to die
The literal sense, of people and animals.
A murit anul trecut.
He died last year.
Nu vreau să mor.
I don't want to die.
#143 · Verb
muri
In Romanian, muri means “to die”. It’s the #143 most frequently used Romanian word. Below you’ll find how to use it, its forms, real example sentences, and common word pairings.
Meaning & Use
A muri is "to die", rank 143. It is high on this list because subtitles are full of drama, and because Romanians use it the way English uses "dying" for exaggeration: mor de foame, "I am starving". Its stem changes sharply — the infinitive is muri but the present is mor, and the subjunctive is the irregular moară.
neutralto be dying of (hunger, cold, boredom)
a muri de plus a noun is everyday exaggeration, exactly like English "I am dying of thirst".
Mor de foame.
I'm starving.
Mor de frig.
I'm freezing.
to be dying to (a muri să)
Wanting something intensely: mor să văd, "I am dying to see".
Mor să știu.
I'm dying to know.
to die down / to go out
Of a fire, an engine or a sound.
A murit motorul.
The engine died.
Forms you’ll actually hear
Ranked by how often each form shows up in spoken Romanian. The top 3 forms cover about 81% of everyday use — learn these first.
murit47%
muri19%
mor15%
Show 9 more forms
moară11%
murim5%
murind<1%
muriți<1%
murise<1%
murea<1%
mureau<1%
muriseră<1%
muream<1%
Conjugation
- Infinitive
- a muri
- Past Participle
- murit
- Gerund
- murind
- Imperative Singular
- mori
- Imperative Plural
- muriți
- Auxiliary
- a avea
- Reflexive
- No
- Transitivity
- intransitive
| Tense | eu | tu | el/ea | noi | voi | ei/ele |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Present | mor | mori | moare | murim | muriți | mor |
| Imperfect | muream | mureai | murea | muream | mureați | mureau |
| Perfect compus | am murit | ai murit | a murit | am murit | ați murit | au murit |
| Future | voi muri | vei muri | va muri | vom muri | veți muri | vor muri |
| Conditional | aș muri | ai muri | ar muri | am muri | ați muri | ar muri |
| Subjunctive | să mor | să mori | să moară | să murim | să muriți | să moară |
- The compound past takes a avea, not a fi: a murit, never *e murit. The participle murit can still work as an adjective in mort, a separate word meaning "dead".
- a muri de plus a noun is the standard exaggeration frame, and it is not considered dramatic or rude.
- The imperative exists but is rare for obvious reasons; it survives mainly in insults and in fiction.
Examples
Mor de foame!
I'm starving!
mor - The exaggeration, and by far the most common use in speech. de introduces what is killing you.
Bunicul a murit acum doi ani.
My grandfather died two years ago.
murit - The literal sense. acum plus a period means "ago", not "now", when it precedes a time span.
Mor de râs.
I'm dying laughing.
mor - de râs, "of laughter". The same frame as de foame and de frig.
Nu vreau să mor așa.
I don't want to die like this.
să mor - For eu the subjunctive matches the present. The stem is mor, not muri — the infinitive is misleading.
E gata să moară de plictiseală.
He's ready to die of boredom.
să moară - The 3rd-person subjunctive moară is irregular and looks like neither mor nor muri.
Murim de curiozitate.
We're dying of curiosity.
murim - The 1st plural keeps the muri stem, unlike the singular mor. Both belong to the same verb.
The stem splits in two. Singular and 3rd plural take mor (mor, mori, moare, mor), while noi and voi keep muri (murim, muriți). The subjunctive moară follows neither. Learning mor / moare / moară as a set is faster than deriving them from the infinitive.