Romanian gathers everything English does with "would" — polite requests, hypothetical actions, and wishes — into a single mood called the condițional-optativul (the conditional-optative). The name is double-barrelled on purpose: the same forms cover the conditional ("I would go if...") and the optative (the wishing mood, "would that it were so"). It is built with a dedicated auxiliary — aș, ai, ar, am, ați, ar — placed in front of the bare short infinitive: aș merge (I would go), ai veni (you would come), ar face (he/she would do). This page gives you the whole paradigm, the three core uses, and — crucially — the homograph traps that make this mood the single trickiest auxiliary set to keep apart from the others.
The paradigm
The recipe is conditional auxiliary + bare short infinitive (the infinitive stripped of its marker a). The auxiliary marks the person; the infinitive never changes.
| Person | Auxiliary | a merge → merge | a veni → veni | a face → face |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| eu | aș | aș merge | aș veni | aș face |
| tu | ai | ai merge | ai veni | ai face |
| el / ea | ar | ar merge | ar veni | ar face |
| noi | am | am merge | am veni | am face |
| voi | ați | ați merge | ați veni | ați face |
| ei / ele | ar | ar merge | ar veni | ar face |
Notice that the 3rd-person singular and the 3rd-person plural share one form, ar — context and the subject tell them apart, exactly as in English ("she would" / "they would").
Aș merge la mare, dar nu am bani de concediu.
I would go to the seaside, but I don't have money for a holiday.
Ar veni și ei, dacă i-ai invita.
They'd come too, if you invited them.
Use 1: polite requests
The conditional softens a bald demand into a courteous one. Vreau o cafea ("I want a coffee") is blunt; Aș vrea o cafea ("I would like a coffee") is polite. This is the use beginners need earliest — see the dedicated politeness page.
Aș vrea o cafea cu lapte, vă rog.
I'd like a coffee with milk, please.
Ați putea să-mi spuneți cât e ceasul?
Could you tell me what time it is?
Use 2: hypotheticals
The conditional reports an action that depends on a condition — usually one introduced by dacă ("if"). The classic pattern stacks two conditionals: dacă + conditional in the if-clause, conditional in the main clause.
Aș pleca acum, dacă aș putea.
I'd leave now, if I could.
Dacă ar ști adevărul, ar fi furioasă.
If she knew the truth, she'd be furious.
The full machinery of dacă-clauses across the three conditional types lives on the conditionals syntax page.
Use 3: wishes (the optative)
Because the mood is also an optative, it expresses longing — what you wish were true. English leans on "would" or "wish" here too.
Ce bine ar fi să fim toți împreună de sărbători!
How nice it would be for us all to be together for the holidays!
Aș vrea să fiu pe o plajă chiar acum.
I wish I were on a beach right now.
The auxiliary series is unique to this mood
Here is the insight that pays off across the whole Romanian verb system: aș / ai / ar / am / ați / ar is its own dedicated set, distinct from the future auxiliaries (voi, vei, va, vom, veți, vor) and from the perfect-compus auxiliaries (am, ai, a, am, ați, au). Romanian reuses a avea and a vrea as raw material across three different compound constructions, but each one wears down to a different little kit of forms. You cannot deduce the conditional series from the future series, or vice versa. You have to learn each auxiliary series as a labelled unit:
| Person | Perfect compus (a avea) | Future (voi) | Conditional (aș) |
|---|---|---|---|
| eu | am | voi | aș |
| tu | ai | vei | ai |
| el / ea | a | va | ar |
| noi | am | vom | am |
| voi | ați | veți | ați |
| ei / ele | au | vor | ar |
Look down the columns and you see the overlap that causes all the trouble: am and ai and ați appear in two of the three series. The structure after the auxiliary is what disambiguates them — a participle signals perfect compus, a bare infinitive signals conditional or future, and the specific auxiliary word (am vs voi vs aș) finishes the job.
The homograph traps
These overlaps are not academic — they trip up every learner. Memorize the three.
Trap 1: ai (conditional "you would") vs ai (a avea "you have")
The 2nd-person singular conditional auxiliary ai is spelled and pronounced exactly like ai, the present tense of a avea meaning "you have."
