In English every verb needs a subject, so when there's nothing to be the subject we wheel in a dummy: it rains, it snows, it is cold. Romanian does no such thing. Weather verbs are pure third-person-singular forms standing entirely alone — no it, no el, no placeholder of any kind. Plouă is a complete sentence meaning "It's raining." Getting comfortable with the empty subject slot is the whole lesson here.
Weather verbs have no subject
The core weather verbs exist essentially only in the third person singular, with no subject expressed:
| Verb | 3sg form | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| a ploua | plouă | it rains / it's raining |
| a ninge | ninge | it snows / it's snowing |
| a tuna | tună | it thunders |
| a fulgera | fulgeră | it lightnings / there's lightning |
| a burnița | burnițează | it drizzles |
| a se însera | se înserează | it's getting dark (evening) |
Plouă de azi-dimineață fără oprire.
It's been raining nonstop since this morning.
Ninge! Hai să facem un om de zăpadă.
It's snowing! Let's make a snowman.
A tunat toată noaptea și n-am putut dormi.
It thundered all night and I couldn't sleep.
The single word plouă is the entire sentence. There is no slot for a subject to fill, because the event simply happens; no one and nothing performs it.
To put weather in the past or future
Because these are normal verbs apart from lacking a subject, you can conjugate them through the tenses — still only in the singular.
Mâine va ploua, zice meteorologul.
It's going to rain tomorrow, the weatherman says.
A nins toată săptămâna trecută.
It snowed all of last week.
Dacă ar ploua acum, ar fi perfect pentru grădină.
If it rained now, it would be perfect for the garden.
"a fi" + adjective: E frig, E cald
A second way to talk about weather and ambient conditions is a fi ("to be") in the third person singular plus an adjective or noun — again with no subject. This covers temperature and general conditions.
E frig afară, ia-ți o geacă.
It's cold outside, take a jacket.
A fost foarte cald ieri la prânz.
It was very hot yesterday at noon.
E soare și cer senin — zi perfectă.
It's sunny and the sky is clear — a perfect day.
Era întuneric când am ajuns acasă.
It was dark when I got home.
Notice that E frig (literally "is cold") needs no it and no este… with a subject. The same goes for E cald (it's hot), E soare (it's sunny), E ceață (it's foggy), E vânt (it's windy).
"a face" weather idioms
A third pattern uses a face ("to make/do") reflexively or impersonally to express a change in conditions — "it's getting…". This often pairs with se (the impersonal/reflexive marker).
Afară se face întuneric, hai să mergem.
It's getting dark outside, let's go.
Se face frig seara, chiar și vara.
It gets cold in the evenings, even in summer.
Toamna se înnorează repede după-amiaza.
In autumn it clouds over quickly in the afternoon.
The contrast is aspectual: E frig describes the state ("it is cold"), while se face frig describes the transition into it ("it's getting / turning cold").
The impersonal trebuie
The same subjectless logic governs trebuie ("must / it is necessary"). It is famously frozen in the third person singular — trebuie serves for all persons — and takes a să-clause for the action that's required. There is no subject for trebuie itself; the person is encoded inside the să-clause.
Trebuie să plec acum, am întârziat.
I have to leave now, I'm late.
Trebuie să fii mai atent data viitoare.
You need to be more careful next time.
Nu trebuie să-ți faci griji pentru asta.
You don't need to worry about that.
Common Mistakes
❌ It plouă astăzi.
Incorrect — there is no English-style 'it' before a Romanian weather verb.
✅ Plouă astăzi.
It's raining today.
❌ El ninge afară.
Incorrect — weather verbs take no subject pronoun at all.
✅ Ninge afară.
It's snowing outside.
❌ Este frig astăzi este.
Incorrect — no subject, and no doubled verb; just 'E frig'.
✅ E frig astăzi.
It's cold today.
❌ Eu trebuie să plec.
Awkward — 'trebuie' is impersonal; adding a subject pronoun to it is unidiomatic.
✅ Trebuie să plec.
I have to leave.
❌ Ea fulgeră tare.
Incorrect — 'fulgeră' (lightning) has no subject; 'ea' makes it 'she lightnings'.
✅ Fulgeră tare afară.
There's heavy lightning outside.
Key Takeaways
- Romanian weather verbs (plouă, ninge, tună, fulgeră) are pure third-person-singular forms with zero subject — no it, no pronoun.
- Conjugate them through tenses normally (va ploua, a nins, ar ploua), but always in the singular.
- E frig / E cald / E soare ("a fi" + adjective) and se face frig / se înnorează ("a face" idioms) are the two other subjectless weather patterns; a fi states the condition, a face marks the change into it.
- Trebuie is frozen in the 3sg and takes a să-clause — the subject sits inside that clause, never on trebuie.
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Start learning Romanian→Related Topics
- Existential Verbs (este, sunt, există, a se afla)A2 — How Romanian says 'there is / there are' — inverted 'a fi' with no 'there', plus a exista and a se afla, and the contrast with locative a fi.
- The Impersonal se (one/you/they)B1 — How Romanian uses se for fully generic statements with no specific subject — the natural rendering of English 'one', 'you', 'they', and 'people'.
- The Many Faces of trebuieB2 — trebuie is invariable and impersonal — never eu trebui — yet it wears many hats: trebuie să plec 'I must go' (the person lives in the să-clause), trebuie făcut 'it needs doing', evidential trebuie că doarme 'he must be asleep', and the dative îmi trebuie 'I need'. Plus the past forms trebuia să (was supposed to), ar trebui să (should), and a trebuit să (had to).
- Conjunctiv After Impersonal ExpressionsB1 — When impersonal expressions of necessity, possibility, and judgment (trebuie să, e bine să, e posibil să, merită să) trigger the conjunctiv — and why factive impersonals take 'că + indicative' instead.
- Verbs of Becoming and Change (a deveni, a se face)B1 — Romanian splits English 'become' across several verbs — formal a deveni, everyday a se face, the 'end up / rise to' a ajunge — plus an inchoative layer where the prefix în-/îm- + an adjective lexicalizes 'become X' (a îmbătrâni, a se îmbolnăvi).