Present Indicative: Mixed Practice and Review | Romanian Grammar

You have now met the four conjugation classes, the -ez and -esc infixes, the irregular heavyweights a fi and a avea, and the reflexives. This page does not teach anything new — it ties them together. The point of mixed practice is that real sentences never come pre-sorted: a single conversation flicks between a Class IV verb, an irregular, and a reflexive in the space of one breath. The skill you are building here is a reflex — identify the class from the infinitive, then apply that class's endings — fast enough that you do not stop to think mid-sentence. Everything below is designed to drill exactly that.

The whole present in one table

Almost the entire system reduces to a handful of ending-sets keyed to the four classes, plus the two infixes and a short list of irregulars. Here is the recap you should be able to reproduce from memory:

Person	I -a (cânta)	I -ez (lucra)	II -ea (vedea)	III -e (merge)	IV -i (dormi)	IV -esc (citi)
eu	cânt	lucrez	văd	merg	dorm	citesc
tu	cânți	lucrezi	vezi	mergi	dormi	citești
el/ea	cântă	lucrează	vede	merge	doarme	citește
noi	cântăm	lucrăm	vedem	mergem	dormim	citim
voi	cântați	lucrați	vedeți	mergeți	dormiți	citiți
ei/ele	cântă	lucrează	văd	merg	dorm	citesc

Two patterns jump out of this grid and are worth fixing in memory. First, in Classes II, III, and IV-plain, the eu and ei/ele forms are identical (văd / văd, merg / merg, dorm / dorm) — context, not the verb, tells them apart. Second, the two infixes behave differently in the 3rd person: -ez keeps el/ea and ei/ele identical (lucrează sg. = lucrează pl., like the plain Class I verbs), but -esc splits them (citește sg. vs citesc pl.), so an -esc verb actually gives you one more distinct form than its plain cousin. (For the full reasoning, see the overview.)

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The one habit to automate: look at the infinitive ending (-a, -ea, -e, -i/-î), decide if there's an infix (-ez or -esc — a property you learn per verb), and apply that column. Everything else is irregular verbs, which you simply know by heart.

Contrastive pairs across the classes

The fastest way to feel the differences is to put look-alike verbs side by side. These pairs differ by exactly one feature, so they isolate the thing your ear needs to catch.

Same infinitive shape, different infix — a dormi (no infix) vs a citi (-esc):

Dorm opt ore, apoi citesc o oră înainte de culcare.

I sleep eight hours, then I read for an hour before bed. (dorm: plain -i; citesc: -esc)

Class I plain vs Class I -ez — a cânta (cânt) vs a lucra (lucrez):

Lucrez toată ziua, dar seara cânt la chitară.

I work all day, but in the evening I play the guitar. (lucrez: -ez; cânt: plain -a)

eu vs ei collision — the same form, two subjects, disambiguated by pronoun or noun:

Eu merg pe jos, ei merg cu mașina.

I go on foot, they go by car. (merg = both 'I go' and 'they go')

A class-by-class mini-dialogue

Real speech mixes everything. Read this exchange and notice how many different verb types pass by without anyone slowing down:

— Ce faci diseară? — Stau acasă, gătesc ceva și mă uit la un film.

— What are you doing tonight? — I'm staying home, cooking something, and watching a film.

— Vii și tu? Avem loc în mașină. — Nu pot, lucrez până târziu.

— Are you coming too? We've got room in the car. — I can't, I'm working late.

That short exchange contains an irregular (faci, from a face), a Class I (gătesc — actually -esc infix), a reflexive (mă uit), the irregular a avea (avem) and a putea (pot), and a Class I -ez verb (lucrez). The grammar is invisible to a native; your job is to make it invisible to yourself.

