moară — note the diphthong oa plus final -ă.
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| eu | să mor |
| tu | să mori |
| el / ea | să moară |
| noi | să murim |
| voi | să muriți |
| ei / ele | să moară |
Nu vreau să moară planta, ce să fac?
I don't want the plant to die, what should I do?
Condițional prezent
Conditional auxiliary plus the short infinitive muri.
| Person | Form |
|---|---|
| eu | aș muri |
| tu | ai muri |
| el / ea | ar muri |
| noi | am muri |
| voi | ați muri |
| ei / ele | ar muri |
Aș muri de rușine dacă ar afla toți.
I'd die of embarrassment if everyone found out.
Imperativ
The literal imperative is rare for obvious reasons; the affirmative singular mori! appears chiefly in anger or in fiction. The plural is muriți!, the negative singular nu muri! (this one is genuinely used as a plea: Nu muri, te rog!).
| Affirmative | Negative | |
|---|---|---|
| tu (sg.) | mori! (rare) | nu muri! |
| voi (pl.) | muriți! (rare) | nu muriți! |
Rezistă, nu muri acum, ambulanța e pe drum!
Hold on, don't die now, the ambulance is on its way!
Forme nepersonale
| Form | Romanian |
|---|---|
| Infinitiv | (a) muri |
| Gerunziu | murind |
| Participiu | murit |
| Supin | de murit |
Usage
The literal sense, and the common a muri de (+ cause of death):
A murit de bătrânețe, în somn.
He died of old age, in his sleep.
The hyperbolic idioms with a muri de are everyday spoken Romanian — note they all use a plain noun for the "cause":
Mor de râs, ne mai povestește o dată!
I'm dying of laughter, tell us that again!
Mureau de plictiseală la ședință.
They were bored to death at the meeting.
Mor după ciocolată, nu mă pot abține.
I'm crazy about chocolate, I can't help myself.
Source-language note for English speakers
English "die" is morphologically lazy — one stem, regular endings (die, dies, died). Romanian a muri packs three stem shapes into the present alone (mor / moare / murim), so the work for an English speaker is purely phonological-morphological: memorizing where the o, oa, and u appear. The good news is that the idioms map closely: English "dying of laughter / starving / bored to death" line up almost one-to-one with mor de râs / mor de foame / mor de plictiseală, so the figurative layer transfers easily even while the conjugation does not.
Common Mistakes
❌ El mor de foame.
Incorrect — the 3sg breaks the vowel to oa: moare, not mor.
✅ El moare de foame.
He's starving.
❌ Noi morim de râs.
Incorrect — the plural shifts the vowel to u: murim, not *morim.
✅ Noi murim de râs.
We're dying of laughter.
❌ Sper să nu mor planta.
Incorrect — the 3sg subjunctive is moară (diphthong + ă).
✅ Sper să nu moară planta.
I hope the plant doesn't die.
❌ Am murat de plictiseală.
Incorrect — the participle is murit, not *murat (that's a different verb, 'to pickle').
✅ Am murit de plictiseală.
I was bored to death.
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
- a trăi — to liveA2 — Full conjugation of a trăi (to live), a fourth-conjugation -esc verb, with the toast Să trăiești! and the distinction between a trăi, a locui and a sta.
- a naște — to give birth, to be bornB1 — Full conjugation of a naște (to give birth), a third-conjugation verb with the sc/șt stem alternation, and its reflexive a se naște (to be born), as in m-am născut.
- Imperfect: Class IV (-i, -î) VerbsA2 — How to form the imperfect of Class IV verbs in -i and -î, where the -esc/-ăsc present infix disappears and the -ea- theme takes over.