This is the page to bookmark. The teaching pages walk you slowly through how the conditional is built and why; this one is the flat reference you come back to when you just need to check a form mid-sentence. Everything below rests on one fact: the entire Romanian conditional runs on a single set of six little auxiliaries — aș, ai, ar, am, ați, ar — and nothing else inflects for person. The present conditional bolts those onto a frozen short infinitive (aș veni); the perfect bolts them onto an invariable fi plus a frozen participle (aș fi venit). Learn those six words and the unchanging fi, and you can generate every conditional form in the language. The tables here are the proof.
The six auxiliaries — the whole engine
There is exactly one auxiliary series for the conditional. It does not vary by verb, by tense, or by class. Memorize this column and you own the mood.
| Person | Auxiliary |
|---|---|
| eu | aș |
| tu | ai |
| el / ea | ar |
| noi | am |
| voi | ați |
| ei / ele | ar |
Note that ar covers both 3rd singular and 3rd plural — the conditional makes no number distinction in the third person, so ar veni is "he/she would come" and "they would come"; only context (or an explicit subject) tells you which.
Present conditional: auxiliary + short infinitive
The present conditional ("would do") is the auxiliary plus the bare short infinitive — the dictionary form minus its a marker. The verb is frozen; the auxiliary alone marks person. No stem changes, no -esc- / -ez- infixes.
| Person | a veni → veni | a face → face | a fi → fi | a avea → avea |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| eu | aș veni | aș face | aș fi | aș avea |
| tu | ai veni | ai face | ai fi | ai avea |
| el / ea | ar veni | ar face | ar fi | ar avea |
| noi | am veni | am face | am fi | am avea |
| voi | ați veni | ați face | ați fi | ați avea |
| ei / ele | ar veni | ar face | ar fi | ar avea |
Aș veni cu tine, dar trebuie să stau cu copilul.
I'd come with you, but I have to stay with the kid.
Ar face orice pentru familia lui.
He'd do anything for his family.
For the full walk-through of how this is built across all four conjugation classes, see the present conditional formation page.
Perfect conditional: aș fi + invariable participle
The perfect (or past) conditional ("would have done") takes the present conditional of a fi — aș fi, ai fi, ar fi... — keeps the fi frozen for every person, and adds the participle (the -t / -s form you already know from the perfect compus). The participle does not agree in the active voice.
| Person | Aux + fi | a veni → venit | a face → făcut | a merge → mers |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| eu | aș fi | aș fi venit | aș fi făcut | aș fi mers |
| tu | ai fi | ai fi venit | ai fi făcut | ai fi mers |
| el / ea | ar fi | ar fi venit | ar fi făcut | ar fi mers |
| noi | am fi | am fi venit | am fi făcut | am fi mers |
| voi | ați fi | ați fi venit | ați fi făcut | ați fi mers |
| ei / ele | ar fi | ar fi venit | ar fi făcut | ar fi mers |
Aș fi venit mai devreme, dar a fost trafic infernal.
I'd have come earlier, but the traffic was awful.
Ar fi făcut o impresie mai bună dacă ar fi venit la timp.
They'd have made a better impression if they'd come on time.
The single most important thing to not do here is conjugate fi. It is a tense-marker, the same word in all six rows. See the perfect conditional page for the full treatment, including the colloquial double-imperfect shortcut (dacă știam, veneam).
Negation: nu + auxiliary, contracting to n-
Negation is uniform across both tenses: put nu in front of the auxiliary. In speech and ordinary writing, nu + an auxiliary starting with a vowel contracts to n-.
| Full | Contracted | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| nu aș veni | n-aș veni | I wouldn't come |
| nu ai face | n-ai face | you wouldn't do |
| nu ar fi spus | n-ar fi spus | he wouldn't have said |
| nu am fi mers | n-am fi mers | we wouldn't have gone |
N-aș renunța acum, după atâta muncă.
I wouldn't give up now, after all this work.
N-ar fi spus asta dacă ar fi știut cine ascultă.
He wouldn't have said that if he'd known who was listening.
The contracted n- form is the everyday norm; the full nu aș is felt as more emphatic or careful, and you will see it in formal writing.
Reflexives: the clitic fuses to the front of the auxiliary
With a reflexive (or any object clitic), the pronoun clamps onto the front of the auxiliary with a hyphen, because the auxiliary begins with a vowel. The order is always clitic — auxiliary — (fi) — verb.
| Present | Perfect | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| m-aș duce | m-aș fi dus | I'd go / I'd have gone |
| te-ai odihni | te-ai fi odihnit | you'd rest / you'd have rested |
| s-ar grăbi | s-ar fi grăbit | he'd hurry / he'd have hurried |
| ne-am întâlni | ne-am fi întâlnit | we'd meet / we'd have met |
M-aș duce la munte în weekend, dacă ar fi vreme bună.
I'd go to the mountains this weekend, if the weather were good.
S-ar fi grăbit, dar nu avea de ce.
He'd have hurried, but there was no reason to.