The irregulars you cannot dodge

A small set of very frequent verbs do not follow any class cleanly. You must know these cold, because they appear in nearly every sentence:

Verb	eu	tu	el/ea	noi	voi	ei/ele
a fi (be)	sunt	ești	este/e	suntem	sunteți	sunt
a avea (have)	am	ai	are	avem	aveți	au
a vrea (want)	vreau	vrei	vrea	vrem	vreți	vor
a face (do/make)	fac	faci	face	facem	faceți	fac
a da (give)	dau	dai	dă	dăm	dați	dau

Vreau o cafea, dar n-am mărunt — ai tu?

I want a coffee, but I've no change — do you have any?

Ce faci când ești singur acasă?

What do you do when you're home alone?

Notice a fi and a avea each have their own dedicated pages — for the forms, see a fi: present and a avea: present; for what they mean and do, see their uses pages.

Fill-in patterns: name the class first

Work through these the way you should work through any verb in the wild — say the infinitive class to yourself, then produce the form. (Answers follow each block.)

a vorbi (Class IV, -esc), eu → vorbesc; noi → vorbim
a bea (Class II, irregular), eu → beau; el → bea
a scrie (Class III, -e), eu → scriu; voi → scrieți
a se trezi (Class IV reflexive), eu → mă trezesc; ei → se trezesc

Vorbesc română cu bunicii și engleză la serviciu.

I speak Romanian with my grandparents and English at work.

Scriu un mesaj și vin imediat.

I'll write a message and come right away.

Ne trezim devreme, bem o cafea și plecăm.

We get up early, drink a coffee, and leave.

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When a verb is reflexive, do the class-identification step and add the agreeing clitic in front: a se trezi → Class IV → trezesc → add mă → mă trezesc. The clitic is a second ending you attach at the front. See reflexive verbs in the present.

The cross-class confusions to watch

When you mix everything, four specific collisions cause most errors. Keep them on your radar:

Forgetting the infix — saying cit instead of citesc, or vorb instead of vorbesc. The infix is not optional; it is part of the conjugation.
The -ă vs -e 3sg ending — Class I takes -ă (cântă, lucrează), Classes II/III take -e (vede, merge). Swapping them is a tell-tale beginner slip.
The eu/ei merge — saying eu merge by analogy with English subject-verb pairs. For eu it is merg, not merge.
Frozen reflexive se — eu se duc instead of eu mă duc. The clitic agrees with the subject.

❌ Eu vorbesc, el vorbesc, noi vorbesc.

Incorrect — the endings must change: eu vorbesc, el vorbește, noi vorbim.

✅ Eu vorbesc, el vorbește, noi vorbim.

I speak, he speaks, we speak.

Common Mistakes

❌ Eu cit o carte.

Incorrect — a citi takes the -esc infix in 1sg: citesc, not cit.

✅ Citesc o carte.

I'm reading a book.

❌ El mergă la școală.

Incorrect — Class III takes -e in 3sg: merge, not mergă (-ă is the Class I ending).

✅ El merge la școală.

He goes to school.

❌ Eu vede marea.

Incorrect — the eu form of a vedea is văd; vede is 3sg.

✅ Văd marea de la fereastră.

I see the sea from the window.

❌ Noi se grăbim.

Incorrect — the reflexive clitic for noi is ne: ne grăbim, not the frozen se.

✅ Ne grăbim, am întârziat.

We're hurrying, we're late.

❌ Eu sunt vrea o cafea.

Incorrect — you can't stack a fi with another verb; a vrea conjugates on its own: vreau.

✅ Vreau o cafea.

I want a coffee.

Key Takeaways

The present reduces to six ending-sets (four classes plus the -ez and -esc infixes) and a short list of irregulars you memorize.
The master habit: read the infinitive ending, decide on an infix, apply the column. Automate it until it's a reflex.
Watch the four collisions: missing infix, -ă vs -e 3sg, eu/ei merge, and frozen reflexive se.
For the irregulars a fi and a avea, learn the forms cold — they appear in almost every sentence.
Mixed practice is the only way to train speed; isolated paradigms get you the forms, but conversation demands you switch classes without pausing.

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