Raising and Control

Level 6

Compare the same participant trying and acting (Ea încearcă să plece) with a situation that seems true (Ea pare să știe). The selecting verb determines the available constructions.

How It Works

Control: the same participant in two actions
In Ea încearcă să plece, she both tries and leaves. This is a useful subject-control pattern. Do not group every desire verb under obligatory subject identity: Vreau să pleci has different subjects and is standard Romanian.

Raising: an appearance or assessment
In Fetele par să înțeleagă, the girls are the ones who understand; par assesses how that situation appears. Compare impersonal Se pare că fetele înțeleg. These are ways to organize the same kind of assessment, not a claim that every verb has exactly one syntactic analysis.

Trebuie
The present must-construction uses trebuie: Ei trebuie să plece. This does not make the verb invariable in every tense. DOOM3 permits, for example, Ei trebuia să plece and Ei trebuiau să plece, as well as relevant singular/plural auxiliary alternatives in past and future constructions.

Clitic placement
Use Vreau să-l văd. With putea + bare infinitive, use Îl pot vedea; with a să-clause, use Pot să-l văd. These are ordinary standard constructions. Other selecting verbs have their own complement patterns.

Explicit subordinate subject
Vreau ca el să plece places an explicit subject between ca and să. For the simple same-subject clause use Vreau să plec; do not assume every clause introduced by ca and să expresses purpose.

Examples (6)

  1. Ea încearcă să găsească cheile.

    She is trying to find the keys.

    Word by Word: She tries to find-subjunctive the keys.

    This is Subject Control. The subject 'Ea' (She) performs the action of 'trying' and is also the one 'finding'.

  2. Fetele par să înțeleagă problema.

    The girls seem to understand the problem.

    Word by Word: The girls seem to understand-subjunctive the problem.

    This is a variable Raising Verb. 'Fetele' is the logical subject of 'understand,' but it 'raises' to trigger plural agreement on 'par' (seem).

  3. Studenții trebuie să citească această carte.

    The students must read this book.

    Word by Word: The students must to read-subjunctive this book.

    Present-tense trebuie remains the same with studenții. Other tenses have accepted alternatives; this is not invariability across the whole paradigm.

  4. Îl pot vedea sau pot să-l văd.

    I can see him or I can see him.

    Word by Word: Him I-can see-infinitive or I-can to-him see-subjunctive.

    This demonstrates clitic climbing with the short infinitive versus the clitic barrier created by the să-clause.

  5. Vreau să-l văd acum.

    I want to see him now.

    Word by Word: I want to-him see now.

    The clitic '-l' (him) stays inside the 'să' clause. It cannot move before 'Vreau' because 'să' acts as a barrier.

  6. Se pare că ei au uitat.

    It seems that they forgot.

    Word by Word: Itself seems that they have forgotten.

    Se pare că introduces a finite report. The indicative au uitat presents the situation as apparently true; că does not universally ban other moods.

Common Mistakes

  • Using trebuiesc in the standard present must-construction.

    Ei trebuiesc să plece.
    Ei trebuie să plece.

    The present form is trebuie. This rule does not forbid the accepted plural imperfect trebuiau in the appropriate construction.

  • Moving the object pronoun out of a standard să-clause.

    Îl vreau să văd.
    Vreau să-l văd.

    For “I want to see him”, the object pronoun belongs inside the să-clause.

How It Connects

Tap a pattern to see what it builds on and what it leads to.

Raising and ControlLevel 6

Learn This First

Recognize the impersonal necessity construction used to compare subject relations. Compare the subject of a desire verb with the subject of its să-clause.

Words in This Pattern

să