Romanian grammar books traditionally call one of the verb's moods the condițional-optativ — the "conditional-optative." The name yokes together two jobs that, in English, feel quite separate: stating what would happen (the conditional) and expressing what one wishes would happen (the optative). The same set of forms — aș, ai, ar, am, ați, ar + the verb — does both. This page is about the optative half: how Romanian wraps a wish, a longing, or a heartfelt "if only" around its verbs.
What makes Romanian distinctive is that it does not hand the whole job to one construction. Wishes are split across two moods. The conditional carries personal desires and wistful longings — aș vrea (I would like), de-aș putea (if only I could). The conjunctiv (the să-subjunctive) carries blessings, curses, and third-party wishes — Să fie sănătos! (May he be healthy!), Să dea Dumnezeu! (God grant it!). Knowing which mood a wish belongs to is the real skill here.
Wish-conditional vs hypothetical-conditional
The conditional forms (aș, ai, ar...) appear in two very different sentence types, and learners conflate them at their peril.
A hypothetical conditional answers what would happen if.... It needs, at least implicitly, a condition.
Dacă aș avea timp, aș învăța chitară.
If I had time, I would learn guitar.
A wish-conditional has no condition. It simply softens or emotionalizes a desire. The clearest case is aș vrea, the polite, wistful "I would like."
Aș vrea o cafea, te rog.
I'd like a coffee, please.
Aș vrea să fiu acum la mare, nu la birou.
I wish I were at the seaside right now, not at the office.
The grammar is identical — both use aș — but the meaning of the second is purely a wish, not a hypothesis. The condition has evaporated; only the longing remains.
Aș vrea, mi-ar plăcea: the everyday wish
The workhorse of polite wishing is a vrea (to want) in the conditional: aș vrea, ai vrea, ar vrea.... Compared to the blunt present vreau (I want), aș vrea is softer, more courteous — exactly like English "I'd like" versus "I want."
Ce ați dori să comandați?
What would you like to order?
Mi-ar plăcea să vizitez Maramureșul într-o zi.
I'd love to visit Maramureș someday.
Ar vrea și ei să vină, dar nu au mașină.
They'd like to come too, but they don't have a car.
Notice that the wished-for action sits in a să-clause: aș vrea *să fiu, mi-ar plăcea **să vizitez*. The conditional carries the wishing; the conjunctiv carries the content of the wish. This division of labor is everywhere in Romanian.
The de- conditional: De-aș ști!
Romanian has a striking, slightly old-fashioned but very much living construction for exclamatory wishes: the conditional prefixed with de-. De-aș ști! means "If only I knew!" — a bare wish, with no main clause to complete it.
De-aș putea să dorm până la prânz!
If only I could sleep until noon!
De-ar veni odată vara!
If only summer would finally come!
De-aș fi știut, n-aș fi plecat.
Had I known, I wouldn't have left.
The de- attaches to the conditional auxiliary and lends a literary, almost folk-poetic color. You will hear it in songs, proverbs, and heartfelt speech far more than in a business email. A close cousin uses măcar de- (if only at least), intensifying the longing:
Măcar de-ar ploua puțin, că s-a uscat tot.
If only it would rain a little, because everything has dried out.
Măcar de-aș apuca să-i mai văd o dată.
If only I'd get to see them just once more.
Wishes that use the conjunctiv: Să fie!
For a whole class of wishes — especially those directed at someone else's wellbeing, or invoking fate — Romanian abandons the conditional and uses a standalone conjunctiv introduced by să.
Să ai o zi bună!
Have a good day! (literally: may you have a good day)
Să fie într-un ceas bun!
May it be in a good hour! (said when starting something new)
Să te faci bine cât mai repede!
Get well as soon as possible!
These are not commands, even though they look like the standalone imperative-substitute să-form. The speaker has no authority over whether the day goes well or the patient recovers; they are wishing, not ordering. Context and the wellbeing-content tell them apart.
Blessings and curses: Să dea Dumnezeu!
The most ritualized optatives in Romanian are blessings and curses, and these overwhelmingly use the conjunctiv. The verb a da (to give) supplies the central formula Să dea Dumnezeu (May God grant).
Să dea Dumnezeu să fie așa!
May God grant it be so!
Doamne ferește să se întâmple una ca asta!
God forbid such a thing should happen!
Să-ți fie de bine!
