Romanian is the Romance language that nearly buried its own infinitive. Where Spanish, Italian, and French use a bare infinitive after almost any verb — quiero ir, voglio andare, je veux aller — Romanian reaches for a finite să-clause: vreau să merg. But "nearly" is the operative word. The infinitive did not die; it retreated to a set of well-defined niches, and inside those niches it is not merely allowed but often the only idiomatic choice. This page is the complete map of that territory: the handful of places where an infinitive is still alive, the register each one belongs to, and the boundary where you must switch back to să. If conjunctiv vs infinitive tells you the default is să, this page tells you the exceptions — and why they exist.
Why the infinitive retreated: the Balkan story
The loss is not laziness or decay; it is geography. Romanian sits inside the Balkan Sprachbund — a zone where Greek, Bulgarian, Albanian, and Macedonian, despite belonging to different language families, converged on shared structures through centuries of contact. One of the strongest shared features is exactly this: the replacement of the infinitive by a finite subordinate clause. Greek θέλω να φύγω, Bulgarian искам да отида, Albanian dua të iki, and Romanian vreau să plec all build "I want to leave" with a little particle (να / да / të / să) plus a conjugated verb, no infinitive in sight. Romanian inherited Latin's infinitive but, surrounded by these languages, pushed it to the margins. So the niches below are precisely the corners the Balkan tide did not fully reach.
Niche 1: After a putea (everyday)
A putea ("can") is the one common verb where the bare short infinitive survives in ordinary speech, side by side with the să-clause. Pot merge and pot să merg both mean "I can go," equally natural. Note that with the bare infinitive any clitic climbs to the front of a putea: te pot ajuta ("I can help you").
Nu pot veni mâine, am o programare la medic.
I can't come tomorrow, I have a doctor's appointment.
Te pot suna mai târziu, dacă vrei.
I can call you later if you want. (clitic climbs: te pot)
This free choice is specific to a putea — do not extend it to a vrea, a dori, a încerca, or any other modal. With those, only să works. See the short infinitive for the full picture.
Niche 2: After prepositions (formal / written)
This is the largest living zone. A fixed set of prepositions and prepositional phrases govern the short infinitive, and they form the backbone of polished, written Romanian — essays, contracts, journalism, speeches. Each one has a să counterpart used in casual speech, so they come in register pairs.
| Infinitive frame (formal) | Spoken să-equivalent | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| pentru a + inf. | ca să | in order to |
| înainte de a + inf. | înainte să | before doing |
| fără a + inf. | fără să | without doing |
| în loc de a + inf. | în loc să | instead of doing |
| spre a + inf. | ca să | (in order) to — literary |
| departe de a + inf. | — | far from doing |
Pentru a reuși în carieră, trebuie să fii și norocos, nu doar muncitor.
To succeed in a career, you have to be lucky too, not just hard-working.
A semnat contractul fără a-l citi până la capăt.
He signed the contract without reading it all the way through. (formal; note clitic 'a-l' before the infinitive)
Înainte de a pleca, verifică dacă ai luat actele.
Before leaving, check whether you've taken the documents.
Departe de a fi o problemă, schimbarea e o oportunitate.
Far from being a problem, the change is an opportunity. (literary/formal)
Note that the same-subject constraint applies: pentru a reuși keeps the subject of the main clause. If the purpose clause has its own, different subject, you must switch to pentru ca … să (pentru ca elevii să reușească).
Niche 3: Citation and metalinguistic use
When you name a verb — quote it, define it, list it — Romanian uses the infinitive with a, exactly as a dictionary does. This is the verb's "naming form," and there is no să alternative here.
„A fi
'To be' and 'to have' are the most important Romanian verbs. (citation)
Verbul „a merge
The verb 'to go' is irregular.
The most famous frozen citation is Hamlet's line, lexicalized in Romanian with the infinitive intact:
A fi sau a nu fi, aceasta-i întrebarea.
To be or not to be, that is the question. (frozen literary citation)
Niche 4: Abstract subject and proverbial phrases
When an action serves as the subject of a sentence — "to err is human" — Romanian can use the bare short infinitive as that subject, giving the statement a generalizing, aphoristic, slightly elevated tone. (The everyday alternative is the conjunctiv Să greșești e omenesc or the long-infinitive noun.) This is the register of proverbs and maxims.
A greși e omenesc, a ierta e dumnezeiesc.
To err is human, to forgive divine. (proverb, infinitive as subject)
A munci e greu, dar a trândăvi e mai greu pe termen lung.
Working is hard, but loafing is harder in the long run.
A iubi înseamnă a accepta și defectele.
