Imperfect of a fi (eram) | Romanian Grammar

The verb a fi (to be) has an irregular imperfect built on the stem er-: eram, erai, era. You will use it constantly, because Romanian describes every past state, every bit of background scenery, and every "it was..." with this one verb. Era is, by a wide margin, the most frequent imperfect form in the language.

The conjugation

Person	a fi — imperfect	Meaning
eu	eram	I was / used to be
tu	erai	you were
el / ea	era	he / she / it was
noi	eram	we were
voi	erați	you (pl.) were
ei / ele	erau	they were

The endings are the same familiar imperfect set — -m, -i, -∅, -m, -ți, -u — but they hang on the suppletive stem er-, which bears no resemblance to the present sunt, ești, este. There is no logical bridge from the present to the imperfect here; eram must simply be memorized. The good news is that it is so common you will memorize it within your first week of reading or listening.

Era cald și soarele abia apusese.

It was warm and the sun had just set.

Eram obosiți după drum, așa că ne-am culcat devreme.

We were tired after the trip, so we went to bed early.

Când eram mic, locuiam la țară.

When I was little, I lived in the countryside.

Why eram does so much work

In Romanian, almost every description of the past — weather, age, mood, location, appearance, the way things simply were — runs through the imperfect of a fi. English often hides this because "was/were" looks identical whether it is a one-off event or a lasting state. Romanian forces the choice, and for states the answer is nearly always eram / era / erau.

Afară era întuneric și ningea liniștit.

Outside it was dark and snowing quietly.

Erau mulți oameni la concert, abia ne mișcam.

There were lots of people at the concert; we could barely move.

Era o liniște desăvârșită în casă.

There was a perfect silence in the house.

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If your English sentence describes a past state or circumstance with "was/were" — it was cold, she was happy, there were many people — reach for era / erau, not the perfect compus. The perfect compus a fost exists, but it frames the state as a single bounded fact ("it turned out to be cold," "the evening was [and is now over]"), which is far rarer in description.

Scene-setting: era as the camera rolling

Because it describes background, era is the natural opener for a story or a memory — it paints the setting before any event happens. A completed event in the perfect compus then drops into that scene.

Era o seară de vară, stăteam pe terasă, când deodată a început ploaia.

It was a summer evening, we were sitting on the terrace, when suddenly the rain started.

Era trecut de miezul nopții când am ajuns în sfârșit acasă.

It was past midnight when we finally got home.

This scene-setting role extends to age and identity, where English would simply say "when I was...". Romanian builds those memory-frames almost entirely on eram and era: când eram copil (when I was a child), pe vremea când eram studenți (back when we were students), era o femeie foarte blândă (she was a very gentle woman). The state stretches across a span of past time, so the imperfect is obligatory; using the perfect compus a fost here would oddly suggest the state was a single, closed-off episode.

Când eram copil, vara mi se părea fără sfârșit.

When I was a child, summer seemed endless to me.

Era un om de o bunătate rară.

He was a man of rare kindness.

era să — the "almost happened" construction

A fi also anchors a very common idiom. Be careful: the past conditional ("would have...") is built with the invariable form fi plus the conditional auxiliary (aș fi căzut — I would have fallen), not with the imperfect eram. The imperfect era, however, drives a different and very frequent pattern: era să + subjunctive, meaning "almost / nearly happened."

Era să cad pe scări azi-dimineață.

I almost fell down the stairs this morning.

Era să uit complet de întâlnire.

I nearly forgot about the meeting entirely.

Here era is impersonal — it does not agree with the subject — and the real verb follows in the subjunctive (să cad, să uit). It is one of the most idiomatic uses of the form, and well worth memorizing as a fixed frame.

The eu = noi overlap

Just like every other imperfect, eram serves both "I was" and "we were." Context or the subject pronoun resolves the ambiguity.

Eu eram acasă, dar noi eram supărați unul pe altul.

I was home, but we were angry at each other.

Noi eram deja la masă când au sosit ei.

We were already at the table when they arrived.

Common Mistakes

❌ Pe atunci suntam student.

Incorrect — you cannot build the imperfect from 'sunt'; it's eram.

✅ Pe atunci eram student.

Back then I was a student.

❌ Eștiai foarte tânără în poza asta.

Incorrect — there is no *eștiai*; the imperfect of 'ești' is 'erai'.

✅ Erai foarte tânără în poza asta.

You were very young in this photo.

❌ Ieri vremea a fost foarte frumoasă toată ziua, când ne-am plimbat.

For background description, the imperfect 'era' is more natural than the bounded 'a fost'.

✅ Vremea era foarte frumoasă, așa că ne-am plimbat toată ziua.

The weather was lovely, so we went for a walk all day.

❌ Eu era obosit.

Incorrect person — 'era' is el/ea; 'I was' is 'eram'.

✅ Eu eram obosit.

I was tired.

Key Takeaways

The imperfect of a fi is irregular and suppletive: eram, erai, era, eram, erați, erau (stem er-).
It is the engine of all past description and scene-setting — weather, states, age, location.
Era is the single most frequent imperfect form in Romanian.
Don't build it from sunt (suntam does not exist).
eu = noi (eram); disambiguate with the pronoun.

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