please (te rog / vă rog)
The fixed politeness formula. te rog to one person you know, vă rog to a stranger or to several people.
Te rog!
Please!
Vă rog să veniți.
Please come.
#72 · Verb
ruga
In Romanian, ruga means “please (te rog / vă rog)”. It’s the #72 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 ruga is "to ask somebody for something" — and it is how Romanian says "please". There is no separate word for please: te rog and vă rog literally mean "I ask you". That is why rank 72 is carried almost entirely by one form, rog, which accounts for the great majority of the measured uses.
neutralto ask somebody (to do something)
The plain verb, taking a person as the direct object and să plus a verb for the request.
L-am rugat să vină.
I asked him to come.
Te rog ceva.
Let me ask you something.
to beg / to plead
Stronger than a cere, "to request" — a ruga carries the asking of a favour.
Te rog frumos.
I ask you nicely.
to pray (a se ruga)
The reflexive form is the religious sense, with la or pentru.
Se roagă în fiecare seară.
She prays every evening.
Forms you’ll actually hear
Ranked by how often each form shows up in spoken Romanian. The top form cover about 91% of everyday use — learn these first.
rog91%
Show 8 more forms
rugat4%
rugăm3%
ruga<1%
rugam<1%
rugați<1%
rugandu<1%
rugată<1%
rugase<1%
Conjugation
- Infinitive
- a ruga
- Past Participle
- rugat
- Gerund
- rugând
- Imperative Singular
- roagă
- Imperative Plural
- rugați
- Auxiliary
- a avea
- Reflexive
- No
- Transitivity
- transitive
| Tense | eu | tu | el/ea | noi | voi | ei/ele |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Present | rog | rogi | roagă | rugăm | rugați | roagă |
| Imperfect | rugam | rugai | ruga | rugam | rugați | rugau |
| Perfect compus | am rugat | ai rugat | a rugat | am rugat | ați rugat | au rugat |
| Future | voi ruga | vei ruga | va ruga | vom ruga | veți ruga | vor ruga |
| Conditional | aș ruga | ai ruga | ar ruga | am ruga | ați ruga | ar ruga |
| Subjunctive | să rog | să rogi | să roage | să rugăm | să rugați | să roage |
- The stem vowel changes under stress: u in rugăm and rugați, but oa in roagă and o in rog.
- Vă rog is both the polite singular and the plural, so it is the safe default with anyone you do not address as tu.
- The reflexive a se ruga means "to pray", but the fixed mă rog in conversation is a filler, closer to English "well…".
- A ruga asks a person; a cere asks for a thing. Îl rog ceva and Îi cer ceva are not interchangeable.
Examples
Vă rog!
Please! (formal)
rog - One form doing the work of a whole word. rog is the 1st singular present, and the clitic vă is the person being asked.
Te rog să mă asculți.
Please listen to me.
rog - Te rog followed by să plus the subjunctive is the standard polite request. English collapses this into "please".
L-am rugat să aștepte.
I asked him to wait.
rugat - Compound past with the object clitic l- attached in front of the auxiliary — the normal position for a clitic.
Vă rugăm să nu fumați.
Please do not smoke.
rugăm - The 1st plural rugăm is the institutional "we" of signs and announcements, which is why it is the second most frequent form.
Roagă-l tu.
You ask him.
roagă - The imperative roagă shows the u → oa change under stress, with the object clitic hyphenated to the end.
Mă rog, nu contează.
Well, never mind.
mă rog - Mă rog is a fixed filler meaning "well…" or "anyway" — extremely common in speech and nothing to do with praying.
Romanian has no standalone word for "please". You must attach the person: te rog to someone you address as tu, vă rog to anyone else. Saying rog on its own is not polite, it is incomplete.
In expressions
Common phrases built around ruga — worth learning as whole units.
Te rog.— Please.
lit. “you I-beg” · formal/plural: vă rog