Romanian's futures are scattered across several teaching pages, each going deep on one form. This page does the opposite job: it pulls them all onto one screen as a lookup table, so when you're writing or speaking you can glance, match your situation to a register, and pick the right form by decision rather than guesswork. The headline you must keep: these are not interchangeable. Voi veni and o să vin and am să vin all mean "I'll come", but each belongs to a different register, and choosing the wrong one is the most common future-tense mistake English speakers make.
The master table
All five futures for the verb a veni ("to come"), first person singular, with register and the structural recipe:
| Future | "I will come" | Recipe | Register |
|---|---|---|---|
| Viitor I (synthetic) | voi veni | voi/vei/va/vom/veți/vor + short infinitive | formal, written, literary |
| o să future | o să vin | invariable o să + conjunctiv | neutral spoken — the default |
| am să future | am să vin | am/ai/o/avem/aveți/au să + conjunctiv | colloquial, slightly emphatic |
| Popular / presumptive | oi veni | oi/ăi/o/om/ăți/or + short infinitive | colloquial, regional; also presumptive |
| Viitor anterior (future perfect) | voi fi venit | voi fi + participle | formal, written |
1. Viitor I — voi + short infinitive (formal/written)
The "classic" textbook future. A dedicated auxiliary joins the short infinitive (no a). It lives in news, contracts, speeches, and literature.
| Person | a veni | a face |
|---|---|---|
| eu | voi veni | voi face |
| tu | vei veni | vei face |
| el / ea | va veni | va face |
| noi | vom veni | vom face |
| voi | veți veni | veți face |
| ei / ele | vor veni | vor face |
Negation: nu before the whole unit — nu voi veni.
Președintele va susține un discurs joi seara.
The president will give a speech on Thursday evening. (news register)
Nu te voi uita niciodată.
I will never forget you. (elevated, e.g. a vow)
2. O să + conjunctiv (the spoken default)
Built from the invariable o să plus the conjunctiv (the să-form). The o never changes; only the verb does. This is what you'll use and hear most.
| Person | a veni | a face |
|---|---|---|
| eu | o să vin | o să fac |
| tu | o să vii | o să faci |
| el / ea | o să vină | o să facă |
| noi | o să venim | o să facem |
| voi | o să veniți | o să faceți |
| ei / ele | o să vină | o să facă |
Negation: nu goes inside, before the conjunctiv verb — o să nu vin is rare; the natural negative is n-o să vin (or nu o să vin).
O să te sun când ajung acasă.
I'll call you when I get home.
N-o să vină nimeni pe vremea asta.
Nobody's going to come in this weather.
3. Am să + conjunctiv (colloquial, emphatic)
The auxiliary a avea conjugates here, but in practice the live forms are am să (1sg) and ai să (2sg); in the third person o să dominates and are să sounds stiff. Am să carries a faintly more determined, sometimes promissory or threatening, edge.
| Person | a veni | Note |
|---|---|---|
| eu | am să vin | common |
| tu | ai să vii | common |
| el / ea | o să vină | (are să vină is stiff) |
| noi | avem să venim | less common |
| voi | aveți să veniți | less common |
| ei / ele | au să vină | occurs |
Negation: n-am să vin ("I won't come — and I mean it").
Am să-ți explic tot diseară, promit.
I'll explain everything to you tonight, I promise.
Ai să vezi că am avut dreptate.
You'll see I was right.
4. Popular / presumptive — oi + short infinitive (colloquial, regional)
A reduced auxiliary — oi, ăi, o, om, ăți, or — plus the short infinitive. Casual and somewhat regional, heard in speech, folk songs, and proverbs. Crucially, this same form is the presumptive: o fi acasă usually means "he's probably home", not "he will be home". So treat it as expressing a guess about the present at least as often as a prediction.
| Person | a veni | a fi |
|---|---|---|
| eu | oi veni | oi fi |
| tu | ăi/ei veni | ăi fi |
| el / ea | o veni | o fi |
| noi | om veni | om fi |
| voi | ăți/oți veni | ăți fi |
| ei / ele | or veni | or fi |
Om vedea noi ce-o fi.
