One of the fastest ways to multiply your Romanian vocabulary is to learn how the language manufactures nouns out of verbs. Romanian does this with unusual generosity: where English mostly settles on one noun per verb (to read → reading), Romanian fields three competing strategies that often coexist, each with its own meaning. From a citi ("to read") you can build citire (the act of reading), cititor (a reader), and even citit (the read-ness, the having-been-read). Knowing the machinery lets you decode unfamiliar nouns on sight and build whole word families from a single known verb.
Strategy 1: the long infinitive in -re (the action noun)
Every Romanian verb has a long infinitive ending in -re, and this form doubles as an abstract noun naming the action or process itself. It is fully feminine, takes the article, and pluralises like any feminine noun in -e → -ri. This is the closest equivalent to English -ing used as a noun ("the reading of the will," "swimming is healthy").
| Verb | Long infinitive / noun | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| a citi | citire | reading (the act) |
| a plimba | plimbare | a walk, strolling |
| a aduna | adunare | gathering, addition (math) |
| a iubi | iubire | love (the act of loving) |
| a mânca | mâncare | food / eating |
Citirea testamentului a durat o oră întreagă.
The reading of the will took a whole hour.
Am ieșit la o plimbare prin parc după prânz.
We went out for a walk through the park after lunch.
Iubirea ei pentru muzică se vede în tot ce face.
Her love for music shows in everything she does.
Note how mâncare has drifted from the pure action ("eating") to a concrete object ("food"). This lexicalisation — where the deverbal noun acquires a specialised concrete sense — is common and is exactly why you must learn the noun, not just derive it.
Strategy 2: the supine noun in -t / -s (the bare action/result)
Romanian's supine is formally identical to the past participle, and it too can stand as a noun — but a masculine/neuter one, naming the action more bluntly or its result. Many everyday nouns are frozen supines.
| Verb | Supine noun | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| a merge | mers | walking, gait; (mersul trenurilor) timetable |
| a scrie | scris | writing, handwriting |
| a râde | râs | laughter |
| a începe | început | beginning |
| a cânta | cântat | singing / playing (an instrument) |
Are un scris foarte greu de citit.
He has handwriting that's very hard to read.
Râsul copiilor se auzea din curte.
The children's laughter could be heard from the yard.
De la bun început am știut că nu o să meargă.
From the very beginning I knew it wouldn't work.
The -re noun and the supine noun frequently coexist for the same verb but split the meaning: cântare is a solemn "chant/hymn," while cântat is the plain "singing." When in doubt, the -re form is the more abstract and formal; the supine noun is the more concrete and colloquial.
Strategy 3: the agent in -tor (the doer)
The suffix -tor (feminine -toare) attaches to the verb stem to name the agent — the person or instrument that performs the action. It is highly productive and gives you both professions and tools.
| Verb | Agent noun (m. / f.) | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| a munci | muncitor / muncitoare | worker |
| a vinde | vânzător / vânzătoare | seller, shop assistant |
| a juca | jucător / jucătoare | player |
| a conduce | conducător / conducătoare | leader, driver |
| a învăța | învățător / învățătoare | (primary-school) teacher |
Vânzătoarea de la brutărie mă cunoaște deja după nume.
The shop assistant at the bakery already knows me by name.
Cel mai bun jucător al echipei s-a accidentat ieri.
The team's best player got injured yesterday.
Muncitorii au cerut salarii mai mari.
The workers demanded higher wages.
Strategy 4: learned suffixes -aj and -ție
A fourth, partly imported layer comes from Romanian's heavy borrowing of French and Latin vocabulary. The suffix -aj (from French -age) and the Latinate -ție / -țiune form abstract nouns, often technical, on verbs that themselves are loans.
| Verb | Noun | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| a bloca | blocaj | blockage, deadlock |
| a stoca | stocaj | storage |
| a informa | informație | information |
| a defini | definiție | definition |
A fost un blocaj total în trafic toată dimineața.
There was a complete gridlock in traffic all morning.
Îmi trebuie o informație despre orarul trenurilor.
I need a piece of information about the train schedule.
How English speakers should think about this
English overwhelmingly uses one form — the gerund in -ing — for both the action ("swimming is healthy") and, awkwardly, sometimes the result. Romanian forces you to choose: is this the abstract process (-re), the bare or concrete result (supine), or the doer (-tor)? That choice is partly lexicalized — which strategy a given verb prefers is something you ultimately memorise per verb — but the three patterns are transparent enough that you can almost always decode an unfamiliar noun back to its verb, and often build the one you need.
Common mistakes
❌ Folosind infinitivul lung ca verb: „Vreau plimbare în parc.”
Wrong: 'plimbare' is the noun; you can't use it where a verb is needed.
✅ „Vreau să mă plimb în parc.” / „Vreau o plimbare în parc.”
Correct: use the conjugated verb 'să mă plimb', or treat 'plimbare' as a true noun with an article.
❌ Treating 'mers' as only a verb form and missing that it is a noun ('mersul trenurilor').
Wrong: the supine 'mers' is a fully lexicalized noun, not just a participle.
✅ „Am consultat mersul trenurilor.”
Correct: 'mersul trenurilor' = the train timetable, a frozen supine noun.
❌ Inventing an agent noun where one isn't used: 'făcător' for an ordinary 'maker/doer.'
Wrong: '-tor' is productive but not universal; many verbs use a different lexical noun.
✅ Use the established noun (e.g., 'autor', 'creator') and learn agent nouns per verb.
Correct: agent formation is productive but partly lexicalized — verify the real word.
❌ Confusing the action noun and agent: 'citire' for 'a reader.'
Wrong: 'citire' is the act of reading; the reader is 'cititor'.
✅ 'citire' = reading (act); 'cititor' = reader (person).
Correct: -re names the action, -tor names the agent.
Key takeaways
- -re (long infinitive) = the action/process, feminine, the most abstract and formal noun.
- -t / -s (supine) = the bare action or result, often a concrete everyday noun.
- -tor / -toare = the agent — the person or instrument that does it.
- -aj and -ție cover learned/technical nouns on borrowed verbs.
- Which strategy a verb actually uses is partly lexicalized, so learn the noun; but the patterns let you decode and grow vocabulary families fast.
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Start learning Romanian→Related Topics
- 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.
- The Supine (de + participle)B1 — Romanian's distinctively fourth non-finite form — identical in shape to the participle but invariable and preposition-governing — covering 'something to do', purpose after motion verbs, and after certain adjectives and nouns.
- The Past Participle as AdjectiveB1 — How the Romanian participle agrees in gender and number like any adjective — its four-way paradigm, its role in the a-fi passive, and the exact boundary where agreement switches on.
- The Long and Short InfinitiveA2 — Romanian's two infinitives — the short infinitive with the particle 'a' (a cânta) used as the verbal infinitive, and the long infinitive (cântare) that has largely turned into a feminine noun.
- How Romanian Encodes AspectB2 — Why Romanian has no Slavic-style aspect or English progressive, and how it spreads aspectual meaning across tense, lexical aspect, phase verbs, adverbs, and prefixes.