This page is a single reference chart of the entire finite verb system — every tense and mood, with how it is formed and one worked example, all in one place. Its purpose is orientation, not deep teaching: each row links to (or is taught on) a dedicated page. The one structural fact this chart makes visible at a glance is the split between synthetic forms — a single inflected word, no helper — and compound forms, which require an auxiliary (a avea, a fi, voi, aș). The headline surprise for learners from Spanish, French, or Italian is that Romanian's pluperfect is synthetic (mersesem, one word), where those languages build it with a helper. We use the verb a merge ("to go") throughout so you can compare forms directly.
The master chart
Every finite form of a merge ("to go"), first person singular unless noted, with its formation recipe and the synthetic/compound label.
| Mood | Tense | Form (1sg) | How it's built | Type |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| Indicativ | Prezent | merg | stem + present ending | synthetic |
| Indicativ | Imperfect | mergeam | stem + imperfect ending (-eam/-am) | synthetic |
| Indicativ | Perfect compus | am mers | a avea (am, ai, a…) + past participle | compound |
| Indicativ | Perfect simplu | mersei | stem + perfect-simplu ending | synthetic |
| Indicativ | Mai-mult-ca-perfect (pluperfect) | mersesem | stem + pluperfect ending (-sem…) | synthetic |
| Indicativ | Viitor I (formal) | voi merge | voi, vei, va… + infinitive | compound |
| Indicativ | Viitor I (colloquial) | o să merg | o să + subjunctive | compound |
| Indicativ | Viitor anterior | voi fi mers | voi + fi + participle | compound |
| Conjunctiv | Prezent | să merg | să + present-subjunctive verb | compound* |
| Conjunctiv | Perfect | să fi mers | să fi + participle (invariable fi) | compound |
| Condițional-optativ | Prezent | aș merge | aș, ai, ar… + infinitive | compound |
| Condițional-optativ | Perfect | aș fi mers | aș + fi + participle | compound |
| Imperativ | — | mergi! / mergeți! | special sg. form / = voi-form | synthetic |
| Prezumtiv | Prezent | oi fi mergând / o fi mergând | oi, ei, o… + fi + gerund | compound |
The conjunctiv present is "compound" only in the trivial sense that the particle *să precedes it; the verb itself is a single inflected word (merg → să merg), differing from the indicative usually only in the third person (merge → să meargă). It is not built with an auxiliary verb.
Reading the chart: synthetic vs compound
The synthetic forms — one word each
Four indicative tenses are genuinely single words, with no auxiliary anywhere:
Merg la piață în fiecare sâmbătă.
I go to the market every Saturday. (prezent — synthetic)
Mergeam des la mare când eram copil.
I used to go to the seaside often as a child. (imperfect — synthetic)
Se ridică, deschise ușa și ieși fără un cuvânt.
He stood up, opened the door, and left without a word. (perfect simplu — synthetic, literary narration)
Plecaseră deja când am ajuns noi.
They had already left when we arrived. (pluperfect — synthetic, one word: plecaseră)
That last one is the trap. In Spanish the pluperfect is había ido (auxiliary + participle); in French j'étais allé; in Italian ero andato — all compound. Romanian builds it synthetically: mersesem, merseseși, mersese, merseserăm, merseserăți, merseseră. There is no auxiliary. Trying to construct it as aveam mers or eram mers is simply not Romanian.
The compound forms — auxiliary + non-finite
Everything else stacks an auxiliary onto a non-finite form (participle, infinitive, or gerund):
Am mers pe jos până acasă, era o seară frumoasă.
I walked home, it was a beautiful evening. (perfect compus = a avea + participle)
Voi merge mâine la dentist, mi-e teamă.
I'll go to the dentist tomorrow, I'm scared. (viitor I = voi + infinitive)
O să mergem împreună, nu te las singur.
We'll go together, I won't leave you alone. (colloquial future = o să + subjunctive)
Aș merge cu tine, dar n-am timp azi.
I'd go with you, but I don't have time today. (condițional = aș + infinitive)
Dacă aș fi mers mai devreme, prindeam trenul.
If I'd gone earlier, I'd have caught the train. (condițional perfect = aș + fi + participle)
The two everyday futures
The chart lists two futures because Romanian genuinely uses both daily, in different registers. The voi future is more formal / written; the o să future is the colloquial default in speech. There is also the very informal oi/ăi/o + infinitive future (oi merge), which overlaps in form with the presumptive — handled below.
| Register | Form | Example |
|---|---|---|
| Formal / written | voi + infinitive | Voi termina până vineri. |
| Colloquial (default) | o să + subjunctive | O să termin până vineri. |
| Very informal | oi + infinitive | Oi termina eu cumva. |
O să-ți spun totul când ne vedem.
