to put / to place
The core sense, with a place expression following.
Pune-l pe masă.
Put it on the table.
Unde ai pus cheile?
Where did you put the keys?
#94 · Verb
pune
In Romanian, pune means “to put / to place”. It’s the #94 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 pune is "to put", rank 94, and it works as broadly as its English twin: you put things on tables, you put questions, you put the table (a pune masa means "to lay the table"). The one thing to watch is the 2nd-person form pui, which is spelled exactly like the noun pui, "chicken".
neutralto ask (a pune o întrebare)
Romanian puts questions rather than asking them, exactly as English does with "to pose".
Pot să pun o întrebare?
May I ask a question?
to put on / to add
Of clothes, of ingredients, of music.
Pune-ți haina.
Put your coat on.
Pune puțin sare.
Add a little salt.
to set / to lay (a pune masa)
A pune masa is the fixed phrase for laying the table.
Pui tu masa?
Will you lay the table?
to start to (a se pune pe)
The reflexive a se pune pe means to set about something with energy.
S-a pus pe treabă.
He got down to work.
Forms you’ll actually hear
Ranked by how often each form shows up in spoken Romanian. The top 4 forms cover about 82% of everyday use — learn these first.
pune30%
pus25%
pun16%
pui11%
Show 12 more forms
punem6%
pună4%
puneți4%
pusă<1%
puse<1%
punea<1%
puși<1%
punând<1%
puneau<1%
punându<1%
pusese<1%
puneai<1%
Conjugation
- Infinitive
- a pune
- Past Participle
- pus
- Gerund
- punând
- Imperative Singular
- pune
- Imperative Plural
- puneți
- Auxiliary
- a avea
- Reflexive
- No
- Transitivity
- transitive
| Tense | eu | tu | el/ea | noi | voi | ei/ele |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Present | pun | pui | pune | punem | puneți | pun |
| Imperfect | puneam | puneai | punea | puneam | puneați | puneau |
| Perfect compus | am pus | ai pus | a pus | am pus | ați pus | au pus |
| Future | voi pune | vei pune | va pune | vom pune | veți pune | vor pune |
| Conditional | aș pune | ai pune | ar pune | am pune | ați pune | ar pune |
| Subjunctive | să pun | să pui | să pună | să punem | să puneți | să pună |
- eu and ei/ele share the present form pun, as they do in most verbs of this class.
- a pune places something; a așeza seats somebody or sets something down carefully. For everyday putting, a pune is always right.
- The reflexive a se pune pe means to set about something: s-a pus pe învățat.
Examples
Pune-l acolo.
Put it there.
pune - The singular imperative is identical to the 3rd-singular present. The object clitic -l attaches with a hyphen.
Unde ai pus telefonul?
Where did you put the phone?
pus - The participle pus is irregular — it does not follow the infinitive pune at all.
Pun eu masa.
I'll lay the table.
pun - The present used for an immediate offer. Putting eu after the verb emphasises who is volunteering.
Pui tu apa la fiert?
Will you put the water on to boil?
pui - The 2nd-singular pui, spelled exactly like the noun pui, "chicken". Only the sentence separates them.
Vreau să pun o întrebare.
I want to ask a question.
să pun - For eu the subjunctive matches the present. Romanian "puts" a question rather than asking it.
Trebuie să pună totul la loc.
He has to put everything back.
să pună - The 3rd-person subjunctive pună. la loc is the fixed phrase for "back in place".
The participle is pus, not *punut — an irregular form worth learning with the verb rather than deriving it. It also serves as an adjective and then agrees: masa e pusă, "the table is laid".