Subjunctive Relatives

Level 5

Use a subjunctive relative to describe a desired, possible, or required quality: Caut pe cineva care să mă ajute. Indicative relatives can assert facts.

How It Works

Known facts and desired qualities
Indicative relatives can assert a fact about someone or something: Cunosc un medic care locuiește aici. Subjunctive relatives can present a desired quality or possible role: Caut un medic care să locuiască aici.

Meaning drives the choice
A search verb or indefinite noun does not mechanically force the subjunctive. An indicative can assert a quality even if the referent has not yet been identified. The subjunctive is useful when that quality is a requirement.

Purpose and nonexistence
Dă-mi ceva cu care să scriu describes an intended use. Nu e nimeni care să mă ajute denies the existence of someone able or available to help. Negative antecedents favor this reading, but they do not ban indicative clauses in every context.

Forms
Keep să and conjugate the verb for its own subject. Many third-person forms differ from the indicative: cântă → să cânte. A prior hypothetical event can use să fi + participle.

Superlatives and words like singurul do not by themselves require the subjunctive: E singurul care a venit asserts an actual event.

Examples (6)

  1. Cunosc un medic care locuiește aici.

    I know a doctor who lives here.

    Word by Word: I know a doctor who lives here.

    Indicative: The doctor is a specific person I already know.

  2. Caut un medic care să locuiască aici.

    I am looking for a doctor who lives here.

    Word by Word: I search a doctor who [subjunctive] live here.

    Subjunctive: I haven't found the doctor yet; I am looking for anyone who meets the criteria.

  3. Am nevoie de un cuțit cu care să tai pâinea.

    I need a knife to cut the bread with.

    Word by Word: I have need of a knife with which [subjunctive] I cut bread-the.

    Relative Clause of Purpose: The subjunctive expresses the intended use or purpose of the object.

  4. Nu există nimic care să mă sperie.

    There is nothing that scares me.

    Word by Word: Not exists nothing which [subjunctive] me scare.

    Subjunctive: Used because the 'thing' being described does not exist (negated antecedent).

  5. Caut un om pe care să-l pot ajuta.

    I am looking for a person whom I can help.

    Word by Word: I search a man on whom [subjunctive] him I can help.

    Subjunctive with pe care: Used here because the person is non-specific and the clause expresses a goal.

  6. Ar fi fost bine să fi găsit pe cineva care să fi știut drumul.

    It would have been good to have found someone who knew the way.

    Word by Word: It would be been good [subjunctive] be found on someone who [subjunctive] be known road-the.

    Să fi găsit and să fi știut are perfect subjunctives. The knowing belongs to the hypothetical earlier situation; English need not translate it as “would have known”.

Common Mistakes

  • Adding a second connector before să.

    Caut pe cineva care ca să mă ajute.
    Caut pe cineva care să mă ajute.

    Care already introduces this relative clause. Do not insert ca between care and să in this construction.

How It Connects

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

Subjunctive RelativesLevel 5

Learn This First

Form the subjunctive used for a sought, intended or otherwise nonasserted referent. Identify the antecedent and the relative clause that describes it.

Learn Next

Patterns that build on this one.