I'll tell you everything when we meet. (colloquial future, clitic on să: o să-ți)
The presumptive: a compound supposition
The prezumtiv is the rarest mood and is fully compound — an auxiliary (oi, ei, o, om, oți, or) plus fi plus the gerund (or a participle for the past). It expresses a guess: "must be / probably is ...-ing."
O fi mergând la serviciu acum, e ora opt.
He must be on his way to work now, it's eight o'clock. (presumptive — supposition)
Or fi ajuns deja, drumul e scurt.
They've probably arrived already, the road's short. (presumptive perfect)
Its overlap with the trebuie că evidential and its place among the suppositional forms is mapped on the tense, mood and aspect map.
What this chart deliberately leaves out
Two things, to keep "finite" honest:
- Non-finite forms (infinitive a merge, gerund mergând, participle mers, supine de mers) are not tenses and live on the nonfinite reference.
- There is no progressive (be + -ing) and no single-word synthetic future like Spanish iré — the "continuous" meaning rides on the plain present or imperfect, and the future is always built with an auxiliary. This is one of the sharpest divergences from the Romance siblings, spelled out on the aspect map.
Common Mistakes
Treating the pluperfect as compound (the signature error of Romance-language speakers):
❌ Aveam mers deja când ai venit.
Incorrect — Romanian's pluperfect is synthetic, one word: mersesem / plecasem.
✅ Plecasem deja când ai venit.
I had already left when you arrived.
Inventing a synthetic future on the Spanish model:
❌ Mergei mâine la doctor. (intending 'I will go')
Incorrect — there is no -é synthetic future; use voi merge or o să merg. (And mersei is actually the perfect simplu = 'I went'.)
✅ Voi merge mâine la doctor. / O să merg mâine la doctor.
I'll go to the doctor tomorrow.
Building a progressive with a fi + gerund:
❌ Sunt mergând acum la birou.
Incorrect — Romanian has no be + -ing progressive; the plain present carries the continuous meaning.
✅ Merg acum la birou.
I'm walking to the office now.
Conjugating fi in the perfect subjunctive or conditional perfect:
❌ Aș fiu mers / să fie mers (1sg).
Incorrect — in să fi mers and aș fi mers, fi is invariable; it never conjugates.
✅ Aș fi mers. / Să fi mers.
I would have gone. / (that I) had gone.
Using o să with an infinitive instead of a subjunctive:
❌ O să merge mâine.
Incorrect — the o să future takes the subjunctive, which differs in the 3rd person: o să meargă.
✅ O să meargă mâine.
He'll go tomorrow.
Key Takeaways
- The chart shows the whole finite system at once — every tense/mood, its recipe, and its synthetic/compound label.
- Synthetic (one word): prezent, imperfect, perfect simplu, and — the surprise — the pluperfect (mersesem).
- Compound (auxiliary + non-finite): perfect compus (am mers), both futures (voi merge / o să merg), viitor anterior, both conditionals (aș merge / aș fi mers), perfect subjunctive (să fi mers), presumptive (o fi mergând).
- In every compound form, fi (when present) is invariable, and the auxiliary is where nu and clitics attach.
- There is no progressive and no synthetic future — the plain present covers "continuous," and the future is always built with an auxiliary.
Now practice Romanian
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Start learning Romanian→Related Topics
- Tense, Mood, and Aspect: The Big MapB1 — A consolidated chart of Romanian's tenses, moods, and the language's weak grammatical aspect, mapped to their closest English equivalents.
- The Romanian Verb System: Capstone ReviewB2 — A synthesis that connects the pillars of the Romanian verb into one system — the four conjugation classes, the part-synthetic/part-compound tense system with its unusually synthetic pluperfect, the să-subjunctive that replaced the infinitive, the clitic complex glued to the verb, and the se voice system — so the tenses stop being an unconnected list.
- 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.
- Negating Every Verb FormB1 — One rule covers most of Romanian negation — nu sits right before the verb-plus-clitics block and contracts to n- before a vowel (n-am, n-aș, n-o să). This page runs nu across the whole system (present, perfect, future, conditional, subjunctive, imperative, gerund, infinitive, participle) and flags the two real twists: the negative singular imperative swaps in the infinitive (Nu veni!), and gerund/adjective negation prefixes ne- (nefiind, neterminat).
- Voice in Romanian: Active, Passive, Reflexive, ImpersonalB2 — A consolidation of the whole voice system. Romanian layers four voices on the verb — active, the a fi passive (a fost construit, agent with de / de către), the lighter se-passive (se construiește, agentless), and the reflexive/middle/impersonal se. Since se does triple duty, telling its three jobs apart turns on two questions: is there an implied agent, and does the subject act on itself?