Class I Present: Regular -a Verbs | Romanian Grammar

The largest group of Romanian verbs ends in -a, the so-called Class I (conjugarea întâi). The plain subtype — the one covered here — is also the most predictable verb pattern in the whole language: drop the -a, add five short endings, and you have the present tense of thousands of verbs. If you learn one model well, you get them all for free. (A second Class I subtype, the -ez verbs like a lucra → lucrez, behaves differently and lives on its own page; this page is strictly about the plain type.)

How it works

Take the infinitive, remove the final -a to get the stem, and attach the present endings. For the plain subtype they are:

Person	Ending
eu (I)	— (bare stem, no ending)
tu (you)	-i
el / ea (he/she)	-ă
noi (we)	-ăm
voi (you pl.)	-ați
ei / ele (they)	-ă

Two features jump out immediately, and both surprise learners coming from English or Spanish: the eu form has no ending at all — it is the bare stem — and the el/ea form is identical to the ei/ele form. We will deal with each below.

The model verb: a cânta (to sing)

Drop -a from a cânta to get the stem cânt-, then add the endings.

Person	Form	Meaning
eu	cânt	I sing / I am singing
tu	cânți	you sing
el / ea	cântă	he / she sings
noi	cântăm	we sing
voi	cântați	you (pl.) sing
ei / ele	cântă	they sing

Cânt sub duș în fiecare dimineață.

I sing in the shower every morning.

Tu cânți mult mai bine decât mine.

You sing much better than I do.

Cântăm la nuntă sâmbătă.

We're singing at a wedding on Saturday.

The first person has no ending

This is the headline difference from Spanish. A Spanish -ar verb ends the yo form in -o (canto). Romanian does the opposite: the eu form is the bare stem — cânt, with nothing added. Learners reflexively reach for a vowel and produce cânto or cântu; neither exists.

Aștept autobuzul de zece minute.

I've been waiting for the bus for ten minutes. (eu = bare stem 'aștept')

Întreb și eu, poate știe cineva.

I'll ask too, maybe someone knows. (eu = 'întreb')

💡

For the plain Class I verb, "I do X" is simply the stem: a întreba → întreb, a aștepta → aștept, a uita → uit. If you find yourself adding a vowel to the eu form, stop — there is nothing to add.

3sg and 3pl are identical

The el/ea form and the ei/ele form are the same word: cântă means both "he sings" and "they sing." Romanian resolves the ambiguity through the subject (a pronoun or noun) or through context and clitics, not through the verb itself.

Copilul se joacă în curte.

The child is playing in the yard. (singular subject: copilul)

Copiii se joacă în curte.

The children are playing in the yard. (plural subject: copiii — same verb form)

So unlike most Romanian persons, the third person sometimes needs its subject expressed, precisely because the verb cannot tell singular from plural on its own.

Common Class I verbs

Every verb below follows cânta exactly. Learn the model and you can conjugate the whole list.

Infinitive	Meaning	eu form
a întreba	to ask	întreb
a aștepta	to wait (for)	aștept
a uita	to forget	uit
a pleca	to leave	plec
a ajuta	to help	ajut
a învăța	to learn	învăț

Plec de la birou pe la cinci.

I leave the office around five.

Te ajut cu mutarea, nicio problemă.

I'll help you with the move, no problem.

Învățăm românește de șase luni.

We've been learning Romanian for six months.

The whispered final -i in the tu form

The tu ending -i is, in most plain Class I verbs, a devoiced or "whispered" -i — it palatalizes the preceding consonant but barely sounds as a separate vowel. Cânți is one syllable, not two; the -i is felt more than heard, softening the t into something like the ts in "cats" said quickly. This is normal native pronunciation, not sloppiness.

Tu pleci sau rămâi?

Are you leaving or staying? (pleci — one syllable, whispered -i)

Mă întrebi mereu același lucru.

You always ask me the same thing. (întrebi — whispered -i)

💡

The whispered -i is the same one that turns one noun into its plural (pom → pomi). It is written, it palatalizes the consonant, but it is not a full vowel. Pronounce cânți as a single syllable with a soft, hissed ending.

A note on the -ez subtype

Some -a verbs do not follow this pattern — they insert -ez in several persons: a lucra gives lucrez, not lucr. There is no way to predict from the infinitive which subtype a verb belongs to, so you learn it with each verb. That subtype has its own page; for now, just be aware that lucra is not a counterexample to the rules here — it simply belongs to the other branch of Class I.

Common Mistakes

❌ Eu cânto la pian.

Incorrect — the eu form is the bare stem; there is no -o ending (that's Spanish).

✅ Eu cânt la pian.

I play the piano.

❌ Tu cântezi frumos.

Incorrect — a cânta is the plain subtype; it has no -ez infix.

✅ Tu cânți frumos.

You sing beautifully.

❌ Noi plecam acum. (meaning 'we are leaving now')

Incorrect — plecam is the imperfect ('we were leaving'); the present 1pl is plecăm.

✅ Noi plecăm acum.

We're leaving now.

❌ El cânt în cor.

Incorrect — the bare stem is only the eu form; el takes -ă.

✅ El cântă în cor.

He sings in a choir.

❌ Voi întrebă profesorul.

Incorrect — the voi ending is -ați, not -ă.

✅ Voi întrebați profesorul.

You (all) ask the teacher.

Key Takeaways

Plain Class I (-a) verbs: drop -a, add — / -i / -ă / -ăm / -ați / -ă.
The eu form is the bare stem (cânt) — no ending, unlike Spanish -o.
3sg and 3pl are identical (cântă); the subject or context disambiguates.
The tu -i is a whispered, palatalizing vowel — cânți is one syllable.
The -ez verbs (lucrez) are a separate subtype, covered elsewhere.

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