Learn Hardcore Romanian: Ea o să scrie răspunsuri scurte mâine. - She is going to write short answers tomorrow.

O să is a periphrastic future marker in Romanian. It precedes a verb in the subjunctive mood to express what will happen. In this case, o să scrie means “is going to write” or “will write.” It’s very common in spoken Romanian.

Why does the verb appear as scrie and not another form?

After o să, the main verb must be in the subjunctive. For a scrie (“to write”), the 3rd person singular subjunctive is scrie. That’s why you don’t use the infinitive or a past form here.

Why is Ea used here, and could you omit it?

Romanian is a pro-drop language: the verb ending -e on scrie already tells you it’s 3rd person singular. You can omit Ea entirely unless you want to emphasize “she” or contrast with “he”.

Why is the adjective scurte and not scurți?

Răspuns is a neuter noun. Neuter nouns behave like masculine in the singular but like feminine in the plural. So răspunsuri (plural) takes the feminine plural adjective form scurte, not the masculine plural scurți.

Where can mâine go in the sentence? Is it always at the end?

Time adverbs are quite flexible in Romanian. You can say:
• Ea o să scrie răspunsuri scurte mâine.
• Mâine o să scrie răspunsuri scurte.
• Ea mâine o să scrie răspunsuri scurte.
All are correct; positioning only affects emphasis.

Could we use va scrie instead of o să scrie? What’s the difference?

Yes. Va scrie is the simple future tense (“she will write”), formed with the auxiliary va + infinitive. O să scrie is periphrastic and more colloquial. In writing or formal speech you might prefer va scrie, but both are perfectly correct.

How do you pronounce o să scrie răspunsuri scurte mâine?

Phonetically:
[o sə ˈskri.e rəsˈpun.su.ri ˈsku.rte ˈmɨ.i̯.ne]
Key sounds:
• ă = [ə] like the ‘a’ in about
• â = [ɨ], a sound between English i and u
Stress falls on scrie, pun, and mâine.

What is the origin of the particle o in o să?

Historically, o comes from an old form of the auxiliary verb (related to va). Over time it fused with să, and today it’s just a fixed future marker without independent meaning.