Once you can recognise that a verb is in the perfect simplu, the next step is reading the person off it correctly. The forms are highly regular within each conjugation class, and they share two unmistakable features across all classes: a very short third-person singular and a -ră- marker that runs through all three plural forms. This page lays out the regular endings class by class, shows how the short 3sg is built, and warns you about the one form that looks exactly like the present tense — the reason the perfect simplu retreated from speech in most of the country.
The shared skeleton
Every regular perfect simplu, whatever the class, follows the same template:
- Singular: a personal vowel/theme + the endings -i (1sg), -și (2sg), and a bare short form (3sg).
- Plural: the -ră- base + -m (1pl), -ți (2pl), and nothing extra (3pl) → -răm, -răți, -ră.
So if you learn to find the -ră- block, you have the entire plural for free, and the singular is built on the same theme vowel.
Class I (-a verbs): a cânta
Class I verbs (infinitive in -a) build the perfect simplu on the theme vowel -a-. The third-person singular is simply cântă — the stem plus a final -ă.
| Person | a cânta (to sing) | Ending |
|---|---|---|
| eu | cântai | -ai |
| tu | cântași | -ași |
| el / ea | cântă | -ă |
| noi | cântarăm | -arăm |
| voi | cântarăți | -arăți |
| ei / ele | cântară | -ară |
Intră în casă, lăsă geanta pe scaun și se așeză.
She entered the house, set the bag on the chair, and sat down. (literary)
Cântară toată noaptea, până în zori.
They sang all night, until dawn. (literary)
Class IV (-i / -î verbs): a dormi
Class IV verbs (infinitive in -i or -î) build on the theme vowel -i-. The 3sg is the bare dormi — identical in shape to the infinitive but distinguished by context.
| Person | a dormi (to sleep) | Ending |
|---|---|---|
| eu | dormii | -ii |
| tu | dormiși | -iși |
| el / ea | dormi | -i |
| noi | dormirăm | -irăm |
| voi | dormirăți | -irăți |
| ei / ele | dormiră | -iră |
Dormi adânc și nu auzi furtuna de afară.
He slept deeply and didn't hear the storm outside. (literary)
Copiii adormiră repede după drumul lung.
The children fell asleep quickly after the long journey. (literary)
Classes II and III (-ea / -e verbs): the -u- type, a vedea
Many Class II (-ea) and Class III (-e) verbs form a perfect simplu with the theme vowel -u-. The 3sg ends in -u: văzu, bău, crezu.
| Person | a vedea (to see) | Ending |
|---|---|---|
| eu | văzui | -ui |
| tu | văzuși | -uși |
| el / ea | văzu | -u |
| noi | văzurăm | -urăm |
| voi | văzurăți | -urăți |
| ei / ele | văzură | -ură |
Văzu lumina de la fereastră și înțelese că nu dormea nimeni.
He saw the light at the window and understood that no one was asleep. (literary)
Class III with -se-: a merge
Another large Class III subgroup builds the perfect simplu with an -se- element (often where the participle ends in -s): mersei, mersei… The 3sg is merse.
| Person | a merge (to go / walk) | Ending |
|---|---|---|
| eu | mersei | -sei |
| tu | merseși | -seși |
| el / ea | merse | -se |
| noi | merserăm | -serăm |
| voi | merserăți | -serăți |
| ei / ele | merseră | -seră |
Merse până la poartă, se opri și se întoarse.
He walked up to the gate, stopped, and turned back. (literary)
All four patterns side by side
| Person | I: cânta | IV: dormi | II/III -u-: vedea | III -se-: merge |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| eu | cântai | dormii | văzui | mersei |
| tu | cântași | dormiși | văzuși | merseși |
| el / ea | cântă | dormi | văzu | merse |
| noi | cântarăm | dormirăm | văzurăm | merserăm |
| voi | cântarăți | dormirăți | văzurăți | merserăți |
| ei / ele | cântară | dormiră | văzură | merseră |
Across all four, the plural is the same skeleton — theme vowel + -ră- + person ending — and the 3sg is the bare, short form (cântă, dormi, văzu, merse) with no plural marker.
The short 3sg and the homography trap
The third-person singular is the shortest form in the paradigm, and for Class I it is spelled identically to the present tense. Cântă can mean "he/she sings" (present) or "he/she sang" (perfect simplu). Only context — and register — tells them apart.
| Form | Present | Perfect simplu |
|---|---|---|
| cântă | he/she sings | he/she sang |
| intră | he/she enters | he/she entered |
| lucrează — (no clash; -ează present) | he/she works | (perfect simplu: lucră) |
În fiecare seară cântă la pian.
Every evening he plays the piano. (present — cue: 'în fiecare seară')
Cântă o melodie tristă, apoi închise pianul.
He played a sad tune, then closed the piano. (perfect simplu — cue: the following past verb 'închise')
Common Mistakes
❌ Reading 'cântă' as present in a passage of past-tense narration.
Incorrect — in a literary past-tense chain, the bare 3sg cântă is the perfect simplu 'sang', not 'sings'.
✅ Cântă, apoi plecă. → 'He sang, then left.'
Correct: neighbouring past forms reveal the perfect simplu.
❌ cântam pentru noi (using the imperfect -am for 'we sang').
Incorrect — cântam is the imperfect 'I/we were singing'; the perfect simplu 'we sang' is cântarăm.
✅ Cântarăm toată seara.
We sang all evening.
❌ dormiră for 'he slept' (using the 3pl for the 3sg).
Incorrect — dormiră is 'they slept'; the 3sg is the bare dormi.
✅ El dormi profund.
He slept soundly.
❌ văzurăm spelled vazuram, dropping the diacritics.
Incorrect — the ă is obligatory: văzurăm.
✅ Văzurăm marea pentru prima oară.
We saw the sea for the first time.
Key Takeaways
- Regular perfect simplu = theme vowel + -ră- plural base; the plural endings are always -răm, -răți, -ră.
- Class I builds on -a- (cântai), Class IV on -i- (dormii), many II/III verbs on -u- (văzui), and a III subgroup on -se- (mersei).
- The 3sg is the short, bare form: cântă, dormi, văzu, merse.
- For Class I the 3sg cântă is homographic with the present — context disambiguates, and this ambiguity helped push the tense out of speech.
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- 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: Irregular VerbsC1 — A reading-comprehension reference for the irregular perfect-simplu stems of high-frequency verbs, with the participle-stem decoding shortcut.
- 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.
- The Four Conjugation ClassesA2 — How Romanian sorts verbs into four classes by infinitive ending, why class membership predicts the present tense, and the all-important -esc/-ăsc sub-pattern of class IV.
- 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.