This is the future of newspapers, novels, speeches, and contracts — the viitor I, built from a dedicated auxiliary plus the bare short infinitive: voi cânta (I will sing), vei merge (you will go), va veni (he will come). It is the form the conjugation tables put first, and it is genuinely useful — but its home is the written and formal register. There is a delicious irony here: the auxiliary descends from the old verb a vrea "to want/will," making it the direct etymological cousin of English "will," yet of all the Romanian futures it is the least colloquial. Where an English speaker's instinct says "will = formal-neutral," in Romanian "will" landed in the dressed-up register.
The auxiliary and the bare infinitive
The recipe is: auxiliary + short infinitive without a. The auxiliary is a fixed set of six forms; the verb that follows is the short infinitive stripped of its infinitive marker a (a cânta → cânta, a merge → merge, a veni → veni).
| Person | Auxiliary | a cânta → cânta | a merge → merge | a veni → veni |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| eu | voi | voi cânta | voi merge | voi veni |
| tu | vei | vei cânta | vei merge | vei veni |
| el / ea | va | va cânta | va merge | va veni |
| noi | vom | vom cânta | vom merge | vom veni |
| voi | veți | veți cânta | veți merge | veți veni |
| ei / ele | vor | vor cânta | vor merge | vor veni |
The infinitive itself never changes — only the auxiliary marks the person. Voi face, vei face, va face, vom face, veți face, vor face: one fixed face throughout.
Vom face tot posibilul să rezolvăm problema.
We will do everything possible to solve the problem.
Veți spune mai târziu că am avut dreptate.
You will say later that I was right.
Vor pleca de îndată ce se termină ședința.
They will leave as soon as the meeting ends.
Where it belongs: the formal register
Use the voi-future when you are writing, or speaking formally. It is the natural choice in:
- News and journalism: Prețurile vor crește (Prices will rise).
- Literature and elevated prose: Va veni o zi când... (A day will come when...).
- Official and legal language: Părțile vor respecta termenii contractului (The parties shall observe the terms of the contract).
- Formal speeches and vows: Îți voi fi alături (I will stand by you).
Banca Națională va menține dobânda neschimbată.
The National Bank will keep the interest rate unchanged. (news)
Într-o zi, vei înțelege de ce am făcut asta.
One day, you will understand why I did this. (literary / solemn)
In casual conversation, switch to o să — see the overview and the dedicated o să page.
Clitic placement
When a pronoun (a clitic like te, îl, îi, mă, ne, le, se) joins the voi-future, it slots between the auxiliary and the infinitive. The auxiliary stays in front; the clitic comes next; the infinitive comes last.
Te voi ajuta cu mutarea.
I will help you with the move.
Îi voi spune adevărul mâine.
I will tell him/her the truth tomorrow.
Ne vom revedea curând.
We will see each other again soon.
Vă vom trimite documentele prin e-mail.
We will send you the documents by email.
The order is rigid: clitic — auxiliary — infinitive (te voi ajuta), or for the longer clitics, clitic — auxiliary — infinitive with the clitic right up front (vă vom trimite). What you must not do is push the clitic onto the infinitive (voi ajuta-te) — that belongs to other constructions, not this one.
A trap: vor (future) vs vor (they want)
The third-person plural auxiliary is vor — and it is a perfect homograph of vor, the present tense "they want" (from a vrea). Same spelling, same sound; only the structure tells them apart. As a future auxiliary, vor is followed by a bare infinitive: vor pleca (they will leave). As the verb "they want," vor stands alone or takes să: vor să plece (they want to leave).
Ei vor pleca mâine dimineață.
They will leave tomorrow morning. (future: vor + infinitive)
Ei vor să plece mâine dimineață.
They want to leave tomorrow morning. (a vrea: vor + să-clause)
The give-away is what follows: a bare infinitive → future; a noun, nothing, or să → "want."
Common Mistakes
❌ Voi a cânta la nuntă.
Incorrect — the future takes the BARE short infinitive; drop the infinitive marker 'a'.
✅ Voi cânta la nuntă.
I will sing at the wedding.
❌ Ei vor să plece mâine. (intending 'they will leave tomorrow')
Incorrect for the future — 'vor + să' means 'they want to leave'; for 'they will leave' use 'vor' + bare infinitive.
✅ Ei vor pleca.
They will leave.
❌ Voi ajuta-te cu bagajele.
Incorrect — in the voi-future the clitic goes before the auxiliary, not attached to the infinitive.
✅ Te voi ajuta cu bagajele.
I will help you with the bags.
❌ Va cânti frumos la concert.
Incorrect — the infinitive after the auxiliary never inflects; it stays 'cânta' for every person.
✅ Va cânta frumos la concert.
He/she will sing beautifully at the concert.
Key Takeaways
- viitor I = auxiliary (voi, vei, va, vom, veți, vor) + bare short infinitive (no a): voi cânta, vei merge, va veni.
- The infinitive never changes; only the auxiliary marks person.
- This is the formal/written future — news, literature, officialdom — not casual speech (use o să there).
- Clitics sit before the auxiliary: te voi ajuta, îi voi spune, ne vom revedea.
- Beware the homograph vor: vor pleca (they will leave) vs vor să plece (they want to leave) — the bare infinitive marks the future.
- The auxiliary is the etymological cousin of English "will," yet it is Romanian's least colloquial future.
Now practice Romanian
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Start learning Romanian→Related Topics
- 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 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.
- o să vs voi: Register and FrequencyB1 — Which future to actually produce and which to merely recognize — o să dominates speech, voi belongs to writing, am să is colloquial-emphatic, and the bare present handles the timetable.
- The Long and Short InfinitiveA2 — Romanian's two infinitives — the short infinitive with the particle 'a' (a cânta) used as the verbal infinitive, and the long infinitive (cântare) that has largely turned into a feminine noun.
- Negating the FutureB1 — How to say 'won't' in every Romanian future — nu sits at the very front of the whole construction (Nu voi veni, N-o să vin, N-am să-i spun), and with the o să / am să futures it contracts to n-o să / n-am să in everyday speech.