a se întâmpla — to happen

A se întâmpla means to happen, to occur. It is a reflexive impersonal verb: it always carries the reflexive clitic se, and it lives almost exclusively in the 3rd person, because the things that "happen" are events, situations, and circumstances — not people. You ask Ce s-a întâmplat? ("What happened?"), with the event as the implied subject; you never conjugate it as eu mă întâmplu, because a person does not "happen." Treat it from the start as a verb with only two living slots: 3rd person singular (se întâmplă — one thing happens) and 3rd person plural (se întâmplă — several things happen). In the present these two are spelled identically.

Two things deserve attention before anything else. First, the stem is întâmpl- and it carries the letter â in the middle (not î) — Romanian writes î only at the start or end of a word, and â inside it. Second, the se never goes away: it fuses with the perfect auxiliary as s-a întâmplat, hooks onto the gerund as întâmplându-se, and sits before the subjunctive in să se întâmple.

Prezent indicativ

The verb belongs to the first conjugation (infinitive in -a), but only the 3rd-person forms are in real use. The 1st- and 2nd-person cells below exist only to fill a paradigm; you will essentially never hear them, because a se întâmpla describes events, not persons.

Imperfect

The imperfect describes something that used to happen or was happening; the living forms are se întâmpla (3sg) and se întâmplau (3pl).

Perfect compus

The everyday past, formed with the auxiliary a avea plus the participle întâmplat. The reflexive se contracts with the auxiliary: s-a întâmplat (3sg), s-au întâmplat (3pl).

Mai-mult-ca-perfectul

The synthetic pluperfect on the participle stem întâmplase-; in real use only se întâmplase (3sg) and se întâmplaseră (3pl) appear.

Viitor

The formal future is se va întâmpla; the colloquial everyday future is o să se întâmple.

Conjunctiv prezent

The subjunctive 3rd person flips the indicative -ă to -e: (să) se întâmple. This is the form you need for the very common pattern se întâmplă să ("it happens that / it so happens that"), which introduces an occasional, almost accidental event.

Condițional prezent

The conditional auxiliary (aș, ai, ar, am, ați, ar) plus the short infinitive întâmpla, with se in front. The 3rd-person s-ar întâmpla powers the set phrase orice s-ar întâmpla ("whatever happens, come what may").

Imperativ

Because a se întâmpla is an impersonal verb describing events, it has no imperative — you cannot order an event to occur. This cell is simply empty in living Romanian.

Forme nepersonale

The non-finite forms still carry the reflexive se (cliticized onto the gerund as -se).

Usage

The single most important use is asking and reporting what happened — Ce s-a întâmplat? is the everyday Romanian equivalent of "What happened?" or "What's wrong?":

The pattern se întâmplă să + conjunctiv expresses something that occasionally or coincidentally happens — much like English "it happens that" or "I sometimes (just) happen to":

The participle întâmplat also lives on as an adjective and noun: din întâmplare means "by chance," and o întâmplare is "an incident, an event" — a reminder that this verb is fundamentally about chance occurrences.

Source-language note for English speakers

English "happen" takes a personal subject freely: "I happened to see her," "you happen to know?" Romanian resists this. The Romanian verb keeps the event as subject and pushes the person to the side — so "I happened to forget" becomes se întâmplă să uit ("it happens that I forget"), with se întâmplă impersonal in the 3rd person and uit carrying the person. Treat a se întâmpla as a little weather-like machine: it reports that something occurred, and people only appear inside the clause it introduces, never as its subject.

Common Mistakes