Expressing Possibility (se poate, s-ar putea, poate) | Romanian Grammar

English says "maybe," "perhaps," "it's possible," and "it might" almost interchangeably. Romanian, by contrast, grades uncertainty by grammatical form, and each level carries a slightly different feel — from the casual adverb poate to the tentative, conditional s-ar putea. Getting this gradient right is what makes your Romanian sound like a native estimate rather than a translated guess. And there is one structural rule that ties the whole family together: every "it's possible that..." frame governs a să-clause (the conjunctiv), never an infinitive. "It might rain" is s-ar putea *să plouă — and that *să is non-negotiable.

The gradient at a glance

Form	Built from	Force	Example
poate (că) indicative	adverb	neutral "maybe," fairly likely	Poate vine și el.
se poate să conjunctiv	impersonal verb	"it's possible / it's allowed"	Se poate să întârzie.
s-ar putea să conjunctiv	conditional, reflexive	tentative "it might," more cautious	S-ar putea să plouă.
e posibil să conjunctiv	adjective + verb	"it's possible," fairly formal/neutral	E posibil să fie închis.

Read down the "force" column and you see a slope from confident to cautious. Poate leans toward "probably"; s-ar putea leans toward "I'm really not sure." That spread is the heart of the topic.

poate (că): the neutral adverb

Poate is, in this use, an adverb meaning "maybe / perhaps." Crucially, it is followed by the plain indicative — no să, no conditional. You can optionally insert că ("that") with no change in meaning: poate vine and poate că vine are equally good.

Poate vine și el la cină, nu știu sigur.

Maybe he'll come to dinner too, I'm not sure.

Poate că ai dreptate, dar tot nu sunt convins.

Maybe you're right, but I'm still not convinced.

— Crezi că mai sunt bilete? — Poate. Sună și întreabă.

— Do you think there are still tickets? — Maybe. Call and ask.

Of all the "maybe" forms, poate (că) is the most confident — it suggests the speaker thinks the thing is reasonably likely, just not guaranteed. It is also the only one that takes the bare indicative.

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The dangerous twin: poate the adverb ("maybe") is spelled exactly like poate the verb ("he/she can," 3sg of a putea). Poate vine = "maybe he's coming"; Poate veni oricând = "he can come anytime." The tell is the second verb: poate + a finite verb (vine) is the adverb; poate + a bare infinitive (veni) is the modal "can."

se poate să: it's possible / it's allowed

Se poate is the impersonal reflexive of a putea — literally "it can [happen]." It carries two related meanings: "it's possible that..." and, very commonly, "it's allowed / one may." It takes a să-clause (see the subjunctive after impersonal expressions).

Se poate să fi uitat, nu-l mai presa.

It's possible he forgot, stop pressuring him.

Se poate să intrăm? Ușa era deschisă.

May we come in? The door was open. (permission)

Nu se poate să fie deja ora trei!

It can't possibly be three o'clock already!

Standing alone, Se poate? is the standard polite "May I? / Is it okay?" — what you say knocking on a door or reaching for the last seat. Se poate. on its own means "It's possible / That can be done."

s-ar putea să: the tentative "it might"

This is the form the page is really about. S-ar putea is the conditional of the reflexive a se putea — s-ar (the fused reflexive-plus-conditional from the reflexive conditional) + putea. Because it is in the conditional, it is more hedged, tentative, and cautious than se poate. English "it might / it could" is the closest match.

S-ar putea să plouă diseară, ia-ți o umbrelă.

It might rain tonight, take an umbrella.

S-ar putea să întârzii puțin, e trafic infernal.

I might be a little late, the traffic is horrendous.

Nu mai insista — s-ar putea să se supere.

Stop insisting — he might get upset.

The difference between se poate să plouă and s-ar putea să plouă is subtle but real: the first states a possibility flatly ("it's possible it'll rain"), the second softens it into a guarded forecast ("it might rain"). The conditional adds a layer of "I'm only guessing." In weather, plans, and predictions, s-ar putea is the everyday default.

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Think of s-ar putea as the polite, cautious end of the scale. The conditional mood pulls it back from assertion — it is the difference between "it's possible" (se poate) and "it might just be" (s-ar putea). Romanians reach for it whenever they want to commit to nothing.

The iron rule: a să-clause, never an infinitive

Here is the structural point that English speakers violate constantly. Spanish, French, and English all allow an infinitive after "it's possible" ("it might to rain" is wrong in English, but "it's possible to rain" tempts the pattern). Romanian does not. Every member of the "possible" family — se poate, s-ar putea, e posibil — governs a conjunctiv (să-clause). The verb after them must be a finite să-form.

S-ar putea să nu vină nimeni.

It might be that no one comes. (să vină — finite, with să)

E posibil să fie închis luni.

It's possible it's closed on Monday.

So "it might rain" is built as s-ar putea + să + plouă — the subjunctive of a ploua. There is no s-ar putea a ploua in Romanian; the infinitive is simply not licensed here. (The only verb that takes a bare infinitive after it is a putea itself as a personal modal: pot pleca "I can leave" — but the impersonal se poate / s-ar putea always switches to să.)

Aș putea să te ajut, sau pot să încerc măcar.

I could help you, or I can at least try. (personal a putea — both 'pot' patterns)

How this contrasts with English

English smears all of this onto one word, "maybe," plus the modals "might / could / may," and lets context do the grading. Romanian instead front-loads the certainty estimate into the choice of frame: pick poate and you signal "fairly likely"; pick s-ar putea and you signal "I'm hedging hard." A second contrast is the obligatory să: English "it might rain" has no overt complementizer, so learners drop the să or reach for an infinitive. Train yourself to hear a să every time after se poate and s-ar putea — it is as automatic as the "to" in "I want to go," just bolted to a different word.

Common Mistakes

❌ S-ar putea a ploua.

Incorrect — 's-ar putea' governs a să-clause, never a bare infinitive.

✅ S-ar putea să plouă.

It might rain.

❌ Se poate că vine mai târziu. (intended 'it's possible he'll come')

Incorrect — 'se poate' takes a să-clause; for 'maybe' + indicative use the adverb 'poate (că)'.

✅ Se poate să vină mai târziu.

It's possible he'll come later.

❌ Poate să vine și el. (intended 'maybe he'll come too')

Incorrect — the adverb 'poate' takes the plain indicative 'vine', not a să-clause.

✅ Poate vine și el.

Maybe he'll come too.

❌ E posibil fie închis.

Incorrect — 'e posibil' needs the să: 'e posibil să fie'.

✅ E posibil să fie închis.

It's possible it's closed.

❌ S-ar poate să plouă.

Incorrect form — the conditional is 's-ar putea' (a putea in the conditional), not 's-ar poate'.

✅ S-ar putea să plouă.

It might rain.

Key Takeaways

Romanian grades "maybe" by form: poate (că) (neutral, fairly likely) → se poate să (it's possible/allowed) → s-ar putea să (tentative "it might") → e posibil să (neutral/formal).
Poate (că) is an adverb and takes the plain indicative: poate vine. All the others take a conjunctiv (să-clause).
S-ar putea is the conditional of reflexive a se putea, so it is the most hedged, cautious option — English "it might / it could."
The iron rule: "it's possible" frames govern să, never an infinitive. S-ar putea *să plouă, never *s-ar putea a ploua.
Watch the homograph: poate
- finite verb = "maybe"; poate
  - bare infinitive = "he can."

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