Two verbs supply a disproportionate share of everyday Romanian commands: a fi (to be) and a avea (to have). They are the verbs behind Fii atent! ("Pay attention!"), Fii cuminte! ("Behave!"), Ai grijă! ("Be careful!"), and Ai răbdare! ("Be patient!") — exhortations you hear from parents, teachers, and friends dozens of times a day. Both have irregular imperatives that don't follow the normal "borrow the present form" rule, so they have to be learned as their own small package. And there is a twist that catches every English speaker: Romanian builds a whole cluster of these exhortations with a avea — "have care", "have patience" — exactly where English uses "be". This page gives you the forms, the idioms, and the trap.
The forms
Both verbs have a singular and a plural imperative, and both are irregular enough that you simply memorize them.
| Verb | Singular (tu) | Plural / polite (voi, dvs.) |
|---|---|---|
| a fi (to be) | fii! | fiți! |
| a avea (to have) | ai! | aveți! |
Note the spellings. Fii! has a double i — and that double i matters, because the single-i fi is the negative form (and the bare infinitive). Ai! is identical in spelling to the present-tense "you have" (tu ai) and to the conditional auxiliary ai — context tells them apart, but in a command it is unambiguous.
a fi: Fii … — "Be …"
Fii (and plural fiți) plus an adjective or noun is how you tell someone to be a certain way. These are among the most common things one Romanian says to another.
| Romanian | English |
|---|---|
| Fii atent! | Pay attention! / Watch out! |
| Fii cuminte! | Behave! / Be good! |
| Fii serios! | Be serious! / Come on! |
| Fii pe fază! | Stay sharp! / Be on the ball! |
| Fiți bineveniți! | Welcome! (to several / politely) |
Fii atent la trepte, sunt alunecoase.
Watch the steps, they're slippery.
Fii cuminte cât sunt plecată, da?
Be good while I'm out, okay?
Fii serios, doar nu vorbești serios!
Come on, you can't be serious!
Fiți bineveniți în casa noastră!
Welcome to our home! (formal/plural)
The negative, as flagged, uses the single-i infinitive:
Nu fi supărat pe mine, n-am vrut să te jignesc.
Don't be upset with me, I didn't mean to offend you.
Nu fiți îngrijorați, totul e sub control.
Don't worry, everything's under control. (plural/polite)
a avea: Ai … — "Have …", where English says "Be"
Here is the cluster that surprises English speakers. A whole family of everyday exhortations is built with a avea + an abstract noun — grijă (care), răbdare (patience), încredere (trust), milă (mercy) — and English translates almost all of them with "be" + an adjective.
| Romanian (lit.) | Natural English |
|---|---|
| Ai grijă! (have care) | Be careful! / Take care! |
| Ai răbdare! (have patience) | Be patient! |
| Ai încredere! (have trust) | Trust me! / Have faith! |
| Ai milă! (have mercy) | Have mercy! / Have a heart! |
| Ai curaj! (have courage) | Be brave! / Go for it! |
Ai grijă pe unde calci, e gheață peste tot.
Be careful where you step, there's ice everywhere.
Ai răbdare, mai durează zece minute.
Be patient, it'll be another ten minutes.
Ai încredere în mine, știu ce fac.
Trust me, I know what I'm doing.
Aveți încredere, comisia va lua o decizie corectă.
Have faith, the committee will make a fair decision. (plural/polite)
Ai curaj și spune-i ce simți.
Be brave and tell her how you feel.
Ai grijă can also mean "make sure / see to it"
Beyond "be careful", Ai grijă (să …) extends to "make sure that …" — a soft instruction to ensure something gets done.
Ai grijă să închizi gazul înainte să pleci.
Make sure you turn off the gas before you leave.
Aveți grijă să nu uitați actele acasă.
Make sure you don't forget your documents at home. (polite)
The reflexive "take care of yourself"
To say "take care (of yourself)" as a goodbye, Romanian uses the reflexive a avea grijă de sine with the clitic attaching to the imperative: Ai grijă de tine! is the everyday warm farewell. (informal). With the plural/polite, the reflexive clitic comes along: Aveți grijă de dumneavoastră!
Ai grijă de tine, ne auzim săptămâna viitoare.
Take care of yourself, we'll talk next week.
Why English speakers stumble here
Two reflexes go wrong. First, learners write *fi for the affirmative singular ("be"), dropping the second i — but Fi atent! is wrong; the affirmative needs Fii atent!, and the single i belongs only to the negative Nu fi!. Second, and more deeply, English speakers reach for a fi + adjective wherever English uses "be": they produce *Fii grijuliu or *Fii atent la for "be careful", when the idiomatic Romanian is Ai grijă! with a avea. The fix is to learn the a avea cluster (grijă, răbdare, încredere, curaj, milă) as a fixed set of "have-not-be" idioms, separate from the genuine a fi exhortations (atent, cuminte, serios, binevenit).
Common Mistakes
❌ Fi atent!
Incorrect — the affirmative singular of 'a fi' has a double i: 'fii'. Single 'fi' is the negative form.
✅ Fii atent!
Pay attention!
❌ Fii grijuliu! (for 'be careful')
Unidiomatic — Romanian doesn't use 'a fi' + adjective here; it says 'have care' with 'a avea'.
✅ Ai grijă!
Be careful!
❌ Fii răbdător un minut. (for 'be patient')
Stilted — the everyday idiom is 'have patience' with 'a avea'.
✅ Ai răbdare un minut.
Be patient for a minute.
❌ Nu fii prost!
Incorrect — the negative singular of 'a fi' uses the single-i infinitive: 'nu fi'.
✅ Nu fi prost!
Don't be stupid!
❌ Ai-ți grijă de tine.
Incorrect — the reflexive idiom is simply 'ai grijă de tine'; no clitic attaches to 'ai' here.
✅ Ai grijă de tine!
Take care of yourself!
Key Takeaways
- a fi → singular fii! (double i), plural fiți!; a avea → singular ai!, plural aveți!.
- Affirmative Fii! (double i) vs negative Nu fi! (single i) — the negative uses the short infinitive.
- Fii …
- adjective = "Be …": Fii atent! Fii cuminte! Fiți bineveniți!.
- A key cluster uses a avea where English uses "be": Ai grijă! (be careful), Ai răbdare! (be patient), Ai încredere! (trust me) — Romanian "has" these states rather than "being" them.
- Ai grijă să … also means "make sure that …", and Ai grijă de tine! is the warm "take care of yourself".
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Start learning Romanian→Related Topics
- 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.
- Affirmative Imperative: tu (2sg)A2 — How to form the familiar singular command — the transitive/intransitive split (cântă! vs fugi!) and the high-frequency irregulars (vino, fii, du-te, fă) you simply must memorize.
- 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.
- 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.
- 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.