The one routine exception is the feminine direct-object clitic o, which in the present conditional attaches to the end of the verb (aș cumpăra-o — "I'd buy it"), exactly as it does in the perfect compus. Reflexive details live on the reflexive conditional page, and the full stacking logic of two clitics is on the clitic order page.
Usage map: when each form earns its keep
The conditional is not only the "would" of hypotheticals. Here is what the forms actually do in the wild.
| Use | Tense | Example | Gloss |
|---|---|---|---|
| If-clause result (present) | present | Dacă aș avea timp, aș citi mai mult. | If I had time, I'd read more. |
| If-clause result (past) | perfect | Dacă aș fi avut timp, aș fi citit. | If I'd had time, I'd have read. |
| Politeness / softening | present | Aș vrea o cafea, vă rog. | I'd like a coffee, please. |
| Wishes (optative) | present | Ce bine ar fi să terminăm azi! | How nice it would be to finish today! |
| Reported speech / rumor | present / perfect | Ministrul ar fi demisionat. | The minister has reportedly resigned. |
That last row is worth a flag. The conditional has a presumptive / reported-information value, common in journalism: Hoțul ar fi fugit prin spate means "The thief allegedly fled out the back" — not "would flee". The conditional here signals that the speaker is reporting something unverified rather than asserting it. (formal / journalistic)
Potrivit anchetei, suspectul ar fi părăsit țara încă de marți.
According to the investigation, the suspect reportedly left the country as early as Tuesday.
Dacă aș fi în locul tău, n-aș semna nimic azi.
If I were in your shoes, I wouldn't sign anything today.
Common Mistakes
❌ Aș aș veni mâine.
Incorrect — never double the auxiliary; one 'aș' carries the person.
✅ Aș veni mâine.
I'd come tomorrow.
❌ Aș fiu venit la timp.
Incorrect — in the perfect conditional 'fi' is invariable; it is never conjugated as 'fiu / fie / fii'.
✅ Aș fi venit la timp.
I'd have come on time.
❌ Am venit cu tine, dacă aveam timp. (meaning 'I'd come with you')
Incorrect — 'am venit' is the perfect compus ('I came'); the conditional needs the bare infinitive: 'aș veni'.
✅ Aș veni cu tine, dacă aș avea timp.
I'd come with you, if I had time.
❌ Nu aș face asta, dar... (overly heavy in casual speech)
Stiff in conversation — contract to 'n-aș'.
✅ N-aș face asta niciodată.
I'd never do that.
❌ Aș me duce acolo.
Incorrect — the reflexive clitic fuses to the front of the auxiliary: 'm-aș'.
✅ M-aș duce acolo.
I'd go there.
Key Takeaways
- The whole conditional runs on six auxiliaries: aș, ai, ar, am, ați, ar — and ar covers both 3sg and 3pl.
- Present = auxiliary + bare short infinitive (aș veni); perfect = auxiliary + invariable fi
- participle (aș fi venit). The fi never changes; the active participle never agrees.
- Negate with nu, contracting to n- (n-aș veni, n-ar fi spus).
- Reflexives / clitics fuse to the front of the auxiliary (m-aș duce, s-ar fi grăbit); feminine o attaches to the end of the verb (aș cumpăra-o).
- Beyond hypotheticals, the conditional handles politeness (aș vrea), wishes (ce bine ar fi), and reported/unverified information (ar fi demisionat = "reportedly resigned").
- Do not confuse the conditional auxiliaries with a avea: a following participle = perfect compus; a following bare infinitive = conditional.
Now practice Romanian
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Start learning Romanian→Related Topics
- The Conditional-Optative: OverviewB1 — An introduction to condițional-optativul, Romanian's 'would' mood — built from the dedicated auxiliary aș, ai, ar, am, ați, ar plus the bare short infinitive — covering polite requests, hypotheticals, and wishes, with the homograph traps spelled out.
- Present Conditional: FormationB1 — How to build the present conditional across all four verb classes — the auxiliary aș/ai/ar/am/ați/ar plus the bare short infinitive — including a fi and a avea, and where clitic pronouns attach.
- Past Conditional: aș fi + participleB2 — How to form the past conditional — conditional auxiliary plus invariable 'fi' plus the participle — for unrealized past hypotheticals, and how everyday speech replaces it with the double imperfect.
- Conditional of Reflexive VerbsB2 — How reflexive verbs build the conditional — the clitic fuses to the front of the conditional auxiliary (m-aș duce, te-ai duce, s-ar duce, ne-am duce, v-ați duce, s-ar duce), including the dative reflexive (mi-aș dori) and the past conditional (m-aș fi dus) — with the crucial warning that aș/ai/ar/am are CONDITIONAL markers, not the verb a avea.
- Clitic Ordering: Dative + Accusative TogetherB1 — When a verb carries both a dative and an accusative clitic, the order is always DATIVE then ACCUSATIVE, fused into one word: mi-l dă, mi-o dă, mi le dă; ți-l, i-l, ni-l, vi-l, li-l. The 3sg dative îi becomes i-, the 3pl le becomes li-, and the feminine 'o' jumps behind the participle in the perfect compus (mi-a dat-o).