The plain Romanian futures (voi merge, o să merg, am să merg) tell you that something will happen, but they say nothing about how soon or whether it was on the schedule. For that, Romanian reaches for three periphrastic constructions, each filling a gap the grammatical futures leave: a urma să for what is due or scheduled to happen, a fi pe cale să for what is on the verge of happening, and the wonderfully vivid colloquial a sta să for what is about to happen at any second. English collapses much of this into "about to" and "due to"; Romanian keeps them distinct.
a urma să — to be due / scheduled to
A urma literally means "to follow." With să + subjunctive it means an action is scheduled, planned, or due to happen — it is the next item on the agenda. The tone is neutral and slightly formal; it's the verb of timetables, plans, and arrangements.
Urmează să plecăm mâine dimineață.
We're due to leave tomorrow morning.
Urmează să se anunțe rezultatele săptămâna viitoare.
The results are due to be announced next week.
Ce urmează să faci după facultate?
What are you planning to do after university?
Its single most valuable use is as a clean future-in-the-past. Put a urma in the imperfect — urma să — and you get "was going to / was due to," the natural way to report a plan as seen from a past vantage point.
Urma să vină la ora opt, dar a întârziat.
He was supposed to come at eight, but he was late.
Tocmai urma să-ți scriu când m-ai sunat.
I was just about to write to you when you called.
a fi pe cale să — to be on the verge of
A fi pe cale să (literally "to be on the way to") means on the verge of — the action is imminent, poised, about to break. It's more emphatic than a urma and stresses nearness in time or the brink of an outcome. It is fully standard and works in both speech and writing.
Sunt pe cale să termin proiectul, mai am puțin.
I'm about to finish the project, just a little more to go.
Compania era pe cale să dea faliment.
The company was on the verge of going bankrupt.
Eram pe cale să renunț când mi-a venit ideea.
I was on the verge of giving up when the idea came to me.
You will also meet the variant pe punctul de a + infinitive ("at the point of"), which is a touch more formal/literary but means the same thing:
Era pe punctul de a izbucni în lacrimi.
She was at the point of bursting into tears.
a sta să — about to, on the verge (colloquial)
Here is the gem that learners almost never produce. A sta să (literally "to stand to") is a vivid, idiomatic colloquial way to say something is about to happen at any moment — used especially of weather, of things on the brink of falling, breaking, or bursting, and of imminent natural events.
Stă să plouă, ia-ți umbrela.
It's about to rain, take your umbrella.
Raftul ăsta stă să cadă.
This shelf is about to fall down.
Cerul e negru, stă să înceapă furtuna.
The sky is black, the storm is about to start.
Casa veche stătea să se dărâme.
The old house was on the verge of collapsing.
The flavour is physical and immediate — you can almost see the first raindrop. There's even a fixed, half-humorous extension stă să nască ("she's about to give birth, any minute now"). Because it's so colloquial and bound to imminence, a sta să is a register marker: drop it into casual speech and you sound like a native.
Choosing the right one
| Construction | Sense | Register | Typical use |
|---|---|---|---|
| a urma să | scheduled / due to | neutral, mildly formal | plans, agendas, future-in-the-past |
| a fi pe cale să | on the verge of | neutral / written | imminent outcome, brink |
| pe punctul de a | at the point of | formal / literary | elevated prose, narration |
| a sta să | about to (any second) | colloquial / vivid | weather, things falling, speech |
The key contrast: a urma să is about the calendar (it's scheduled), while a fi pe cale să and a sta să are about the clock (it's imminent). Urmează să plecăm mâine says leaving is on the plan for tomorrow; suntem pe cale să plecăm or stăm să plecăm says we are leaving right now, this minute.
Why not just use the future?
The simple future answers "will it happen?" but stays silent on timing and planning. Saying Va ploua ("It will rain") is a flat prediction; Stă să plouă ("It's about to rain") tells the listener to act now. Likewise Voi termina proiectul ("I will finish the project") could be any time, whereas Sunt pe cale să termin proiectul says you're nearly there. Using a plain future where imminence or scheduling is meant isn't ungrammatical — it just throws away information a native speaker would naturally include.
Common Mistakes
❌ Stă plouă.
Incorrect — a sta să requires să before the verb.
✅ Stă să plouă.
It's about to rain.
❌ Sunt pe cale de a termin.
Incorrect — a fi pe cale takes să + subjunctive (or de a + infinitive: pe cale de a termina).
✅ Sunt pe cale să termin.
I'm about to finish.
❌ Va ploua, ia-ți umbrela acum.
Weak — the plain future loses the 'right now' urgency the situation calls for.
✅ Stă să plouă, ia-ți umbrela acum.
It's about to rain, take your umbrella now.
❌ Urma veni la ora opt.
Incorrect — a urma needs să before the verb: urma să vină.
✅ Urma să vină la ora opt.
He was supposed to come at eight.
❌ Voi pleca mâine dimineață, dar nu sunt sigur. (as a report of a fixed plan)
Misses the nuance — for a scheduled plan, a urma să is more precise.
✅ Urmează să plec mâine dimineață.
I'm due to leave tomorrow morning.
Key Takeaways
- a urma să = scheduled / due to; in the imperfect (urma să) it is Romanian's cleanest future-in-the-past ("was going to / was supposed to").
- a fi pe cale să = on the verge of; pe punctul de a
- infinitive is its formal cousin.
- a sta să = about to, any second now — colloquial and vivid, the mark of a native speaker (stă să plouă, stă să cadă).
- Distinguish calendar (urma să = scheduled) from clock (pe cale să / sta să = imminent).
- The plain futures work but discard the timing and planning information these periphrases carry.
Now practice Romanian
Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.
Start learning Romanian→Related Topics
- The Romanian Futures: OverviewA2 — A map of Romanian's four ways to talk about the future — voi merge, o să merg, am să merg, and the bare present — and, crucially, which register each one belongs to.
- Future-in-the-PastB2 — How Romanian says 'was going to / would later' — reported and narrated future seen from a past vantage point, with urma să as the cleanest idiomatic device.
- Expressing Intention and PlansB1 — The lexical and periphrastic ways Romanian talks about the future — a avea de gând să, a urma să, a fi pe cale să, and the plain present — and how to choose by meaning.
- Conjunctiv After Modals: a putea, a trebui, a vreaA2 — How modal and control verbs (a vrea, a putea, a trebui, a încerca, a reuși, a spera) force a să-clause where English uses an infinitive, and the one verb that still tolerates the infinitive.
- Phase Verbs: beginning, continuing, finishingB1 — How a începe, a continua, a termina and a sfârși express the start, middle, and end of an action — and why finishing takes the supine, not the subjunctive.