To love means to accept the flaws too. (both verbs in the infinitive — abstract definition)
These read as gnomic and literary. In plain conversation you would more likely say Să greșești e omenesc or use a noun. The infinitive lifts the register.
Niche 5: The long infinitive as a noun
Historically every infinitive could become a noun by taking the long ending -re: a citi → citire ("reading"), a aduna → adunare ("gathering / addition"), a încălzi → încălzire ("heating / warming"). These are now full nouns, with gender, plurals, and articles — citirea, adunarea, încălzirea globală ("global warming"). They are no longer verb forms at all, but they are the fossil record of the infinitive's old productivity. See the long infinitive as noun for the derivation.
Încălzirea globală e cea mai mare provocare a secolului.
Global warming is the biggest challenge of the century. (long infinitive = noun)
Adunarea generală a avut loc în sala mare.
The general assembly took place in the main hall.
The boundary: where you must NOT use the infinitive
The whole point of the map is to fence off the niches from the vast default territory of să. Outside the niches above, an infinitive after a conjugated verb is wrong in modern Romanian — and it is the single most common transfer error for speakers of Spanish, Italian, French, or Portuguese.
❌ Vreau a merge la munte weekendul ăsta.
Wrong — verb complements take să: vreau să merg. The infinitive is not a verb complement in Romanian.
✅ Vreau să merg la munte weekendul ăsta.
I want to go to the mountains this weekend.
The mental model: after a conjugated verb that introduces a second action (want, hope, try, begin, decide, like, must), Romanian switches to să + conjunctiv. The infinitive is reserved for the five niches above.
Common Mistakes
❌ Sper a câștiga concursul.
Wrong — a spera takes a să-clause: sper să câștig. (Verb complement = să territory.)
✅ Sper să câștig concursul.
I hope to win the contest.
❌ Pentru să reușești, muncește mult.
Wrong — 'pentru' (same subject) governs the infinitive: pentru a reuși. With 'pentru', never bare 'să'.
✅ Pentru a reuși, muncește mult.
To succeed, work hard.
❌ Pot a te ajuta cu mutarea.
Archaic — after a putea, drop the particle 'a': use the bare infinitive 'pot ajuta' or 'pot să ajut'.
✅ Te pot ajuta cu mutarea. / Pot să te ajut.
I can help you with the move.
❌ Îmi place a citi romane polițiste.
Wrong — a plăcea takes să: îmi place să citesc. Reading-as-pastime is a verb complement, not a niche.
✅ Îmi place să citesc romane polițiste.
I like reading detective novels.
❌ Înainte de a mănânc, mă spăl pe mâini.
Wrong — 'înainte de a' takes the infinitive (a mânca), not a conjugated form. Or switch wholesale to 'înainte să mănânc'.
✅ Înainte de a mânca, mă spăl pe mâini.
Before eating, I wash my hands.
Key Takeaways
- The infinitive, displaced by să across the Balkan Sprachbund, survives in Romanian in five niches.
- After a putea (pot merge) — the only verb complement where it lives in everyday speech.
- After prepositions (pentru a, înainte de a, fără a, în loc de a) — formal/written, each paired with a spoken să-form.
- In citation (a fi) and abstract subject / proverbial phrases (A greși e omenesc) — naming and gnomic registers.
- As the long-infinitive noun (citire, încălzire) — no longer a verb form, the fossil of the old infinitive.
- Everywhere else — every ordinary verb complement — switch to să. If you can't name the niche, you're importing a Romance reflex Romanian doesn't allow.
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Start learning Romanian→Related Topics
- Conjunctiv vs Infinitive: The Balkan ChoiceB1 — When Romanian uses a să-conjunctiv where its Romance cousins use the infinitive, and the handful of constructions where the infinitive survives — the structural signature of Romanian.
- Using the Short InfinitiveB1 — Where the short infinitive (a face) survives in modern Romanian — chiefly after prepositions in formal writing — and why să has replaced it almost everywhere else.
- The Long Infinitive as a NounB2 — How Romanian's long infinitive (-re) became a productive engine for feminine abstract nouns — mâncare, plăcere, iubire — and why recognizing them as deverbal nouns, not verb forms, unlocks a large slice of vocabulary.
- a avea de + supine (have to / have something to)B1 — How Romanian uses a avea de plus the supine to express pending tasks — Am de scris un eseu — and how it differs from the pure obligation of a trebui.
- Non-Finite Forms: Reference TableB1 — A consolidated reference table of Romanian's four non-finite verb forms across the conjugation classes — the infinitive (a cânta), the gerund (cântând), the participle (cântat), and the supine (de cântat) — with formation, primary function, and a natural example for each, so the four stop blurring together.