Expressing Duration and Continuation (mai, încă, tot)

Romanian has no progressive tense — no "be + -ing" to say an action is rolling along right now or keeps going. So the notions English packs into "still doing," "keep on doing," and "go on doing" ride instead on a handful of small adverbs and particles: mai (still / a bit more), încă (still / yet), and the continuative tot (tot plouă — "it keeps raining"). There is also the explicit periphrasis a continua să ("to continue to") and the adverbial în continuare ("still / from here on"). The lesson is the same one that runs through Romanian aspect generally: continuation is adverbial, not built into the verb. Learn the little words and you have the whole system.

încă: "still" (the action is ongoing)

The plainest way to say an action is still going on is încă ("still / yet"). With a positive present verb, încă means "still" — the action that began earlier has not stopped.

Încă is the natural word when you want a neutral, slightly emphatic "still." Its placement is flexible: before the verb (încă lucrez) or after it. Watch the spelling — it is încă with word-initial î and a final ă, a word you will write constantly.

mai: "still / a bit more / any longer"

Mai is one of the busiest words in Romanian, and in this domain it adds the sense of additional continuation — "a bit more," "still," "a while longer." With an imperative or a request it means "stay/keep on a little longer"; with a present statement it overlaps with încă.

The danger with mai is that it has a completely separate life as the comparative marker ("more"): mai mare (bigger), mai frumos (more beautiful). Same word, different job. In mai mare it builds a comparative adjective; in mai stai it adds durative "a bit longer" to a verb. Context — and whether it sits with an adjective or a verb — tells them apart, but it trips up learners who assume every mai is comparative.

The continuative tot: "keeps on, goes on and on"

Here is Romanian's most distinctive continuation device. The particle tot placed before a verb gives a continuative, persistent reading — the action keeps happening, often with a note of "and it won't stop." Tot plouă is "it keeps (on) raining"; tot vorbește is "he goes on talking."

There is an intensified variant, a tot + verb, which sharpens this into "to keep on (tiresomely)" — the same construction touched on under habit and repetition. A tot întreba is "to keep asking (over and over)," with a flavour of mild exasperation.

a continua să and în continuare: the explicit options

When you want an unambiguous, neutral "to continue (doing)," reach for the periphrasis a continua să + subjunctive. It is the dictionary-clean equivalent of English "continue to / keep on," good for any register including formal writing.

The adverbial phrase în continuare ("still / from now on / further") modifies the whole clause and is common in both speech and formal prose. It often translates English "still" with a forward-looking nuance ("continues to be the case").

de + duration: "for / since" (still ongoing)

Finally, to say how long an ongoing action has been running, Romanian uses de + a length of time with a present-tense verb — Lucrez aici de trei ani ("I've been working here for three years"). Because the action is still happening, the verb stays present; de supplies the duration. This is the present-perfect-continuous gap that catches every English speaker, and it has its own full treatment in present with de + duration. A quick reminder of the pattern here, since it is the backbone of "how long":

Notice how de (duration), încă (still), and mai ("a while longer") naturally cluster in these sentences: de o oră ... cât mai durează layers "for an hour" + "how much longer." This stacking of little words is exactly how Romanian builds the meaning a progressive tense would carry elsewhere.

Why it's all adverbial — the source-language gap

English builds continuation into the verb: "is raining," "keeps raining," "is still working." Romanian has none of these inflected/auxiliary forms, so it offloads the work onto adverbs and particles surrounding an ordinary tense. The practical consequence is liberating once you accept it: you never have to conjugate anything special for "still" or "keep on." You pick the tense for the time (present for now, imperfect for the past), and then drop in încă, mai, or tot to colour it. The verb does the time; the little word does the continuation.

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• Romanian has no progressive tense; "still / keep on" is carried by adverbs and particles, not by the verb.
• încă = "still" (ongoing): Încă lucrez.
• mai
  • verb = "still / a bit more / a while longer" (mai stai puțin) — not to be confused with the comparative mai
    • adjective ("more").
• The continuative tot = "keeps on" (tot plouă); a tot
  • verb adds an exasperated "over and over" (a tot întreba).
• a continua să
  • subjunctive and în continuare are the explicit, register-neutral/formal options.
• For how long, use de
  • duration with the present: Lucrez aici de trei ani.