# Vreau să învăț?



## adamste81

Hello!

   I am VERY new to the Romanian language. I am almost fluent in Spanish and can hold my own in a Portuguese conversation but I don't know much Romanian and I am very interested in it. Anyhow, I wrote to a Romanian friend of mine "vreau a învăţa română" and he told me it should be "vreau să învăţ română". 

  Can someone explain why it is "să învăţ" and not the infinitive of "a învăţa". I am used to Spanish "Quiero aprender" or Portuguese "Quero aprender" but after the word want is the verb not in it's regular un-conjugated form? 

  Thanks!


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## farscape

Welcome to the Word Reference Romanian Forum, adamste81 

I hope you'll find the time to read the rules of the forum in the sticky on the first page and thus you'll enjoy your visit here. There's also a comprehensive list of on-line resources ready for you to peruse.

Feel free to ask questions, making sure there's only one topic per thread and the context of the question is specific and well defined. We strongly encourage you to use the diacritical marks  (you seem to know how  )- see the details in the sticky.

As for your first question, perhaps we can help you to rephrase it - it may be hard to explain why one language doesn't have the same grammar as another language .

Take a look at chapter 4, The Verb, in Dana Cojocaru's "Romanian Grammar" listed in the References: it should give you a good understanding of the subjunctive (*conjunctiv*, in Romanian), although it may not explain why it's not like in Spanish or English or French. (Honestly I'm not sure why it should be... ).

Good luck and have fun, and don't forget to be specific in your questions 

Best,
.


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## ectuohy

The most convincing explanation I've heard for _why _Romanian is different than the other major Romance languages in this respect is that the use of the subjunctive (!) here is an "areal feature", i.e., one that it developed in common with other Balkan languages (Bulgarian has the same construction, even though other related languages like Russian don't.)

Anyway, think of it like this in Spanish, the equivalent construction does exist, if used more rarely:
Quiere que hable conmigo=Vrea să vorbească cu mine


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## kloie

So basically the sa=that? like serbian has I want that I learn french for example.


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## farscape

Not quite: I started to read her letter -> Am început să citesc scrisoarea ei.

Here _to read_ -> să citesc

I could use _Am început *a citi* scrisoarea ei_ but that is not standard Romanian nor how we speak.

Later,
.


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## ectuohy

It is the same construction as Serbian (Volim da govorim/Vreau să vorbesc), and works the same way at least in this case, sure. 

Unfortunately, there are many other ways that să + subjunctive is used, and not all of them map to patterns in other languages, whether Balkan or Romance (like, say, like the imperative 1st-person plural, _hai să vorbim despre X_, let's talk about X), so the only way to really grasp it is to go through a good grammar, like the one mentioned above.

Good luck!


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