te rog / vă rog

Please

Level 1

Romanian uses two versions of 'please' depending on who you are talking to: te rog (informal) and vă rog (formal/plural).

How It Works

In Romanian, politeness is built into the grammar. The word for 'please' comes from the verb a ruga (to ask/beg).

1. Choosing the Right Form:

  • Te rog: Use this with friends, family, children, or people your own age in casual settings. It uses the informal te.
  • Vă rog: Use this with strangers, elders, superiors, or anyone you would address with dumneavoastră. It is also the form used when speaking to more than one person.
  • Vă rugăm: If you are speaking on behalf of a group (we), use the plural form rugăm instead of rog.

2. Sentence Placement:
Romanian word order is flexible. While these phrases often follow an imperative (command) to soften it, they can also naturally appear at the beginning or in the middle of a sentence for emphasis or flow.

  • Te rog, dă-mi apa. (Please, give me the water.)
  • O cafea, vă rog. (A coffee, please.)

3. Adding "Frumos":
To make a request sound warmer or more polite, Romanians very often add the adverb frumos (literally "beautifully").

  • Te rog frumos, mă ajuți? (Could you please help me?)

4. Subjunctive Requests:
For more specific requests, you can use the pattern te/vă rog să... followed by the subjunctive.

  • Te rog să vii la timp. (I ask you to come on time / Please come on time.)

Examples (5)

  1. Ajută-mă, te rog.

    Help me, please.

    Word by Word: Help-me, I ask you.

    Used with a friend or someone you know well (informal).

  2. Spuneți-mi, vă rog, unde este gara.

    Tell me, please, where the train station is.

    Word by Word: Tell-me, I ask you, where is the station.

    Used with a stranger or in a formal setting. Note the plural/formal verb 'spuneți'.

  3. Două bilete, vă rog.

    Two tickets, please.

    Word by Word: Two tickets, I ask you.

    Standard polite way to order items in a shop or station.

  4. Te rog să nu întârzii.

    Please don't be late.

    Word by Word: I ask you that not you-delay.

    A request using the 'să' construction for a specific action.

  5. Vă rugăm să așteptați.

    We ask you to wait.

    Word by Word: You we-ask that you-wait.

    Using 'rugăm' (we ask) when the request comes from a group, like staff in a restaurant.

Common Mistakes

  • Hyphenating the phrase like a verb-clitic pair.

    Te-rog.
    Te rog.

    Unlike 'ajută-mă', 'te rog' is two separate words and should never be hyphenated.

How It Connects

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te rog / vă rogLevel 1Please

Learn This First

To use 'te rog' and 'vă rog' correctly, you need to understand the difference between informal and formal/plural address (tu vs. voi) and how the verb 'a ruga' is conjugated in the present tense.

Learn Next

Patterns that build on this one.

Words in This Pattern

vă rogte rogruga