"Dinner is in the evening."

Translation: Cina este seara.

[BerndKonfu]

shouldn't it be Cina e in seara (with accents, of course)

[Caesar_Imperator]

No. When referring to something that you always do or always happens at a certain point during the day (morning, afternoon, evening etc.) you just use the word itself (with a definite article). Examples:

Dimineața iau micul-dejun. - In the morning I eat breakfast.

După-amiaza mă odihnesc. - In the afternoon I rest.

Seara iau cina și apoi mă joc pe calculator. - In the evening I eat dinner and then I play on the computer.

Noaptea fie dorm, fie petrec. - At night I either sleep or I party.

N.B: "noon" is „amiază” and is an exception: you would say „la amiază”.

[BerndKonfu]

Thanks for the reply. Are they actually two different words then? It is really hard for me to wrap my head around this but let me try to explain:
"seara" in "este seara" would be an adverb while
"seara" in "este in seara" would be a noun.
The tricky part being that they look the same.
(My native language is German so I am trying to compare it to
"abends" vs. "am Abend")

Does this make sense?

[Caesar_Imperator]

Ich verstehe irgenwie was du meinst, aber „este în seară/seara” gibt es einfach nicht. „Seara”, „dimineața” usw. sind in meinen Beispielen Adverbien. Ein Beispiel wo „seara” ein Substantiv ist:

Seara se așterne peste oraș. - Der Abend „kommt” über die Stadt. (eher poetisch, ich weiß nicht, ob man so etwas im Deutschen wirklich sagt)

Es spielt aber nicht so eine große Rolle meiner Meinung nach, ob es sich um ein Substantiv oder ein Adverb handelt. Es gilt zwei Fälle zu unterscheiden:

1. Etwas was generell gilt/geschieht (wie oben):

Seara mâncăm mereu pește. - Abends essen wir immer Fisch.

1. Etwas was man heute (speziell) macht:

În seara asta/În această seară mergem la teatru - Heute Abend gehen wir ins Theater.

În dimineața asta/În această dimineață nu m-am dus la școală - Heute Morgen bin ich nicht in die Schule gegangen.

În noaptea asta/În această noapte bem. - Heute Abend trinken wir (Alkohol).

Für darauffolgende Tage (z.B morgen):

Mâine-seară mergem la film. - Morgen am Abend gehen wir ins Kino.

Mâine-dimineață nu mă trezesc la șapte. - Morgen stehe ich um 7 nicht auf.

Diese Logik kannst du eigentlich auch für den heutigen Tag anwenden (die gleiche Bedeutung wie in 2.): azi-dimineață (heute Morgen), astă-seară (heute Abend).

Entschuldige, falls das ein Durcheinander ist. Vielleicht ist es komplizierter als im Deutschen und die Regeln irgendwie komischer (auch mit ein paar Ausnahmen), aber so ist es in lateinischen Sprachen allgemein der Fall (auch im Rumänischen).

Falls etwas nicht klar ist, Bescheid sagen.

Viel Spaß beim Lernen ;)

[BerndKonfu]

thanks again! just one small note: German and Romanian are actually pretty close if you apply this level of abstraction, i.e. the adverb is used in a similar way.
But yeah, all my questions could have been answered by looking the words up on dexonline.ro first. i was simply unaware of the fact that these adverbs exist. (and you are right there is no such form for amiaza)

I wrote this in English cause I still hope I am not the only one who needs such an explanation :D

[Caesar_Imperator]

Right, I should have written in English, however as a native speaker I am not as aware of these rules as teachers or students might be, I just use them without thinking about them :P If I get my head around how these adverbs exactly work I might write a guide some time.

[Inga89619]

As a German Native Speaker I read caesars comment with interst!

[RScC61]

Cina este la seara is where I went but it is marked wrong, why is that?

[mjf92]

Not a native speaker but I know that you don't use both "la" and the definite article together. And I think these are set phrases so you either use one or the other. In this case the answer is "cina este seara".

[BerndKonfu]

"Seara" as an adverbial(w/o article) is used to express that something is regularly happening in the evening, e.g. dinner.

[Voobshe-ne-znayu]

If anyone is learning Russian and Romanian at the same time, seara is like the concept of вечером in Russian. You wouldn't say я ем в вечером, because the case ending -ом already implies that it is in the evening, so you wouldn't need в. I don't think the change from seară to seara has to do with a case change (correct me if I am wrong, please), but the concept is similar.

[shaun486664]

“Masa e seara” should be accepted because, colloquially, “masa” is used to refer to dinner.