Compound Past (Perfect compus)

Romanian has four past tenses: the imperfect, the compound past (perfect compus), the simple past (perfect simplu) and the pluperfect (mai mult ca perfect). The compound past is the one used most in everyday speech. It describes an action that was completed in the past.

It is formed with a short form of a avea (to have) and the past participle of the verb, which never changes:

eu am mâncat
tu ai mâncat
el, ea a mâncat
noi am mâncat
voi ați mâncat
ei, ele au mâncat

The auxiliary forms are am, ai, a, am, ați, au, not avem and aveți as in the full verb a avea.

The participle usually ends in -at, -ut, -it or -ât (a cânta → cântat, a pierde → pierdut, a dormi → dormit, a coborî → coborât); many verbs in -e end in -s (a merge → mers, a scrie → scris). Irregular: a fi → fost, a bea → băut, a rupe → rupt.