May it do you good! (said after someone eats or drinks)
Curses use the same machinery in the opposite direction — these are common in folklore and emotional speech, and learners should recognize them even if they never use them:
Să nu te mai văd în ochi!
May I never set eyes on you again! (informal, angry)
Bată-te norocul!
Bless you / confound you! (literary, archaic flavor — affectionate scolding)
That last one shows an archaic optative without să at all: bată-te (may [luck] strike you), with the verb fronted and a clitic attached. It survives only in fixed expressions and folk register.
Why two moods? The underlying logic
The split is not random. The conditional is anchored to the speaker's own perspective — what I would like, what I wish were the case. It is inward-facing and personal. The conjunctiv in optative use turns the wish outward, toward a state of affairs the speaker hopes the world (or God, or fate) will bring about. Aș vrea să fii fericit (I would like you to be happy) reports my desire; Să fii fericit! (Be happy! / May you be happy!) launches the wish into the world as a benediction.
| Wish type | Mood | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Polite personal desire | conditional | Aș vrea să plec. |
| Wistful "if only" (self) | conditional (de-) | De-aș putea! |
| Good wishes to others | conjunctiv | Să ai noroc! |
| Blessing / invoking fate | conjunctiv | Să dea Dumnezeu! |
| Curse | conjunctiv (or fronted) | Să nu te mai văd! |
A note for English speakers
English collapses almost all of this into "I wish," "if only," and "may." Romanian forces a choice of mood. Two transfer traps follow. First, English "I wish I were rich" tempts learners toward a past-tense feel; Romanian uses the conditional plus a să-clause: Aș vrea să fiu bogat, or the more genuinely counterfactual Aș fi vrut să fi fost bogat for past regrets. Second, English "May you be happy" maps onto the conjunctiv (Să fii fericit), not the conditional — using ai fi fericit here would sound like a hypothesis, not a blessing.
Aș fi vrut să fi rămas mai mult.
I wish I had stayed longer.
Common Mistakes
❌ Eu vreau o cafea, te rog.
Incorrect — too blunt for a polite request; sounds demanding.
✅ Aș vrea o cafea, te rog.
I'd like a coffee, please. (the conditional softens the request)
❌ Ai fi fericit!
Incorrect as a blessing — this reads as 'you would be happy', a hypothesis.
✅ Să fii fericit!
May you be happy! (blessings use the conjunctiv)
❌ De aș ști unde sunt cheile!
Incorrect spelling — the particle must be hyphenated to the auxiliary.
✅ De-aș ști unde sunt cheile!
If only I knew where the keys are!
❌ Aș vrea fiu acolo.
Incorrect — the content of the wish needs a să-clause.
✅ Aș vrea să fiu acolo.
I wish I were there.
❌ Dea Dumnezeu să fie bine!
Incorrect — the blessing formula keeps să before the verb.
✅ Să dea Dumnezeu să fie bine!
May God grant that all be well!
Key Takeaways
- The condițional-optativ is one mood doing two jobs; the optative job is expressing wishes with no condition attached.
- Personal, polite, and wistful wishes use the conditional: aș vrea, mi-ar plăcea, de-aș putea.
- The de- prefix (de-aș, de-ar, intensified to măcar de-ar) builds exclamatory "if only" wishes — alive in speech and song, with a folk-literary flavor.
- Good wishes to others, blessings, and curses use the standalone conjunctiv: Să ai noroc!, Să dea Dumnezeu!
- The content of an aș vrea wish always sits in a să-clause; never follow it with a bare infinitive.
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- 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.
- The de- Conditional and Wishes (De-aș ști)C1 — How prefixing de- to a conditional turns it into a standalone wish — De-aș ști! (if only I knew), De-ar veni odată! — a compact, slightly literary/folk optative where English needs 'if only', plus măcar de- 'at least if only', and how it contrasts with the să-optative and aș vrea să.
- 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.
- The Conjunctiv in Blessings, Curses, and WishesB2 — How Romanian launches blessings, toasts, well-wishes, and curses with a standalone optative să — Să trăiești!, Să ai noroc!, Să-ți fie rușine! — fixed formulas where the subjunctive alone carries the 'may it be so' force.
- Standalone Conjunctiv: Commands and WishesB1 — How să + verb works on its own — with no governing verb — to give third-person commands, say 'let's', and utter blessings, curses, and wishes.