"They are men and they are women."

Translation: Ei sunt bărbați și ele sunt femei.

[dgloster]

I feel it's unfair to penalize us for not knowing "iar" when it hasn't been introduced previously.

[Hormazd9]

Exactly

[Andrei917371]

Preach it !

[perasperaadnihil]

What's the difference between "și" and "iar"?

[Olbapz]

I too wish to know the difference. This has happened on a number of occasions on the first lessons. Multiple words for or and and can lead to some confusion early on for learners. I'm okay, I can deduce that there may be multiple ands or ors in any language, however it can confuse certain learners or without even a slight explanation as to why one and is preferred over another it can distract learners. It's okay if there are multiple words that mean the same thing, but why not give an explanation at the very least.

[AndreiTudo351356]

In Romanian you could actually use both si and iar for the exact same sentence, but si is more common. And si is with an accent, but I don't know how to write it :P.

[Hi_From_Tom]

Tip for PC users:
1) Add Romanian to you keyboard layouts (Shift+Alt to change between them once set up).
2) Buy a sheet of envelope stickers, these are very good as they are durable and maintain writing very well.
3) Write accented (Romanian) letters and most common symbols on these in a size that will fit onto your keys without covering the original key symbol. This way you can ”add” accented keys to your keyboard for almost free :D

List of letters and symbols I've put on my keyboard:
ă î ș ț â ( ) - = / ?
Search for ”Romanian keyboard layout” on google to see where the individual keys are on your own keyboard.

[Holly413466]

For phone users, hold down the letter you need the accent for and select the appropriate option.

[k_rallyn]

I know that "iar" is "but", and "și" - "and". I learn english and I am roumanian.

[Adina3368]

I agree. I speak both Romanian and English, and I've always used "iar" to mean "but". I would not have used "iar" to translate this sentence. "Iar" would translate to English as "they are men but they are women," which is not the sentence they asked us to translate. (I grew up in America, and am trying to improve my native Romanian.)

[Fingtam]

If this is true then they are both conjunctions, and logically they have the same meaning, but in the english language they would not be able to be translated in exactly the same way. Feels like this question should be fixed.

[KevinSmith777042]

thanks - it is always best to get advice from a native speaker!

[Robbadob]

So is the difference between și and iar like the difference between и and а, where и is used to introduce two like things and а is used to introduce two contrasting things?

[2019/04/20]

[marinanunessss]

Ok, first:
1. "iar" wasnt introduced which is confusing, but ok
and 2., why can't "Ei" be used twice in the same phrase, if it's neutral? Couldn't it be "ei sunt bărbați și >ei< sunt femei"? If someone could explain to me I would be very grateful!! I just feel like it doesn't make sense, so I guess there's a gramatical explanation to it or something...

[UemwB1ZL]

"Ei" you use generally for "they", "Ele" is for female "they" and "El" is for male "they".
Please feedback me if it is not correct :)

[Adina3368]

UemwB1ZL is correct. It has to do with the gender. When referring to a group of mixed male/female, the default is always to use the male pronoun "ei". If the group is all male, "ei". Only if the group is all female would you use "ele".

[Mike176398]

Once again the translation is not one of the options.

[deactivated user]

The correction is wrong because the Romanian does not correspond to "They are men and they are women" but to "They are men, they are women" the "și" is missing from the "correct" choice offered.

[rucky4]

Me encanta que esas palabras tengan genero, se me antoja algo parecido al castellano

[Andrei926539]

English or Romanian please.