The Pluperfect Tense (Mai mult ca perfectul)
The pluperfect tense describes a past action that happened before another past action (translating to the English "had" + past participle, like "had sailed").
Unlike English, the Romanian pluperfect is a synthetic tense (a single word with no helper verb). For 1st conjugation verbs (ending in -a) and 4th conjugation verbs (ending in -i or -î), drop the infinitive marker a and attach these suffixes:
- eu: -sem
- tu: -seși
- el / ea: -se
- noi: -serăm
- voi: -serăți
- ei / ele: -seră
| Pronoun | a naviga (to sail) | a porni (to set off) |
|---|---|---|
| eu | navigasem | pornisem |
| tu | navigaseși | porniseși |
| el / ea | navigase | pornise |
| noi | navigaserăm | porniserăm |
| voi | navigaserăți | porniserăți |
| ei / ele | navigaseră | porniseră |
You will frequently see the pluperfect paired with another verb in the standard past tense (perfect compus) to establish a clear timeline of events.
| I was glad after I had spotted the island. | M-am bucurat după ce zărisem insula. |
| When I arrived at the sea, the sailor had already set off. | Când am ajuns la mare, marinarul pornise deja. |
Because the verb's ending firmly establishes the subject, you can drop pronouns like noi (we) or ei (they) unless you want to add emphasis.
| We had sailed a lot until we arrived in that port. | Noi navigaserăm mult până am ajuns în portul acela. |
| That was the port where they had anchored and from where they had set off. | Acela era portul unde ancoraseră și de unde porniseră. |
Reflexive Verbs in the Pluperfect
For reflexive verbs, the reflexive pronoun sits immediately in front of the pluperfect verb, just as it does in the present or standard past tenses.
| The boat had already sunk when the team arrived. | Barca se scufundase deja când a ajuns echipa. |