The most common verbs in Romanian — a fi, a avea, a face, a zice, a da — also have the most irregular perfect-simplu stems, and these are exactly the verbs you meet on the first page of any novel or fairy tale. This page is built as a reading reference: a table of the irregular stems for the highest-frequency verbs, so that when you hit fu, zise, făcu, or avu in a text, you can decode them on sight. For nearly all learners these are passive knowledge — you need to read them, not produce them — so the goal here is recognition, not drill. The good news: there is a reliable shortcut. The irregular perfect-simplu stem usually matches the participle stem, so if you already know the participle, you can often guess the perfect simplu.
The decoding shortcut: participle → perfect simplu
The single most useful pattern is this: for many irregular verbs, the perfect simplu is built on the same stem as the past participle. The participle zis gives the perfect simplu zise; mers gives merse; spus gives spuse; pus gives puse. If you have learned the perfect compus, you already half-know the perfect simplu.
| Infinitive | Participle (perfect compus) | Perfect simplu 3sg |
|---|---|---|
| a zice (to say) | a zis | zise |
| a spune (to say/tell) | a spus | spuse |
| a merge (to go) | a mers | merse |
| a pune (to put) | a pus | puse |
| a rămâne (to remain) | a rămas | rămase |
Atunci el zise: „Nu mă tem de nimeni.”
Then he said: 'I fear no one.' (literary — zise from a zice)
Puse cheia în buzunar și ieși fără să privească înapoi.
He put the key in his pocket and went out without looking back. (literary — puse from a pune)
High-frequency irregular stems
These are the irregular perfect-simplu forms you will meet most often in reading. The table gives the 1sg and 3sg (the two you see most), with the 3pl in -ră implied by the regular plural rule.
| Infinitive | 1sg (eu) | 3sg (el/ea) | 3pl (ei/ele) | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| a fi | fui | fu | fură | to be → was/were |
| a avea | avui | avu | avură | to have → had |
| a face | făcui | făcu | făcură | to do/make → did/made |
| a zice | zisei | zise | ziseră | to say → said |
| a spune | spusei | spuse | spuseră | to tell → told |
| a da | dădui | dădu | dădură | to give → gave |
| a veni | venii | veni | veniră | to come → came |
| a merge | mersei | merse | merseră | to go → went |
A few notes on the trickier entries:
- a fi is the most irregular and most frequent: fui, fuși, fu, furăm, furăți, fură. The 3sg fu ("he/she was") and 3pl fură are everywhere in narration. (Beware: fură is also "they steal" — context decides.)
- a da doubles the d: dădui, dăduși, dădu, dădurăm, dădurăți, dădură.
- a veni is actually regular Class IV in form (venii, veni, veniră), but it is listed here because it is so high-frequency and its short 3sg veni coincides with the infinitive.
- a avea: avui, avuși, avu, avurăm, avurăți, avură.
A fost odată ca niciodată un împărat care avu trei fii.
Once upon a time there was an emperor who had three sons. (folklore — avu from a avea)
Făcu un pas înainte, dar se opri imediat.
He took a step forward, but stopped at once. (literary — făcu from a face)
Le dădu copiilor câte un măr și plecă.
She gave each of the children an apple and left. (literary — dădu from a da)
Veniră toți la nuntă, din toate satele.
They all came to the wedding, from every village. (literary — veniră from a veni)
a fi in full — the one to know cold
Because a fi anchors so much narration (and pairs with the imperfect era), it is worth seeing its full perfect simplu once.
| Person | a fi | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| eu | fui | I was |
| tu | fuși | you were |
| el / ea | fu | he/she was |
| noi | furăm | we were |
| voi | furăți | you (pl.) were |
| ei / ele | fură | they were |
Fură zile grele, dar trecură și ele.
They were hard days, but they too passed. (literary)
Comparison with English and the Romance siblings
English irregular pasts (go → went, give → gave, say → said) are unpredictable stem changes you simply memorise — and you do use them constantly. Romanian's irregular perfect-simplu stems are equally unpredictable, but the contrast is in frequency of use: an English speaker uses "went" every day, whereas a Romanian uses merse almost never in speech (outside Oltenia) and instead says am mers. So while you must produce English "went," you only need to recognise Romanian merse. The participle shortcut (mers → merse) has no English parallel, but it does echo Spanish and French, where some irregular preterites also lean on a shared "perfect" stem.
Common Mistakes
❌ Reading 'fură' only as 'they steal'.
Incorrect in a narrative context — fură is also the perfect simplu 'they were' (a fi); context decides.
✅ Fură vremuri grele. → 'They were hard times.'
Correct: in past-tense narration, fură is 'they were'.
❌ Trying to produce 'el făcu' in conversation outside Oltenia.
Incorrect register — say a făcut in speech; făcu is literary/regional.
✅ El a făcut o greșeală. (spoken) / El făcu o greșeală. (literary)
He made a mistake.
❌ dadu / dadura without diacritics for a da.
Incorrect spelling — the ă is obligatory: dădu, dădură.
✅ Îi dădu mâna și zâmbi.
He gave him his hand and smiled.
❌ Assuming you must memorise these for speaking.
Incorrect priority — for most learners these are passive, reading-only knowledge.
✅ Learning to recognise zise, fu, făcu, dădu on sight in a text.
Correct: treat them as a decoding reference.
Key Takeaways
- The highest-frequency verbs have the most irregular perfect-simplu stems: fu, avu, făcu, zise, dădu, veni, merse, spuse.
- The reliable decoding shortcut: the perfect-simplu stem usually matches the participle stem (zis → zise, mers → merse, spus → spuse, pus → puse).
- a fi: fui, fuși, fu, furăm, furăți, fură — note fură doubles as "they steal."
- These are passive, reading-only knowledge for most learners; recognise them, but say the perfect compus when you speak.
Now practice Romanian
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Start learning Romanian→Related Topics
- Perfect Simplu: Regular FormationB2 — The regular perfect-simplu endings by conjugation class, built on the -ră- plural base, plus the short 3sg form and the homography trap with the present.
- The Perfect Simplu: Overview and RegisterB2 — What the perfectul simplu is, why it is literary nationwide but spoken only in Oltenia, and why — unlike Spanish or French — it is the marked past, not the default one.
- Perfect Simplu in Oltenian SpeechC1 — How the perfect simplu lives on as a spoken tense in Oltenia, marking action completed earlier the same day — a genuine aspectual distinction, not just regional colour.
- Frequent Irregular ParticiplesB1 — A frequency-ordered reference of the must-know irregular past participles — the small set of verbs that covers most spoken-past usage.
- Using the Imperfect in NarrativeB1 — How the Romanian imperfect paints the backdrop — time, weather, ongoing actions, states, age, and habits — against which perfect-compus events happen, plus its softening use in polite requests.