Core Romanian comma rules

In Romanian, a comma shows a boundary inside a sentence: between list items, around a form of direct address, or around information added as an aside. It is written directly after the preceding word and followed by a space: Maria, vino aici! (Maria, come here!).

How do you decide where to put a comma?

First identify what the words are doing: list items, coordinated clauses, direct address, an aside, or a subordinate clause. Then mark only the boundary that the structure requires; a pause in speech by itself is not a complete punctuation rule.

• Separate items in a list: Am cumpărat pâine, lapte și fructe. (I bought bread, milk, and fruit.) In a simple list, Romanian normally does not add a comma before the final și.
• Separate contrasted coordinated parts, especially before dar, iar, and ci: Am vrut să vin, dar am rămas acasă. (I wanted to come, but I stayed home.)
• Set off direct address wherever it occurs: Andrei, ascultă-mă! (Andrei, listen to me!); Vino aici, Andrei! (Come here, Andrei!). The name is not the grammatical subject of the command; it names the person addressed. See the Romanian vocative.
• Set off a clear aside or supplementary apposition: Mihai, colegul meu, locuiește la Cluj. (Mihai, my colleague, lives in Cluj.) The middle phrase adds information about Mihai rather than identifying which Mihai you mean.
• Separate a fronted subordinate clause from the main clause: Dacă ai timp, sună-mă. (If you have time, call me.) When the same close relationship follows the main clause, a comma is often not used: Sună-mă dacă ai timp. (Call me if you have time.)

When should you leave the comma out?

Do not use a comma merely because a sentence is long. In particular, keep the core subject–predicate and verb–object relationships together: Maria citește cartea. (Maria is reading the book.) A comma can appear only when another structure, such as an inserted aside or direct address, creates a real boundary.

• Do not separate an ordinary subject from its predicate: Copiii se joacă în parc. (The children are playing in the park.) Not: Copiii, se joacă în parc.
• Do not separate a verb from its ordinary object: Am citit articolul. (I read the article.) Not: Am citit, articolul.
• Do not insert a comma before every și, sau, or ori. A simple list has no final-list comma: Vrei ceai sau cafea? (Do you want tea or coffee?)
• Do not put a comma inside a restrictive relative clause when the clause identifies the noun: Cartea pe care am cumpărat-o ieri este interesantă. (The book that I bought yesterday is interesting.) Compare the Romanian relative clauses article.

Restrictive or supplementary information?

A relative clause that identifies which person or thing you mean normally stays attached to the noun without commas. A clause that gives extra information about an already identified noun is enclosed by commas: Cartea, pe care am cumpărat-o ieri, este interesantă. (The book, which I bought yesterday, is interesting.) The choice follows meaning and context, so punctuation can change the intended reading.

Two spelling details to remember

• A comma has no space before it and normally has one space after it: Da, vin imediat. (Yes, I am coming right away.) The same spacing applies in a list and around a directly addressed name.
• Romanian writes decimal fractions with a comma: 1,5 (one point five) and 13,75 (thirteen point seventy-five). For groups of thousands, standard Romanian uses a point rather than a comma: 1.500 (one thousand five hundred). Years and page numbers are written without a separator: anul 1500, pagina 1500.

A practical editing check

Read the sentence by structure, not by breath: circle each list boundary, mark any direct address, check whether an inserted phrase is supplementary, and check whether a subordinate or relative clause identifies its noun. Finally, scan for accidental commas between subject and predicate, verb and object, or before a simple final și. For longer quotations and dialogue, see punctuation for direct speech.