Class III Present: -e Verbs | Romanian Grammar

Class III gathers the verbs whose infinitive ends in unstressed -e: a merge (to go), a face (to do/make), a scrie (to write). The defining acoustic fact — and the one English and Spanish speakers most often get wrong — is that the stress sits on the stem, never on the -e ending. Romanians say a MERge, not a merGE. The class is moderately small but irregularity-dense: a large share of the language's truly irregular verbs (a face, a zice, a duce, a bea, a lua) lives here, so you treat its members as individually learned rather than churned out by rule.

The endings

Take the infinitive, drop the -e, and add the present endings. The endings themselves are regular; the wrinkles come from the stem, which can change consonant before the tu -i.

Person	Ending
eu	— (bare stem)
tu	-i
el / ea	-e
noi	-em
voi	-eți
ei / ele	— (bare stem, = eu) or -u

As in Class II, the eu form and the ei/ele form coincide — both are the bare stem (merg / merg). The one complication is the third-person plural of vowel-final stems: after a vowel, the 3pl takes a written -u (scriu, beau), which we look at below.

a merge — to go, to walk

Our model. The stem ends in -g, which palatalizes to a soft sound before the tu -i but stays g in spelling: merg- + -i = mergi.

Person	Form	Meaning
eu	merg	I go
tu	mergi	you go
el / ea	merge	he / she goes
noi	mergem	we go
voi	mergeți	you (pl.) go
ei / ele	merg	they go

The stress stays on the first syllable throughout: MER-gem, MER-geți. This is the rhythm to internalize, because a learner who stresses the ending (mer-GEM) sounds instantly foreign.

Merg la piață în fiecare sâmbătă.

I go to the market every Saturday.

Mergi cu mine sau rămâi acasă?

Are you coming with me or staying home?

Mergem pe jos, e aproape.

Let's walk, it's close.

a scrie — to write, and the -iu / -ii spellings

When the stem ends in a vowel (scri-), the endings collide with it and produce some spellings that trip people up. The eu and ei/ele forms add a written -u (scriu), and the tu form doubles the i (scrii).

Person	Form	Meaning
eu	scriu	I write
tu	scrii	you write
el / ea	scrie	he / she writes
noi	scriem	we write
voi	scrieți	you (pl.) write
ei / ele	scriu	they write

So scriu (one syllable, scriw) is "I write," scrii (scrij) is "you write," and scrie (two syllables) is "he writes." The double -ii in scrii is not a typo — it is the bare stem vowel -i plus the tu ending -i.

Îți scriu de îndată ce ajung.

I'll write to you as soon as I arrive.

Scrii prea mărunt, nu pot citi.

You write too small, I can't read it.

Ne scriu din Spania în fiecare lună.

They write to us from Spain every month.

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For vowel-stem Class III verbs, the pattern is -iu / -ii / -ie / -iem / -ieți / -iu. The same shape appears in a ține and a pune's relatives once you account for their consonants — but a scrie is the cleanest model.

Consonant alternations before -i

The tu ending -i repeatedly forces a consonant change at the end of the stem. These are regular Romanian sound laws, the same ones that shape noun plurals, but they make the tu form look different from its neighbors.

Infinitive	eu	tu	Change
a crede (to believe)	cred	crezi	d → z
a trece (to pass)	trec	treci	c → soft c
a bate (to hit)	bat	bați	t → ț
a rupe (to tear)	rup	rupi	p (no change)

Crezi tot ce vezi pe internet?

Do you believe everything you see on the internet?

Treci pe la mine după muncă?

Will you drop by my place after work?

Bați la ușă sau intri direct?

Will you knock or just walk in?

The irregular core: a face, a zice, a duce

This is where Class III earns its reputation. Three of its most frequent members carry stem changes that no rule will hand you — you simply learn them. They are also the verbs you need first, so the effort pays off immediately.

Person	a face (do/make)	a zice (say)	a duce (carry/take)
eu	fac	zic	duc
tu	faci	zici	duci
el / ea	face	zice	duce
noi	facem	zicem	ducem
voi	faceți	ziceți	duceți
ei / ele	fac	zic	duc

These three happen to be relatively tame in the present (the irregularity explodes in their past participles: făcut, zis, dus). But others in the class — a bea (beau, bei, bea...), a lua (iau, iei, ia...) — are wildly irregular even here and get their own treatment.

Ce faci diseară?

What are you doing tonight?

Zic și eu, poate ai dreptate.

I'm just saying — maybe you're right.

Te duc eu cu mașina, nu lua taxi.

I'll drive you, don't take a taxi.

Frequent Class III members

Infinitive	Meaning	eu / ei
a începe	to begin	încep
a trece	to pass, to cross	trec
a rupe	to tear, to break	rup
a bate	to hit, to beat, to knock	bat
a crede	to believe, to think	cred

Începe filmul, fă liniște.

The film's starting, be quiet.

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Don't expect a generative rule for Class III. The endings are regular, but the stems are full of individual quirks and the class hoards irregulars. Learn each frequent verb as its own small fact, the way you learned go/went in English.

Common Mistakes

❌ Noi merGEM la teatru. (stressing the ending)

Incorrect stress — Class III is root-stressed: MERgem, not merGEM.

✅ Noi MERgem la teatru.

We're going to the theater. (stress on the stem)

❌ Eu scri o scrisoare.

Incorrect — a vowel-stem verb adds -u in the eu form: scriu.

✅ Eu scriu o scrisoare.

I'm writing a letter.

❌ Tu scrie frumos.

Incorrect — scrie is 3sg; the tu form doubles the i: scrii.

✅ Tu scrii frumos.

You write beautifully.

❌ Tu credi în noroc?

Incorrect — d palatalizes to z before -i: crezi.

✅ Tu crezi în noroc?

Do you believe in luck?

❌ Ei merge acasă.

Incorrect — 3pl is merg (= eu), not merge.

✅ Ei merg acasă.

They're going home.

Key Takeaways

Class III (-e) verbs are stem-stressed: MERgem, never merGEM.
The eu form = ei/ele form (bare stem); vowel-final stems add -u in 3pl (scriu).
The tu -i triggers consonant changes: d → z (crezi), t → ț (bați), c → soft (treci).
Vowel-stem verbs use the -iu / -ii / -ie spellings (scriu / scrii / scrie).
The class is irregularity-dense (a face, a zice, a duce, a bea, a lua) — learn members individually.

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