The singular familiar command — what you say to one person you address as tu — is the most irregular corner of the Romanian verb. There is no single ending you can attach to a stem; instead, the form you get depends partly on whether the verb is transitive or intransitive, and partly on a list of high-frequency irregulars that follow no rule at all. The honest summary is: there is a useful tendency, and then there is a memorization list. This page gives you both. Once you have the dozen most common commands by heart, the rest follow the tendency well enough to get by.
The transitive / intransitive tendency
The single most useful predictor is transitivity. As a rough rule:
- Transitive verbs (those that take a direct object) tend to form the 2sg imperative like the 3rd-person singular indicative, usually ending in -ă (or -e): a cânta → cântă!, a lucra → lucrează!, a lăsa → lasă!
- Intransitive verbs (no direct object — verbs of motion, position, sound) tend to form it like the 2nd-person singular indicative, usually ending in -i (or -e): a fugi → fugi!, a dormi → dormi!, a merge → mergi!
| Verb | Type | Imperative 2sg | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| a cânta | transitive | Cântă! | Sing! |
| a lucra | (intr., -ez) | Lucrează! | Work! |
| a lăsa | transitive | Lasă! | Leave it! / Let go! |
| a fugi | intransitive | Fugi! | Run! |
| a dormi | intransitive | Dormi! | Sleep! |
| a merge | intransitive | Mergi! | Go! |
| a citi | transitive | Citește! | Read! |
| a deschide | transitive | Deschide! | Open! |
Cântă-mi ceva, ai o voce frumoasă.
Sing me something, you have a beautiful voice.
Fugi, că pierdem autobuzul!
Run, or we'll miss the bus!
Mergi încet, e gheață pe trotuar.
Walk slowly, there's ice on the sidewalk.
The -ez / -esc verbs
Verbs that carry the -ez- or -esc- infix in the present keep it in the singular imperative, giving forms in -ează and -ește:
Lucrează mai puțin și odihnește-te mai mult.
Work less and rest more.
Vorbește mai tare, nu te aud.
Speak louder, I can't hear you.
So a lucra → lucrează!, a vorbi → vorbește!, a citi → citește!, a gândi → gândește! (think!). These are regular within their own pattern.
The high-frequency irregulars: memorize these
A small set of extremely common verbs have imperatives you cannot derive from any rule. These are command vocabulary — learn them as words, the way you learned vino before you learned conjugation tables.
| Verb | Imperative 2sg | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| a veni (to come) | vino! | Come! |
| a fi (to be) | fii! | Be! |
| a se duce (to go [away]) | du-te! | Go! |
| a face (to do/make) | fă! | Do! / Make! |
| a da (to give) | dă! | Give! |
| a sta (to stay/sit) | stai! | Stay! / Wait! / Sit! |
| a spune (to say) | spune! | Say! / Tell! |
| a zice (to say) | zi! | Say it! / Go on! |
| a aduce (to bring) | adu! / ad-o! | Bring! |
| — | hai! | Come on! / Let's! |
Note hai! — it is not an imperative of any infinitive (it is a fossilized interjection of Turkish origin), but it functions as one of the most common commands in the language, meaning "come on", "let's go", "hurry". It even has a plural, haideți! (and the colloquial haide! for one person).
Vino să vezi ce am găsit!
Come see what I found!
Fii atent la trepte, sunt alunecoase.
Watch the steps, they're slippery. (lit. 'be attentive')
Du-te și întreabă-l direct pe el.
Go and ask him directly.
Fă-mi și mie o cafea, te rog.
Make me a coffee too, please.
Stai puțin, vin imediat.
Wait a moment, I'm coming right away.
Hai, că am întârziat deja!
Come on, we're already late!
Reflexive verbs: the clitic attaches
When the verb is reflexive, the reflexive pronoun attaches to the end of the affirmative imperative with a hyphen: a se duce → du-te!, a se așeza → așază-te! (sit down!), a se grăbi → grăbește-te! (hurry up!). This clitic behavior is covered in full on the imperatives with clitics page, but it is worth seeing now because so many everyday commands are reflexive.
Grăbește-te, ne așteaptă!
Hurry up, they're waiting for us!
Așază-te, te rog, discuția va dura.
Have a seat, please, this will take a while.
When in doubt
If you do not know the singular imperative of a verb and it is not on the irregular list, your safest bets, in order, are: (1) check whether it is transitive (try -ă) or intransitive (try -i); (2) fall back on the form you would use to say "you do it" (the 2sg indicative), which is correct for many intransitives; (3) in genuinely uncertain cases, rephrase with the softer standalone conjunctiv — Să vii! instead of Vino! — which sidesteps the irregular form entirely while staying perfectly natural.
Common Mistakes
❌ Veni aici!
Incorrect — 'veni' is the infinitive/negative stem; the affirmative command is irregular.
✅ Vino aici!
Come here!
❌ Fă (meaning 'be') cuminte!
Incorrect — confusing 'do/make' with 'be'; 'a fi' has its own imperative.
✅ Fii cuminte!
Be good!
❌ Duce-te acasă!
Incorrect — the reflexive imperative is irregular and the clitic attaches.
✅ Du-te acasă!
Go home!
❌ Cânti ceva! (as a command)
Incorrect — 'a cânta' is transitive, so the imperative is the -ă form.
✅ Cântă ceva!
Sing something!
❌ Da-mi telefonul!
Incorrect — the imperative of 'a da' is 'dă' (with the accent), not 'da'.
✅ Dă-mi telefonul!
Give me the phone!
Key Takeaways
- The 2sg imperative is the most irregular verb form in Romanian — there is no universal ending.
- Use transitivity as a first guess: transitive verbs lean toward -ă (cântă!), intransitive toward -i (fugi!) — but the split is imperfect.
- Memorize the high-frequency irregulars as vocabulary: vino, fii, du-te, fă, dă, stai, spune, zi, hai.
- Reflexive imperatives attach the clitic with a hyphen: du-te!, grăbește-te!
- When unsure, the softer standalone conjunctiv (Să vii!) sidesteps the irregular form.
Now practice Romanian
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Start learning Romanian→Related Topics
- The Imperative: OverviewA2 — An introduction to the Romanian imperative — its two genuine forms (2sg familiar and 2pl/polite), and why everything else falls to the conjunctiv.
- Affirmative Imperative: voi (2pl) and PolitenessA2 — The plural imperative equals the present indicative 2pl (cântați!, mergeți!) — and because Romanian has no dedicated polite-singular command, this same form carries politeness with dumneavoastră.
- The Negative ImperativeA2 — The crucial asymmetry: the negative singular command uses nu + the short infinitive (Nu cânta!, Nu veni!), not the affirmative form — while the negative plural uses nu + the indicative 2pl.
- Imperatives with Pronoun CliticsB1 — How object and reflexive clitics attach after affirmative imperatives with a hyphen, but move before negative ones.
- Irregular Imperatives ReferenceB1 — The short must-learn list of irregular singular imperatives — fă!, vino!, zi!, adu!, ia!, dă!, fii!, du-te! and friends — that ignore the usual 'borrow the present form' rule.