A ninge means to snow. Like a ploua, it is a weather verb and therefore strictly impersonal: snow falls, but nobody and nothing "does" the snowing. There is no subject, so the verb has only one form per tense — the 3rd-person singular — and you never place a pronoun before it. You say Ninge ("It's snowing"), with nothing where English puts "it."
A ninge belongs to the third conjugation (infinitive in -e) and has one wrinkle its sibling a ploua lacks: an irregular -s participle, nins (not ningut). This -s participle drives the perfect a nins and the pluperfect ninsese. Everything else parallels a ploua exactly.
The impersonal paradigm — one form per tense
There is no eu ninge / noi ningem in real Romanian; a full personal table would be fabricated. Here is the verb as it actually exists:
| Tense / mood | Form (3sg only) | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| Prezent | ninge | it's snowing / it snows |
| Imperfect | ningea | it was snowing |
| Perfect compus | a nins | it snowed / it has snowed |
| Mai-mult-ca-perfect | ninsese | it had snowed |
| Viitor (formal) | va ninge | it will snow |
| Viitor (colocvial) | o să ningă | it's going to snow |
| Conjunctiv | să ningă | (that) it snow |
| Condițional | ar ninge | it would snow |
Ninge afară, hai să facem un om de zăpadă.
It's snowing outside, let's make a snowman.
A nins toată noaptea și dimineața era totul alb.
It snowed all night and in the morning everything was white.
Why only one form?
A normal verb agrees with a subject, but a ninge has no subject to agree with — it is avalent, taking zero arguments. The verb is simply frozen in its default 3rd-person singular. This is the same logic as a ploua; once you have learned one weather verb, the structural pattern of all of them is yours.
Se anunță că va ninge la munte în weekend.
They're forecasting that it will snow in the mountains this weekend.
Dacă ar ninge de Crăciun, ar fi minunat.
If it snowed at Christmas, it'd be wonderful.
Non-finite forms
| Form | Romanian |
|---|---|
| Infinitiv | (a) ninge |
| Gerunziu | ningând |
| Participiu | nins |
| Supin | de nins (rare) |
Am privit pe geam ningând liniștit ore în șir.
We watched it snowing quietly through the window for hours.
Usage
The bare Ninge is a full sentence and the natural way to report falling snow. Romanian also loves the cu phrase to describe the kind of snow:
— Ce face afară? — Ninge cu fulgi mari.
— What's it doing outside? — It's snowing with big flakes.
Ningea ușor când am ieșit din gară.
It was snowing lightly when I came out of the station.
Sper să ningă până de sărbători.
I hope it snows by the holidays.
Adding place, time, and intensity
With no subject to carry, every extra piece of the sentence is an adverbial — how, where, when. The manner adverb sits naturally right after the verb: Ninge tare ("It's snowing hard"), Ninge des ("It's snowing thickly"), Ninge mărunt ("It's snowing in fine flakes"). Place follows with afară, la munte, în oraș.
La munte ninge deja, dar în oraș încă plouă.
In the mountains it's already snowing, but in the city it's still raining.
A nins fără oprire din seara de Crăciun.
It snowed without stopping from Christmas evening on.
As with a ploua, the inchoative idiom a începe să ningă ("to start snowing") keeps the verb in the subjunctive after a începe — the impersonality does not alter the grammar around it:
A început să ningă tocmai când plecam de la birou.
It started snowing just as I was leaving the office.
A ninge vs a ploua side by side
The two verbs are structural twins — both avalent, both 3sg-only, both fond of the cu phrase. The differences are purely morphological, summarized here:
| Tense / mood | a ploua | a ninge |
|---|---|---|
| Prezent | plouă | ninge |
| Imperfect | ploua | ningea |
| Perfect compus | a plouat | a nins |
| Conjunctiv | să plouă | să ningă |
| Participiu | plouat (regular) | nins (irregular -s) |
The trap rows are the participle (a ninge is irregular) and the conjunctive (a ninge shifts to ningă while a ploua keeps plouă).
Source-language note for English speakers
As with a ploua, English requires a dummy subject — "it is snowing" — that refers to nothing. Romanian drops it: Ninge. Do not look for a word to translate that "it." The second trap is specific to a ninge: English regularizes nearly all its past tenses ("snowed"), so learners expect a regular Romanian participle and produce ningut. The correct participle is the irregular nins, and you simply have to memorize it — there is no rule that predicts which third-conjugation verbs take -s.
Common Mistakes
❌ El ninge tare azi.
Incorrect — a ninge takes no subject; drop the pronoun.
✅ Ninge tare azi.
It's snowing hard today.
❌ A ningut toată noaptea.
Incorrect — the participle is the irregular nins, not ningut.
✅ A nins toată noaptea.
It snowed all night.
❌ Sper să ninge de Crăciun.
Incorrect — the conjunctive 3sg is ningă, not the indicative ninge.
✅ Sper să ningă de Crăciun.
I hope it snows at Christmas.
❌ Când am ieșit, ninge ușor.
Incorrect — for the past background use the imperfect ningea, not the present ninge.
✅ Când am ieșit, ningea ușor.
When I came out, it was snowing lightly.
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