A tense for reading
Open a Romanian novel or a fairy tale and you will meet a past tense nobody uses at the office: the perfect simplu (simple past). Împăratul chemă means exactly împăratul a chemat: the emperor called. In everyday speech the perfect compus has replaced it almost everywhere, so you only need to recognize it, not to use it. The one exception is the south-west, Oltenia, where people still say mersei and mâncai for things they did today.
| The youngest son took a sword and set off toward the mountain. | Fiul cel mic luă o sabie și plecă spre munte. |
| This morning I went to the market and bought bread. | Azi-dimineață mersei la piață și cumpărai pâine. |
The endings
Start from the past participle you know and drop the -t: cântat → cânta-, tăcut → tăcu-, venit → veni-, făcut → făcu-. Then add the endings. In stories you will mostly see the he/she and they forms.
| verb | I | he / she | we | they |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| a cânta | cântai | cântă | cântarăm | cântară |
| a tăcea | tăcui | tăcu | tăcurăm | tăcură |
| a veni | venii | veni | venirăm | veniră |
| a face | făcui | făcu | făcurăm | făcură |
(You singular ends in -și: cântași, făcuși; you plural in -răți: cântarăți.) Verbs whose participle ends in -s keep it: mers → merse, zis → zise, pus → puse, spus → spuse. Watch the -i verbs: veni, lovi, întâlni look like the infinitive, and only the story tells you it is the past.
| He walked for three days and three nights through the forest. | Merse trei zile și trei nopți prin pădure. |
| The hero drew the sword and struck the dragon. | Eroul scoase sabia și lovi balaurul. |
The forms you meet on every page
| perfect simplu | everyday Romanian | |
|---|---|---|
| fu | a fost | was |
| avu | a avut | had |
| zise / spuse | a zis / a spus | said |
| făcu | a făcut | did, made |
| veni | a venit | came |
| merse | a mers | went |
| puse | a pus | put |
| dădu | a dat | gave |
| The emperor called his sons and told them the dragon had to be defeated. | Împăratul își chemă fiii și le zise că balaurul trebuie învins. |
| The dragon was defeated, and the curse vanished. | Balaurul fu învins, iar blestemul dispăru. |
| The fairy cast a spell and gave him a gold ring. | Zâna făcu o vrajă și îi dădu un inel de aur. |
Translate it with the English simple past, and when you retell the story yourself, use the perfect compus.
