If the Romanian present tense has worn you down — all those stems that warp under stress, port becoming poartă, pot becoming poate — here is the good news, and it is genuinely good. The imperfect is the most regular tense in the entire language. There is exactly one set of endings, it is glued to one fixed stem that never warps, and the only verb that is truly irregular is a fi (to be), which gives eram. That is the whole story. Once you understand why the imperfect is so well-behaved — and it is well-behaved for a deep, structural reason — you can stop worrying about it and put your energy where Romanian actually gets hard.
One ending set, no exceptions
Every verb in Romanian, regardless of class, takes the same six endings in the imperfect:
| Person | Ending |
|---|---|
| eu | -am |
| tu | -ai |
| el / ea | -a |
| noi | -am |
| voi | -ați |
| ei / ele | -au |
There are no alternative endings to memorize for different verb groups, no special endings for irregular verbs, nothing. Whether the verb is a cânta, a merge, a citi, a coborî, or a fi, the personal endings are these six and only these six. Compare that to the present, which has genuinely different ending patterns across the classes and several outright irregular sets — the imperfect simply does not play that game.
Lucram, vorbeam și râdeam tot timpul împreună.
We worked, talked, and laughed together all the time. (three different verbs, identical endings)
Citeai mereu pe canapea, iar el desena la masă.
You always read on the couch, and he drew at the table.
The stem stays put — no diphthongization
Here is the structural heart of why the imperfect is so calm. In the present tense, Romanian verbs frequently diphthongize under stress: the stem vowel breaks into a diphthong when it is stressed, and stays simple when it is not. That is why a purta (to wear) gives port but poartă, and a putea (can) gives pot but poate — the stem itself changes shape across the paradigm.
In the imperfect, the stress falls on the theme vowel / ending, never on the root vowel. So the root vowel is never stressed, never breaks, and stays identical in all six persons. Watch a purta behave in the imperfect, where the present misbehaves:
| Person | Present (stem changes!) | Imperfect (stem fixed) |
|---|---|---|
| eu | port | purtam |
| tu | porți | purtai |
| el / ea | poartă | purta |
| noi | purtăm | purtam |
| voi | purtați | purtați |
| ei / ele | poartă | purtau |
In the present, the el/ea and ei/ele forms break the stem to poartă. In the imperfect, the stem purt- never moves — purtam, purtai, purta, purtam, purtați, purtau — because the stress is on the -a- theme, not the root. The same calm holds for every diphthongizing verb:
Purta mereu o pălărie verde și pantofi maro.
He always wore a green hat and brown shoes. (purta, not 'poarta')
Nu puteam să dorm din cauza zgomotului.
I couldn't sleep because of the noise. (puteam, the stem stays put)
Înghețam de frig la stația de autobuz.
We were freezing at the bus stop. (a îngheța, regular all the way)
The only thing that varies: the -a- vs -ea- theme
So if the endings are universal and the stem never warps, what is there to know? Just one thing: the theme vowel sitting between stem and ending. It splits by conjugation class:
- Class I (infinitive in -a: a cânta, a lucra) → theme -a-: cântam, lucram.
- Classes II, III, IV (a vedea, a merge, a citi, a coborî) → theme -ea-: vedeam, mergeam, citeam, coboram.
That is the whole "irregularity" of the imperfect's formation: which theme vowel a verb takes. And even that is predictable from the infinitive ending. The dedicated class pages (verbs/imperfect/class1, and its siblings for the other classes) walk through each group; the takeaway here is that the theme split is the only axis of variation.
Cântam la pian în fiecare seară. (Class I: -a-)
I used to play the piano every evening.
Vedeam clar că ceva nu e în regulă. (Class II: -ea-)
I could clearly see that something was wrong.
Coboram scările în fugă când m-am împiedicat. (Class IV: -ea-)
I was running down the stairs when I tripped.
The one true irregular: a fi → eram
There is precisely one verb whose imperfect you cannot derive from its stem the normal way, and it is a fi (to be). Its imperfect is built on the suppletive stem er-: eram, erai, era, eram, erați, erau. Even here, notice that the endings are the regular ones — only the stem is unexpected. The full treatment lives on verbs/imperfect/a-fi-imperfect; for now, just register that this is the one form you genuinely have to memorize, and that it is so common (era is the single most frequent imperfect in the language) that you will absorb it almost immediately.
Era frig și ningea, dar nouă ne era cald în casă.
It was cold and snowing, but we were warm inside.
Când eram studenți, eram mereu lefteri.
When we were students, we were always broke.
A handful of other verbs look irregular in the imperfect — a bea → beam, a da → dădeam, a vrea → voiam — but as the verbs/imperfect/imperfect-irregular-reference page shows, these are just stems you spell once and then conjugate with the same regular endings. They are not a new paradigm. A fi is the only verb that earns the word "irregular" in the imperfect.
Why this matters for learning order
Because the imperfect is so regular, it is one of the best early wins in Romanian. You can produce correct past-tense description and habitual statements for thousands of verbs the moment you internalize one ending block and the theme split — long before you have tamed the present tense's stem changes or the perfect compus's participles. Many learners find they speak more fluently about the past than the present at first, precisely because the imperfect refuses to throw curveballs.
Common Mistakes
❌ El poarta mereu costum la birou. (meaning 'he used to wear')
Incorrect — importing the present-tense diphthong; the imperfect keeps the stem: purta.
✅ El purta mereu costum la birou.
He always used to wear a suit to the office.
❌ Nu poteam să ajung la timp.
Incorrect — there is no stem change in the imperfect; it's puteam (compare present 'pot'/'poate').
✅ Nu puteam să ajung la timp.
I couldn't get there on time.
❌ Suntam acasă când a sunat la ușă.
Incorrect — the imperfect of a fi is not built from 'sunt'; it is eram.
✅ Eram acasă când a sunat la ușă.
I was home when the doorbell rang.
❌ Cânteam la chitară când eram tânăr.
Incorrect theme vowel — Class I (a cânta) takes -a-, giving cântam, not 'cânteam'.
✅ Cântam la chitară când eram tânăr.
I used to play the guitar when I was young.
Key Takeaways
- The imperfect is Romanian's most regular tense: one ending set, one fixed stem, essentially one irregular verb.
- Universal endings: -am, -ai, -a, -am, -ați, -au — the same for every verb, including a fi.
- No stem diphthongization: where the present breaks the stem (port → poartă), the imperfect leaves it untouched (purtam, purta).
- The only formational variable is the theme vowel: -a- for Class I, -ea- for Classes II–IV.
- The only true irregular is a fi → eram; verbs like a bea → beam merely have an odd stem spelling, not irregular endings.
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Start learning Romanian→Related Topics
- The Imperfect: OverviewA2 — An introduction to the Romanian imperfect — the past tense for ongoing, habitual, and background actions — and how it contrasts with the completed-event perfect compus.
- Imperfect: Class I (-a) VerbsA2 — How to form the imperfect of Class I verbs ending in -a, including why present-tense -ez infixes disappear entirely in this tense.
- Imperfect of a fi (eram)A2 — The irregular imperfect of a fi — eram, erai, era — the single most frequent imperfect form in Romanian and the engine of all past description.
- Imperfect: The Few Irregular FormsB1 — A consolidated reference to the imperfect's only true irregular — a fi → eram — plus the verbs that merely look odd (a bea → beam, a da → dădeam, a sta → stăteam, a lua → luam) but take the same regular endings on a fixed stem.
- Perfect Compus vs ImperfectB1 — How to choose between the perfect compus and the imperfect for the Romanian past — completed events vs background, plus the verbs that change meaning.