Participle Agreement

Level 3

When using the passive voice (a fi + participle), the participle acts like an adjective. It changes its ending to match the subject's gender (masculine, feminine, or neuter) and number (singular or plural).

How It Works

In Romanian, the past participle is a 'double-agent.' In active tenses like the Compound Perfect, it stays in the masculine singular form. However, in the passive voice, it functions as a predicative adjective and must agree with the subject.

The Four-Form Paradigm:

  • Masculine Singular: The base form (ends in -t or -s). Ex: văzut, ales.
  • Feminine Singular: Adds -ă. This often triggers vowel shifts in the stem (e.g., e → ea, o → oa). Ex: aleasă, coaptă.
  • Masculine Plural: Adds -i. This often causes consonant changes. Ex: văzuți, aleși.
  • Feminine/Neuter Plural: Adds -e. Ex: văzute, alese.

Stem Changes in the Masculine Plural:
When adding the plural -i, certain consonants at the end of the stem shift:

  • t → ț: uitat (forgotten) becomes uitați; văzut (seen) becomes văzuți.
  • s → ș: ales (chosen) becomes aleși; închis (closed) becomes închiși.

Neuter Agreement:
Remember that neuter nouns behave like masculine nouns in the singular and feminine nouns in the plural. Therefore, a neuter subject will take a masculine singular participle (un scaun e vândut) or a feminine plural participle (două scaune sunt vândute).

Examples (5)

  1. Cei doi suspecți au fost prinși de poliție.

    The two suspects were caught by the police.

    Word by Word: The two suspects have been caught by police.

    The subject 'suspecți' is masculine plural, so 'prins' changes to 'prinși' (s becomes ș).

  2. Această lege va fi adoptată mâine.

    This law will be adopted tomorrow.

    Word by Word: This law will be adopted tomorrow.

    The subject 'lege' is feminine singular, so the participle 'adoptat' adds -ă to become 'adoptată'.

  3. Toate ferestrele erau deschise.

    All the windows were open.

    Word by Word: All windows-the were open.

    Deschise agrees with feminine plural ferestrele. In this sentence it naturally describes the windows as open; a state still uses participle/adjective agreement.

  4. Băiatul și fata au fost văzuți în parc.

    The boy and the girl were seen in the park.

    Word by Word: Boy-the and girl-the have been seen in park.

    When there is a mixed-gender plural subject, the masculine plural form 'văzuți' is used.

  5. Scrisoarea a fost trimisă ieri.

    The letter was sent yesterday.

    Word by Word: Letter-the has been sent yesterday.

    The feminine singular subject 'scrisoarea' requires the feminine participle 'trimisă'.

Common Mistakes

  • Using agreement in the active Compound Perfect tense.

    Ea a scrisă o carte.
    Ea a scris o carte.

    The participle stays unchanged in an active compound-perfect verb. Passive participles and participles used as adjectives agree with their subject or noun.

  • Forgetting stem changes in the masculine plural.

    Ei au fost uitati.
    Ei au fost uitați.

    The letter changes from t to ț before masculine plural -i: uitat → uitați. The diacritic marks a different sound and is part of the spelling.

  • Incorrectly agreeing with a feminine clitic in active sentences.

    Am văzută-o.
    Am văzut-o.

    In modern Romanian, the participle does not agree with the direct object clitic '-o' in the active voice.

How It Connects

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Participle AgreementLevel 3

Learn This First

To learn past participle agreement in the passive voice, you first need to understand how the passive voice is formed using 'a fi'. Since the participle acts as an adjective in this construction, you must also be familiar with how to form past participles and the general rules for adjective agreement in Romanian.

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