Konjugation der Gruppen II, III und IV

Besides the -a verbs, Romanian sorts its verbs into three more groups by the ending of the infinitive:

• Group II, stressed -ea: a vedea - to see, a plăcea - to please, a putea - can
• Group III, unstressed -e: a merge - to go, a face - to do, a spune - to say, a scrie - to write
• Group IV, -i or -î: a dormi - to sleep, a vorbi - to speak, a citi - to read, a coborî - to go down

Patterns that save you work

• "I" and "they" share a form in every column above: eu merg / ei merg, eu vorbesc / ei vorbesc. In Group I it was "he" and "they"; here it is "I" and "they".
• Group IV has an -esc subgroup, the twin of the -ez verbs in Group I: vorbesc, citesc, iubesc, locuiesc (I live). As with -ez, learn the "I" form with the verb: a dormi (dorm) but a citi (citesc).
• Groups II and III differ in stress, not in spelling, for "we" and "you all": vedem is ve-DEM, mergem is MER-gem. Getting the stress wrong is the main pronunciation slip with these groups.

Sound changes

The stem often changes inside the paradigm, and the changes are regular enough to anticipate:

• before -i: d to z (văd - vezi), t to ț (pot - poți, I can - you can), s to ș (ies - ieși, I go out - you go out)
• stressed o to oa before -e: dorm - doarme, pot - poate
• e and ă alternate in the stem: văd, but vezi, vede, vedem

Two everyday verbs to know by heart from these groups: a face (to do, to make): fac, faci, face, facem, faceți, fac - Ce faci? is the Romanian "How are you?"; and a putea (can): pot, poți, poate, putem, puteți, pot, followed by să + verb: Pot să intru? - May I come in?