Ai veni cu mine la film?
Would you come to the cinema with me? (conditional: ai + infinitive)
Ai un pix să-mi împrumuți?
Do you have a pen to lend me? (a avea: ai + noun)
What follows decides it: a bare infinitive → conditional; a noun phrase → possession.
Trap 2: am (conditional "we would") vs am (perfect auxiliary / a avea "I have")
The word am does triple duty. As a conditional auxiliary it means "we would" and takes a bare infinitive. As a perfect-compus auxiliary it means "I have [done]" and takes a participle. As the full verb a avea it means "I have/own" and takes a noun.
Am veni la voi, dar plouă prea tare.
We'd come over to your place, but it's raining too hard. (conditional 'noi': am + infinitive)
Am venit la voi aseară, dar nu erați acasă.
I came to your place last night, but you weren't home. (perfect compus: am + participle)
Am o casă la țară.
I have a house in the countryside. (a avea: am + noun)
Three identical am's, three jobs. The cue is again what comes next: infinitive → "we would," participle → "I have done," noun → "I own."
Trap 3: ar (3sg and 3pl share one form)
Within the conditional itself, ar covers both "he/she would" and "they would." Only the subject (or context) distinguishes them — just like English "would."
El ar accepta oferta imediat.
He would accept the offer immediately. (3sg)
Ei ar accepta oferta imediat.
They would accept the offer immediately. (3pl)
How this contrasts with English
English builds "would" with an invariable modal in front of a bare verb: I would go, she would go, they would go — the modal never inflects, and the person lives entirely in the subject pronoun. Romanian is structurally similar (an invariable-ish auxiliary plus a bare infinitive) except that the Romanian auxiliary does inflect for person: aș, ai, ar, am, ați, ar. So where English packs the person only into the pronoun, Romanian packs it into the auxiliary — which is exactly why Romanian can, and routinely does, drop the subject pronoun: Aș merge already says "I would go" without any eu.
Common Mistakes
❌ Aș a merge la mare.
Incorrect — the conditional takes the BARE short infinitive; drop the marker 'a'.
✅ Aș merge la mare.
I'd go to the seaside.
❌ Eu ar merge dacă aș putea.
Incorrect — 'ar' is 3rd person; the 1sg conditional auxiliary is 'aș'.
✅ Eu aș merge dacă aș putea.
I'd go if I could.
❌ Voi merge la film cu tine? (intended: 'Would you come?')
Incorrect — 'voi' is the future auxiliary 'I will'; for 'you would' use the conditional 'ai'.
✅ Ai veni la film cu mine?
Would you come to the cinema with me?
❌ Noi vom veni, dacă am putea. (mixing series)
Incorrect — don't mix the future auxiliary 'vom' with a conditional if-clause; keep one mood.
✅ Noi am veni, dacă am putea.
We'd come, if we could.
Key Takeaways
- The condițional-optativul is Romanian's "would" mood: it covers requests, hypotheticals, and wishes in one set of forms.
- Formation: aș / ai / ar / am / ați / ar + bare short infinitive (aș merge, ai veni, ar face). The infinitive never changes.
- The conditional auxiliary series is distinct from the future and perfect-compus series — learn each as a labelled unit.
- Beware the homographs: ai (would you / you have), am (we would / I have done / I own), and ar (he-she would / they would).
- Read past the auxiliary: bare infinitive = conditional; participle = perfect; noun = possession.
Now practice Romanian
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Start learning Romanian→Related Topics
- 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.
- Conditionals: dacă-clauses and the Conditional MoodB1 — How the conditional mood pairs with dacă (if) clauses across the three conditional types — real, hypothetical, and past counterfactual — and why Romanian uses the plain indicative, not a special form, after dacă in real conditionals.
- The Conditional for PolitenessA2 — The high-frequency polite formulas built on the conditional — aș vrea, aș dori, ați putea, mi-ar plăcea — that beginners need early for requests in restaurants, shops, and service situations.
- The Auxiliary Verbs: a fi, a avea, a vreaA2 — How Romanian's three auxiliary verbs — a fi, a avea, and a vrea — build the compound tenses, and why their auxiliary forms differ from the full verbs.