to leave / to depart
The core sense: to go away from here. No object is needed.
Plec acum.
I'm leaving now.
Trenul pleacă la opt.
The train leaves at eight.
#89 · Verb
pleca
In Romanian, pleca means “to leave / to depart”. It’s the #89 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 pleca is "to leave" — to depart from where you are. Rank 89. It completes the movement trio a learner needs: a merge is going somewhere, a se duce is heading off, and a pleca is the moment of departure. Plec! on its own is a full sentence, and Am plecat! is what Romanians say as they walk out of the door.
neutralto set off / to leave for somewhere
With la, spre or în for the destination.
Plecăm la mare.
We're leaving for the seaside.
A plecat în Anglia.
He left for England.
to be gone / to be away
The participle plecat works as an adjective: E plecat means "He is away".
E plecat de acasă.
He's away from home.
to bend / to bow (a pleca capul)
The older, literal sense of bending — kept in fixed phrases.
a pleca capul
to bow one’s head
Forms you’ll actually hear
Ranked by how often each form shows up in spoken Romanian. The top 5 forms cover about 80% of everyday use — learn these first.
plecat28%
pleca17%
plecăm16%
pleci12%
plece8%
Show 12 more forms
pleacă8%
plec5%
plecați3%
plecam2%
plecată<1%
plecând<1%
plecase<1%
plecau<1%
plecă<1%
plecate<1%
plecasem<1%
plecaseră<1%
Conjugation
- Infinitive
- a pleca
- Past Participle
- plecat
- Gerund
- plecând
- Imperative Singular
- pleacă
- Imperative Plural
- plecați
- Auxiliary
- a avea
- Reflexive
- No
- Transitivity
- intransitive
| Tense | eu | tu | el/ea | noi | voi | ei/ele |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Present | plec | pleci | pleacă | plecăm | plecați | pleacă |
| Imperfect | plecam | plecai | pleca | plecam | plecați | plecau |
| Perfect compus | am plecat | ai plecat | a plecat | am plecat | ați plecat | au plecat |
| Future | voi pleca | vei pleca | va pleca | vom pleca | veți pleca | vor pleca |
| Conditional | aș pleca | ai pleca | ar pleca | am pleca | ați pleca | ar pleca |
| Subjunctive | să plec | să pleci | să plece | să plecăm | să plecați | să plece |
- The stem vowel alternates: plec and plecăm keep e, while pleacă takes ea under stress.
- The participle plecat also serves as an adjective and then agrees: e plecată, sunt plecați.
- a pleca is departure, a sosi and a ajunge are arrival. Trenul pleacă la opt și ajunge la zece.
Examples
Plec acum, pa!
I'm off now, bye!
plec - One word is a complete sentence. Romanian needs no equivalent of "I am" plus a participle.
Când pleci?
When are you leaving?
pleci - The present covers the future here. Adding a future tense would sound heavier than Romanians speak.
Autobuzul pleacă în cinci minute.
The bus leaves in five minutes.
pleacă - The 3rd singular shows the e → ea change under stress: plec but pleacă.
Am plecat!
I'm off!
plecat - A past tense used for the immediate present — said while still leaving. Romanian treats the departure as already done.
Vrea să plece mai devreme.
She wants to leave earlier.
să plece - The 3rd-person subjunctive plece, which drops the ea of pleacă. This is the form that follows vrea să and trebuie să.
Pleacă de aici!
Get out of here!
pleacă - The singular imperative is identical to the 3rd-singular present — a pattern shared by most first-conjugation verbs.
A pleca is intransitive: you leave, you do not leave a place as an object. For "I left the house" say Am plecat de acasă, with de. Am plecat casa is not Romanian — and to leave something behind is a lăsa, a different verb entirely.