28 Comments
1219
Yes, you can say. Moreover, it is advisable to drop the article when no attribute (either adjectival or not) is present. The English "I am a girl" translates in Romanian, in colloquial speech, into "Sunt fată". English tends to use the indefinite article more than necessary, and Romanian less. We never use it in Romanian for example with titles or jobs or professions, unless it becomes necessary to add it by the presence of an attribute, etc., or if we really want to stress out the fact that the object is unknown or unimportant, like in ”eu sunt un om”=”i am (just) a man” (an anonymous guy). Otherwise we say ”eu sunt om” (I am a man, I am human). English sentences like "I am a teacher" or "he is a king" will be translated to "(eu) sunt profesor" and "el este rege", and NOT into "eu sunt un profesor" neither "el este un rege", unless we need to clarify, like "eu sunt un profesor exigent" or "el este un rege bun".
No it just sounds weird is like you are saying.
Sunt fată = am girl
Eu sunt fată = i am girl
And the correct way to sau it is to sau
Eu sunt o fată.
Eu = I Sunt = am O = a Fată = girl
I don't think so, because those sentences would mean "I am girl", without the indefinite article.
well, "splittongue" seems to be a native Romanian since he says "WE never use it in Romanian," so HE should know better! but I will ask my doctor. He studied in Bucuresti and speaks fluent Romanian.
The sentence is "Eu sunt o fata." From my experience with Portuguese and Spanish, it would seem that the sentence would be, "Eu sunt a fata," because the 'a' would go with the feminine form, and the 'o' would go with the masculine. I have much to learn!
I'm a native Romanian, let me explain. In Romanian, we have two types of articles that precede nouns: the definite article and the indefinite article. Now let's apply both on the nouns 'fată' and 'băiat'
indefinite article -- O fată
definite article -- Fata (as you can see the ă is being replaced with an a, which is the definite article for feminine nouns)
indefinite article -- Un băiat
definite article -- Băiatul (in this case we're not replacing anything but instead adding the 'ul' termination since it is a masculine noun)
Oh how complicated...at least at the moment since I am just starting to learn. (the pains I forgot about when you start a new language, aha) thank you for explaining
So there's no word for "the", and it's just a matter of changing the noun? (BTW- Your English seems really good, but just as some friendly advice, in the last sentence you would want to use the word 'ending' instead of 'termination'. :) )
There is a word for "the", it's just added as a suffix or similar change. O fată becomes fata, and un bărbat becomes bărbatul.
[2019/04/17]
So,
In Romanian, there are three types of gender: feminine, masculine and neuter. When you say "picture" in Romanian, it will be "tablou". And when you count it in English (I mean the plural of it) will be like: a picture - two pictures (same for others... a dog - two dogs, a flower - two flowers... and so on ) it always remains the same (a , two...a, two)
While this is totally different in Romanian:
un tablou - două tablouri (un, două = for neuter)
un câine - doi câini (un, doi - for masculine)
o floare - două flori (o, două - for feminine)
You won't say "un fată", because un is for masculine or neuter.....neither "un floare"...
Hope this helps!
- 889
So the article's form has to agree with the noun's gender, and the ending changes too to indicate it is plural, equivalent to the addition of an S at the end in English?
Thank you.
Yes,
...it is a bit more complicated than English, where with the rule of s when you're adding just the "s" at the end of the word telling us it indicates its plural, (apart from the other exceptions like: sheep = which remains the same, or wolf = which becomes wolves, mouse = mice*, and so on...)
Unfortunately, (this is a bit complicated in the Romanian's grammar) there are more than one rule.
Here are some tables that explains the plurals' rule: neuter, feminine and masculine.
You can also have a look here, it explains everything.
Many thanks. it is just what I needed ! Though I have - until now - not concerned myself with grammar, just doing what a young child does, i.e. learning his mother-tongue by hearing and making mistakes, I was under the clear impression that, contrary to the other latin languages I speak fluently ( French-[Spanish-Italian-Portuguese) Romanian had kept cases like Latin. well, it does, so now I will know how to write the language without having to guess. I just have to go back to Latin and know the function of each word in the sentence, Romanian has even kept Latin Vocative with i's t E ending, ( Dominus, Domine) in masculine. So,many thanks for your help. It spares me time searching.
Did anyone else hear the "s" in "sunt" being lisped, similar to Spanish in Spain?
Sunt should be pronounced /sunt/ or /sɨnt/, definitely not as /θunt/. I think it's just the audio quality.
[2019/04/17]
I am from romania,brasov Am incercat aceasta functie doar ca sa vad daca e amuzant . Chiar e!!!
What he was trying to explain is that the indefinite article is not colloquially used in Romanian. In day to day speech it is mostly absent.
'Eu sunt fatã' would translate word by word as 'I am girl' (which is, as you know, incorrect).
What seems to be the trouble?
eu = I
sunt = am
o = a (fem.)
fată = girl
It's a word-to-word correspondence, at least in this sentence.
[2019/04/17]