We'll see what happens. (set colloquial phrase)
O fi obosit, hai să-l lăsăm să doarmă.
He's probably tired, let's let him sleep. (presumptive, not future!)
5. Viitor anterior — voi fi + participle (future perfect)
For an action that will have been completed before another future point. Built from the voi-auxiliary + the invariable fi + the participle. Formal and written, but indispensable for "by then I'll have...".
Până vii tu, voi fi terminat de gătit.
By the time you arrive, I'll have finished cooking.
Până la vară, vor fi vândut tot stocul.
By summer, they'll have sold the entire stock.
Negation: nu voi fi terminat.
How to choose, in one glance
| Situation | Reach for | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Chatting with friends/family | o să | O să vin pe la șapte. |
| Making a firm promise/threat | am să | Am să termin azi, jur. |
| Formal letter, report, news | voi | Vom comunica rezultatele luni. |
| Guessing about now | oi / o (presumptive) | O fi plecat deja. |
| "By then I'll have done X" | viitor anterior | Voi fi plecat până atunci. |
| Near, scheduled future | present + time word | Plec mâine. |
Common Mistakes
❌ (texting a friend) Voi veni pe la opt.
Grammatically fine but too formal for a casual text — it reads like written Romanian.
✅ O să vin pe la opt.
I'll come around eight.
❌ O să a veni mâine.
Incorrect — after o să comes the conjunctiv (o să vină), never the infinitive with 'a'.
✅ O să vină mâine.
He'll come tomorrow.
❌ Voi a veni la timp.
Incorrect — the voi-future takes the SHORT infinitive with no 'a': voi veni.
✅ Voi veni la timp.
I'll come on time.
❌ (meaning 'he will be home') O fi acasă mâine.
Misleading — 'o fi' is read as a presumptive ('he's probably home'); for a plain future use o să fie.
✅ O să fie acasă mâine.
He'll be home tomorrow.
❌ Voi fi terminat... wait, used in casual chat.
Register clash — the viitor anterior is formal/written; in speech, rephrase with o să and o să fi.
✅ Până ajungi tu, o să fi terminat eu.
By the time you get here, I'll have finished. (spoken)
Key Takeaways
- Romanian has five futures; they differ in register, not core meaning.
- o să + conjunctiv is the spoken default; am să is colloquial and emphatic; voi + short infinitive is formal/written.
- The popular oi-future is colloquial and regional and doubles as the presumptive (o fi acasă = "he's probably home").
- The viitor anterior (voi fi venit) handles "will have done" and is formal/written.
- Negation: nu voi veni, n-o să vin, n-am să vin, nu voi fi terminat.
- Use this table to choose by situation; for the reasoned decision path see the choosing-the-future guide.
Now practice Romanian
Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.
Start learning Romanian→Related Topics
- Choosing a Future (voi / o să / am să)B1 — Which Romanian future to use — o să for everyday speech, voi for formal writing, am să for emphatic intention — and why the choice is about register, not meaning.
- The Romanian Futures: OverviewA2 — A map of Romanian's four ways to talk about the future — voi merge, o să merg, am să merg, and the bare present — and, crucially, which register each one belongs to.
- The Literary Future (voi + infinitive)B1 — How to form Romanian's formal future — the auxiliary voi/vei/va/vom/veți/vor plus the bare short infinitive — where it belongs (news, literature, officialdom), and how clitics attach to it.
- The Colloquial Future (o să + conjunctiv)A2 — How to form and use the everyday spoken future with invariable 'o' plus 'să' and the conjunctive — the default future of conversational Romanian.
- The Popular Future (oi/ăi/o + infinitive)B2 — The colloquial 'popular' future — oi/ăi/o/om/ăți/or plus the short infinitive (oi veni, o fi, om vedea) — which doubles as a presumptive: o fi acasă means 'he's probably home', not 'he will be home'.
- The Future Perfect (Viitorul Anterior)B2 — How Romanian forms 'will have done' with voi fi plus the participle, why it is largely formal, and how it blurs with the presumptive in everyday speech.