To build the everyday Romanian past — the perfect compus (am citit, au dormit) — you need two pieces: a short form of the auxiliary a avea and the verb's past participle. This page covers how Class IV verbs form that participle. The good news, and the headline of the page, is that Class IV is completely regular: once you know the single spelling rule below, you can form the participle of every -i and -î verb in the language without ever consulting a dictionary. All the genuine participle irregularity in Romanian lives in Classes II and III — Class IV is a safe harbour.
What Class IV is
Class IV (conjugarea a patra) is the group whose infinitive ends in -i or -î. It is enormous: a dormi (to sleep), a citi (to read), a vorbi (to speak), a găti (to cook), a iubi (to love), a coborî (to descend), a hotărî (to decide). To get the participle, you simply replace the infinitive marker a and read the ending the verb already shows.
The -i verbs → -it
The vast majority of Class IV verbs end in -i, and their participle is identical to the infinitive minus the a particle. The infinitive a dormi already ends in -i; the participle just adds -t: dormit. There is nothing to memorize beyond "add -t."
| Infinitive | Meaning | Participle | Perfect (eu) |
|---|---|---|---|
| a dormi | to sleep | dormit | am dormit |
| a citi | to read | citit | am citit |
| a vorbi | to speak | vorbit | am vorbit |
| a găti | to cook | gătit | am gătit |
| a iubi | to love | iubit | am iubit |
| a sfârși | to finish | sfârșit | am sfârșit |
Am citit cartea aia într-o singură noapte.
I read that book in a single night.
N-am dormit aproape deloc, copilul a plâns toată noaptea.
I barely slept at all — the baby cried all night.
Ai vorbit deja cu el despre bani?
Have you already talked to him about the money?
The -esc infix vanishes in the participle
Here is the one thing that trips up beginners. Many -i verbs take the -esc- infix in the present tense: a citi gives eu citesc, tu citești, el citește. You might expect that infix to survive into the participle. It does not. The participle is built from the bare infinitive, so the infix simply disappears: a citi → citit, never citescit.
Am citit știrea de dimineață, e tristă rău.
I read the news this morning — it's really sad.
Mereu a iubit muntele mai mult decât marea.
She's always loved the mountains more than the sea.
The -î verbs → -ât, and the spelling rule
A small set of Class IV verbs ends in -î: a coborî (to descend / get off), a hotărî (to decide), a urî (to hate), a omorî (to kill), a doborî (to knock down). Their participle ends in -ât — and the reason it is spelled with â, not î, is the most important orthographic point on this page.
Romanian writes the same central vowel /ɨ/ two ways depending on position in the written word:
- î at the start or end of a word: început, a coborî, a hotărî.
- â inside a word: român, cuvânt, coborât.
The infinitive a coborî ends in the word, so it is spelled î. But the participle adds -t, which means the vowel is no longer final — it now sits inside the word. So it must flip to â: coborât, hotărât, urât, omorât. The sound never changes; only the spelling does.
| Infinitive | Meaning | Participle | Perfect (ei) |
|---|---|---|---|
| a coborî | to descend, get off | coborât | au coborât |
| a hotărî | to decide | hotărât | au hotărât |
| a urî | to hate | urât | au urât |
| a omorî | to kill | omorât | au omorât |
| a doborî | to knock down | doborât | au doborât |
Au coborât din tren cu trei valize și un câine.
They got off the train with three suitcases and a dog.
Am hotărât să nu mai amân, încep luni.
I've decided to stop putting it off — I start Monday.
Toată viața a urât minciuna mai mult decât orice.
His whole life he hated lying more than anything.
Comparison with English
English forms its past participle with -ed (walked) or one of a long list of irregulars (sung, gone, seen). Romanian Class IV is far kinder: there is essentially a single ending (-it or its spelling-variant -ât) and no irregular members. Where English makes you memorize go → gone against show → shown, Romanian Class IV makes you memorize nothing — you only have to apply the î → â spelling rule, which is mechanical.
The contrast that does matter is with the other Romanian conjugation classes. Class I (-a) is also regular (a lucra → lucrat), but Classes II (-ea) and III (-e) are riddled with unpredictable participles in -ut, -s, and -t (a vedea → văzut, a merge → mers, a rupe → rupt). Treat Class IV as the easy case and reserve your memorization energy for those.
Common Mistakes
❌ Am citescit toată cartea.
Incorrect — the present-tense -esc- infix must not appear in the participle; it's citit.
✅ Am citit toată cartea.
I read the whole book.
❌ Au coborît la stația greșită.
Incorrect — once -t is added the vowel is medial, so it's spelled â: coborât. Medial î is a spelling error.
✅ Au coborât la stația greșită.
They got off at the wrong stop.
❌ Am hotărit să plec.
Incorrect — the participle of a hotărî is hotărât, with â, not hotărit.
✅ Am hotărât să plec.
I've decided to leave.
❌ Ai vorbi cu medicul?
Incorrect — the participle needs its -t: vorbit. Without it, this reads as a conditional, not a past.
✅ Ai vorbit cu medicul?
Have you spoken with the doctor?
Key Takeaways
- Class IV participles are fully regular. -i verbs add -t → -it (citi → citit); -î verbs add -t → -ât (coborî → coborât).
- The -esc- infix is present-tense only and never appears in the participle: citesc but am citit.
- The participle of -î verbs is spelled with â, not î, because the vowel becomes medial: coborî → coborât.
- All real participle irregularity in Romanian lives in Classes II and III — Class IV is the safe one.
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Start learning Romanian→Related Topics
- Past Participle: Class I (-at)A1 — How to form the perfectly regular past participle of Class I (-a) verbs by swapping -a for -at, and how that participle behaves invariably in the perfect but agrees as an adjective.
- Past Participle: Classes II and III (-ut, -s, -t)B1 — The irregular-rich participles of Classes II and III — the -ut, -s, and -t patterns, their stem changes, and why they must be memorized.
- The Perfect Auxiliary (am, ai, a, am, ați, au)A2 — A close look at the reduced perfect auxiliary am, ai, a, am, ați, au — how it differs from the full present of a avea and where clitics attach around it.
- The Perfect Compus: OverviewA1 — An introduction to the perfect compus (am + past participle), Romanian's everyday past tense for completed actions — the only past tense the spoken language uses in practice.
- The -esc / -ăsc Infix (Class IV)A2 — The productive -esc/-ăsc infix that appears in most Class IV verbs — where it sits in the paradigm, why it drops in 'we' and 'you-plural', and why you should expect it by default.