Conjunctiv vs Infinitive: The Balkan Choice

Romanian is a Romance language that quietly threw away its infinitive. Where Spanish says quiero salir, Italian voglio uscire, French je veux sortir — all with a bare infinitive after "want" — Romanian says vreau să ies, a full finite clause. This is not a quirk of one verb; it is the single most distinctive structural feature of the language, the thing that makes Romanian feel different from its Western cousins. It is a Balkan-sprachbund trait, shared not with French or Spanish but with Greek, Bulgarian, and Albanian — unrelated languages that all reduced the infinitive in favour of a subjunctive-like clause. For a learner coming from any Romance background, mastering Romanian means consciously overriding your infinitive instinct and defaulting to să. This page lays out the choice as a decision tree, and then catalogues the few places where the infinitive still lives.

The quick answer

By default, where another Romance language would use an infinitive after a verb, Romanian uses să + a conjugated verb — even when the subject doesn't change. The infinitive survives only in a short, learnable list of constructions: after a putea, in a few fixed a avea de + infinitive idioms, after certain prepositions in formal style (înainte de a, pentru a), and after impersonal a fi + adjective in formal register (e greu de făcut). When in doubt, use să.

Decision tree

Step 1: Is the verb following an ordinary verb that takes a complement (want, like, try, hope, begin, decide…)?

Then use să. This is the overwhelming majority of cases. It does not matter that the subject is the same.

The mismatch with Spanish is sharpest in the same-subject cases. Quiero salir fuses two ideas about one person into one verb plus an infinitive. Romanian refuses to fuse them: vreau is "I" and să ies is also "I," each marked separately. There is no same-subject shortcut.

Step 2: Is the verb a putea ("can")?

Then you may use either să + conjunctiv or a bare short infinitive. A putea is the one common verb where the infinitive survives in everyday speech.

This is a genuine free choice; both are fully natural. But it is specific to a putea — do not extend it to a vrea or any other modal.

Step 3: Is it the idiom a avea de + infinitive ("have something to do")?

Then use the infinitive. This frozen pattern expresses "have (something) to do / to be done."

Step 4: Is it after a preposition in formal/written style — înainte de a, pentru a, în loc de a, spre a?

Then the infinitive is correct, and in formal register often preferred. These prepositional + infinitive patterns are a living, polished part of written Romanian.

In speech, these often become să-clauses (înainte să mănânci, ca să eviți greșelile), so once again you have a register pair: infinitive (formal/written) vs să-conjunctiv (neutral/spoken).

Step 5: Is it impersonal a fi + adjective describing how an action is to be done — e greu de făcut, e ușor de spus?

Then use de + short infinitive. This formal-leaning construction expresses "it is hard/easy/etc. to do."

Note this is distinct from e greu să + conjunctiv, which also exists (e greu să accepți adevărul, "it's hard to accept the truth"). The de + infinitive version backgrounds the doer and focuses on the action's difficulty as a property; the să version keeps an agent in view.

Step 6: None of the above?

Default to să. If your sentence doesn't fall into one of the licensed infinitive slots above, the Romanian will almost certainly be a să-clause.

Parallel pairs: Romanian să vs Romance infinitive

The pattern is stark: every Spanish infinitive in the left column becomes a să-clause in Romanian — except the last row, a putea, where the infinitive survives alongside să.

Where the infinitive lives — a summary

Everything outside this table defaults to să.

Why this matters — the structural signature

The loss of the infinitive is not a footnote; it is the thing that places Romanian in the Balkan linguistic area rather than the Western Romance world. Greek (θέλω να φύγω), Bulgarian (искам да отида), and Albanian (dua të iki) all build "I want to leave" the same way Romanian does — with a finite "that I leave" clause and no infinitive — despite belonging to three different language families. Romanian inherited Latin's infinitive but, under centuries of Balkan contact, pushed it to the margins. So when you train yourself to say vreau să plec instead of the instinctive *vreau a pleca, you are not just memorising a rule — you are reproducing the deep structural history of the language.

Common Mistakes

Key Takeaways

• Romanian defaults to să
  • conjugated verb
  where Romance cousins use the infinitive — even with the same subject (vreau să plec, not *vreau a pleca).
• The infinitive survives in four learnable slots: after a putea (pot merge), in a avea de + infinitive (am de făcut), after prepositions in formal style (înainte de a pleca), and after impersonal a fi + adjective (e greu de făcut).
• This infinitive loss is a Balkan-sprachbund feature shared with Greek, Bulgarian, and Albanian — the structural signature of Romanian.
• When unsure, use să; only use the infinitive when you can name the construction licensing it.