Class II — the verbs whose infinitive ends in stressed -ea (a vedea, a putea) — is the smallest of the four conjugations, a closed set of roughly a dozen verbs. But do not skip it: every single member is extremely common, so the handful of paradigms here repay learning more than almost any other page in the present tense. You cannot speak Romanian for a minute without a putea (can) or a vedea (see). The strategy is simple: memorize the full paradigms of these few verbs outright rather than hunting for a rule.
The endings and why they look irregular
Class II verbs add the present endings to a stem that has been wrenched away from the infinitive -ea. The stress sits on the ending in noi/voi but on the stem elsewhere, and the stem vowel itself shifts. The result is a paradigm that feels irregular at first but is actually consistent within the class.
| Person | Ending |
|---|---|
| eu | — (bare stem) |
| tu | -i |
| el / ea | -e |
| noi | -em |
| voi | -eți |
| ei / ele | — (bare stem, = eu) |
The headline feature: in Class II, the eu form and the ei/ele form are identical — both are the bare stem. Văd is "I see" and "they see"; pot is "I can" and "they can." This 1sg = 3pl syncretism is a defining trait of the class and recurs in Class III and the plain Class IV verbs too.
a vedea — to see
Drop -ea and the stem alternates between văd- (1sg/3pl), vez-/ved- in the other persons. Here is the full picture.
| Person | Form | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| eu | văd | I see |
| tu | vezi | you see |
| el / ea | vede | he / she sees |
| noi | vedem | we see |
| voi | vedeți | you (pl.) see |
| ei / ele | văd | they see |
Two changes are worth naming. First, the stem vowel: e in vedem becomes ă in văd (the back vowel that appears under stress before certain consonants). Second, and more striking, the d → z before the tu ending: ved- + -i surfaces as vezi, not vedi. This is a regular sound change in Romanian — d palatalizes to z before a front -i — and you will see it again in a cădea (cazi) and in the noun plural brad → brazi (fir tree → fir trees).
Văd marea de pe balcon.
I see the sea from the balcony.
Vezi semnul ăla roșu? Acolo virăm.
Do you see that red sign? That's where we turn.
Ne vedem mâine la prânz.
We'll see each other tomorrow at lunch.
a putea — to be able to, can
The other workhorse of the class, and your gateway to expressing ability and permission. A putea combines with a following verb in the subjunctive or short infinitive (pot să merg / pot merge).
| Person | Form | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| eu | pot | I can |
| tu | poți | you can |
| el / ea | poate | he / she can |
| noi | putem | we can |
| voi | puteți | you (pl.) can |
| ei / ele | pot | they can |
The stem alternates between pot- (1sg/3pl, with the bare stem ending in -t), poț- (2sg, t → ț before -i), poate (3sg, with the o preserved), and put- (1pl/2pl, with o → u). Poate on its own also means "maybe" — a fossilized third-person form turned into an adverb.
Nu pot veni diseară, am treabă.
I can't come tonight, I'm busy.
Poți să-mi dai sarea, te rog?
Can you pass me the salt, please?
Putem vorbi mai târziu, dacă vrei.
We can talk later, if you want.
a plăcea — to be pleasing (to like)
A plăcea drives the standard Romanian way of saying "to like": the thing liked is the subject, and the liker is an indirect object — îmi place literally "to-me it-is-pleasing." Because what you like is usually a thing or things, you will meet the third-person forms place and plac far more than the others.
| Person | Form | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| eu | plac | I am pleasing |
| tu | placi | you are pleasing |
| el / ea | place | he / she / it is pleasing |
| noi | plăcem | we are pleasing |
| voi | plăceți | you (pl.) are pleasing |
| ei / ele | plac | they are pleasing |
Îmi place cafeaua fără zahăr.
I like coffee without sugar. (literally: coffee is pleasing to me)
Îmi plac filmele vechi.
I like old films. (plural thing → plac)
Cred că îi placi, te tot caută din priviri.
I think he likes you — he keeps looking your way. (you = the one who is pleasing)
The rest of the class
These follow the same skeleton. Note the recurring d → z before -i (cădea → cazi) and the stem vowel shift (e/ă).
| Infinitive | Meaning | eu / ei | tu | el / ea |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| a tăcea | to be silent | tac | taci | tace |
| a cădea | to fall | cad | cazi | cade |
| a ședea | to sit, to dwell | șed | șezi | șade |
| a zăcea | to lie (ill), to lie about | zac | zaci | zace |
Cad frunzele, vine toamna.
The leaves are falling, autumn is coming.
Taci puțin, încerc să ascult.
Be quiet a moment, I'm trying to listen.
Zace în pat cu gripă de trei zile.
He's been laid up in bed with the flu for three days.
Why this class is irregular-feeling but learnable
Class II is the residue of two Latin conjugations that collapsed together, which is why its members carry stem changes that look unpredictable. The good news is the class is closed — no new verb will ever join it — and tiny. There is no productive rule to extract, and trying to derive văd from a vedea by formula wastes effort. Treat a vedea, a putea, and a plăcea the way you treat to be in English: learn the whole table by heart, because you will use it constantly and there is nothing simpler underneath.
Common Mistakes
❌ Eu videz peisajul.
Incorrect — a vedea is not an -ez verb; you can't regularize it into Class I.
✅ Văd peisajul.
I see the landscape.
❌ Tu vedi bine?
Incorrect — d palatalizes to z before -i; the form is vezi.
✅ Tu vezi bine?
Can you see okay?
❌ Noi poatem veni.
Incorrect — poate is only the 3sg; the 1pl is putem with o → u.
✅ Noi putem veni.
We can come.
❌ Îmi place filmele astea.
Incorrect — the thing liked is plural, so the verb must be plac.
✅ Îmi plac filmele astea.
I like these films.
❌ Ei vede totul de aici.
Incorrect — 3pl is văd (= eu), not vede.
✅ Ei văd totul de aici.
They see everything from here.
Key Takeaways
- Class II is a tiny, closed set; memorize a vedea, a putea, a plăcea as whole paradigms.
- The eu form = ei/ele form (bare stem): văd / văd, pot / pot.
- d → z before the tu ending: vede but vezi, cade but cazi.
- The stem vowel shifts between persons (văd vs vedem, pot vs putem) — expect it, don't fight it.
- With a plăcea, the verb agrees with what is liked, not the person doing the liking.
Now practice Romanian
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Start learning Romanian→Related Topics
- Class III Present: -e VerbsA2 — How to conjugate Class III (-e) verbs in the present indicative, with their stem stress, consonant alternations, and the irregularity-dense core verbs a face, a zice, and a duce.
- The Present Indicative: OverviewA1 — An introduction to the Romanian present indicative — the workhorse tense that covers both 'I work' and 'I am working' and even the near future.
- Class II Present: All MembersB1 — The full present-tense paradigms of every common Class II (-ea) verb — a vedea, a putea, a bea, a cădea, a tăcea, a plăcea, a părea, a ședea — laid out one by one, because the class is small enough to learn as a finite list.
- 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.
- Class IV Present: Stem Changes (o→oa, e→ie, a→ă)B1 — How Class IV (-i / -î) verbs diphthongize their stem under third-person stress — o→oa in a dormi and a coborî, e→ie elsewhere — and why the very common -esc verbs never do.