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In the main sense of “to seem”, părea may be reflexive or intransitive. This has no effect on sense, but is conditioned by the environment of the sentence under the following rules:
Reflexive use is impossible in the first and second person; thus, “you seem to me” can only be îmi pari, and not mi te pari.
Reflexive use must be accompanied by a dative pronoun (to whom does it seem?) directly preceding the reflexive pronoun of the verb (and thus necessarily in the short form). The existence of the dative pronoun, however, does not imply the need for părea to be reflexive; thus, “The program seems good to us” can be translated as Programul ni se pare bun (with a reflexive verb) or Programul ne pare bun (without a reflexive verb). The sentence Programul se pare bun, which features a reflexive părea but no indirect object in the dative (“to us”), is incorrect.
As an exception to the previous, impersonal catenative constructions (“it seems that…”) can be reflexive even when no dative pronoun is present: pare că…, se pare că… . Impersonal copulative constructions, however, do not constitute an exception and, without a dative pronoun present, are necessarily intransitive as per the above: Pare frig afară(“It seems cold outside”). (Again, as a consequence of the previous point, the sentence would support a reflexive construction with the addition of a dative pronoun.)
When a choice exists between reflexive and intransitive use, the latter is somewhat stylistically elevated in comparision.
The preceding description applies to contemporary language; old texts may use a reflexive părea when modern Romanian wouldn’t.
