Romanian

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Alternative forms

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Etymology

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Inherited from Vulgar Latin volēre, remodeled from Latin velle, from Proto-Italic *welō, ultimately from Proto-Indo-European *welh₁-. The word possibly passed through an older form *vurea/*vureare in early Romanian before reaching its current state (compare the phonetic evolution of durea). The 1st, 2nd, and 3rd person singular present forms (vreau, vrei, vrea) were reformed from the infinitive analogically; cf. the alternative conjugation now used as an auxiliary verb for the future indicative tense, which may represent the original form of these. Compare Aromanian voi, vreari, Italian volere.

Pronunciation

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  • IPA(key): /ˈvre̯a/
  • Audio:(file)
  • Rhymes: -a
  • Hyphenation: vrea
  • Audio:(file)

Verb

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a vrea (third-person singular present vrea, past participle vrut) 2nd conj.

  1. to want
    Vreau -l întâlnesc pe prietenul tău Radu.
    I want to meet your friend Radu.
  2. (auxiliary) Used to form other tenses.
    1. Used with an infinitive to form the future indicative tense.
      Mâine vom merge la teatru.
      Tomorrow we will go to the theater.
    2. Used with fi and a past participle to form the indicative future perfect tense.
      Când vei începe, eu voi fi terminat deja.
      When you will begin, I will have already finished.
    3. Used with fi and a past participle to form the presumptive past tense.
      Unde e Andrei? O fi plecat.
      Where is Andrei? Maybe he left.
    4. Used with an infinitive to form the presumptive present tense.
      O fi ocupat.
      Maybe he's busy.
    5. Used with the verb fi and a gerund to form the presumptive progressive tense.
      Ce-o fi făcând acolo?
      What could he be doing there?

Usage notes

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  • The verb vrea has three conjugations, shown below: one when used as a full verb, one when forming the indicative future and future perfect tenses, and one when forming the presumptive past, present and progressive tenses.
  • vrea as a full verb is used only relatively sparingly in the imperfect, simple perfect and pluperfect tense. In these tenses, voi and the proscribed vroi are much more commonly encountered.
  • A more informal way to form the future is to use o + a subjunctive verb.

Conjugation

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Derived terms

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See also

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  • dori (less emphatic than vrea)