"o cafea"
Translation:a coffee
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Yes, the word "o" in Romanian language is an indefinite article for feminine words.
o=a, an
the word "un" in Romanian language is an indefinite article for masculine words.
un=a, an
The audio is combining the vowels, pronouncing this like "caf - ya". Is that the correct pronunciation, or should it be more like "caf - e - a"?
While the audio is generally bad, it's quite good here. There's only two syllables.
I couldn't listen to the audio, but (as a romanian) it's actually spelled ca-fea
This one, like tea, is uncountable, as all liquids are. "A cup of coffee" should be accepted, as that is the correct translation. "A coffee" is slang.
"Do you want to come up for a coffee?" "I'm going for a coffee, anyone want one?" "We'll have to meet up for a coffee sometime soon."
All legitimate English sentences, whilst they are informal they are not really slang as such.
This could easily be different from country to country or region to region, but I think I would generally use "coffee" instead of "a coffee" in most of those examples. If I were going to a coffee shop for "a coffee" though, I might use the second example, but it could easily be "coffee" or "a coffee". Regardless, I agree that leaving out "cup of" isn't necessarily improper.
So, o ceai is translated to a cup of tea, but o cafea is translated to a coffee?
Why?
It is a quirk in English that we say "a coffee" quite often to mean "a cup of coffee", but we just say "tea" or "a cup of tea" and not "a tea".
COFFEE and A coffee, should both be accepted here as it could be translated as either. ! :(
If Duolingo accepts "a cup of tea" for "un ceai," why not "a cup of coffee" for "o cafea"? If you wanna be consistent...
There are a lot of places where you can order “a coffee” which may come in a cup or a mug. For some unknown reason, I have yet to hear anyone say “a tea”. I don’t know if it is considered a more formal item or if “a cup of tea” and just “tea” have become ingrained as the way to do it. It is just the way it is. Coffee as an item that you can order as “a coffee” is rather a recent phenomenon, but it does exist. You can try reporting “a cup of coffee” if no one says “a coffee” in your area and indicate general location for Duolingo, but where I live the alternate would be “a mug of coffee” and I don’t believe that Duolingo accepts that either.
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I've heard 'one tea' occasionally. Maybe people think 'a tea' will be misheard simply as 'tea' and confuse the waitstaff. 'Two/three teas' are fairly common though especially by servers themselves.
I really wonder why "o" is the feminine article. It doesn't seem to be related to the "un / um / una / une / uma" concept of the other Romance languages. Does Romanian "o" have a Latin origin?
Romanian developed very far geographically from the other romance languages. You'll find that Romanian is the least alike from the romance language. That and the Slavic influences. But then latin did not have articles so all romance languages developed them independently. It's a nice deep dive to look into why and how.
Good question. Not even the official language dictionary gives the etymology for the feminine article, only the masculine - obviously Latin. Anyone?