# "Poţi să fii" vs. "Poţi fi"



## JunjouLover

I've heard both "Poţi să fii" and "Poţi fi" be used, and I don't get the difference. 
I was listening to a song and I noticed that they used both. Is there any distinction between the two?

The song says:
"Poţi să fii fată," then "sau poţi fi băiat."

I don't get it. Can someone help explain it to me why they did this?


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## OldAvatar

These are different modes of the verb „a fi”:
„Poţi să fii” = subjunctive (named _conjunctiv _in Romanian)
while
Poţi (a) fi = infinitive
You can say the same thing using one of the two modes. As far as I know, while in other Romance languages you can only use the infinitive, in Romanian you can use the subjunctive too. It might be some sort of a Slavic-Romance dualism...


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## robbie_SWE

OldAvatar said:


> These are different modes of the verb „a fi”:
> „Poţi să fii” = subjunctive (named _conjunctiv _in Romanian)
> while
> Poţi (a) fi = infinitive
> You can say the same thing using one of the two modes. As far as I know, while in other Romance languages you can only use the infinitive, in Romanian you can use the subjunctive too. It might be some sort of a Slavic-Romance dualism...


 
It's not necessarily Slavic, but Balkan also shared with Greek and Albanian.
 
This feature is a part of the Balkansprachbund. 

 robbie


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## JunjouLover

Mulţumesc!!! ^_^


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## nadanada76

I'd say that "Poţi fi" is more formal whereas "Poţi să fii" is informal.


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## jazyk

> It's not necessarily Slavic, but Balkan also shared with Greek and Albanian.


I have to agree with Robbie on this one. The only Slavic language that I know that uses something similar to să is Macedonian (може да е). All other Slavic languages I'm familiar with use the infinitive in this construction.

Modern Greek has a similar structure: μπορεί να είναι (borí na íne). I don't know about Albanian, though.


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## Amante_de_limbi

Also, when speaking in the present tense (ignoring future, conditional, etc.) the infinitive in Romanian is only used after the verb "putea," to be able. For example, you can say: 

"pot vedea/"pot să văd" - "I can see"

but you can't say "vreau vedea" for "I want to see," only "vreau să văd."

Nadanada & Old Avatar are both right, they both mean the same thing.


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## Amante_de_limbi

JunjouLover said:


> I've heard both "Poţi să fii" and "Poţi fi" be used, and I don't get the difference.
> I was listening to a song and I noticed that they used both. Is there any distinction between the two?
> 
> The song says:
> "Poţi să fii fată," then "sau poţi fi băiat."
> 
> I don't get it. Can someone help explain it to me why they did this?



This is from Voltaj's song "Mai sus de locul 2" right? I love that song!


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