"They live on the island for years."

[jh963]

Could someone explain this, please?

[razvan.marin]

Sometimes in Romanian we say ani de zile or luni de zile instead of just ani or luni.

If it would have been They live on the island for months. you could translate it as Ele traiesc de luni pe insula. but it wouldn't be clear whether you're saying months or Monday, and we would probably assume it is Monday.

So my guess is that in order to make it clear we are talking about months, we say luni de zile and it perhaps got transfered to ani de zile too without any benefit that I can think of.

[AntonioFMS]

Please add the sentence with "Ei" to the correct answers.

[Lurch_M]

I think you'd usually say it in English like this: "They've been living on the island for years".

[karalamak]

Is it normal to put time information before location in Romanian? i.e. would Ele traiesc pe insula de ani de zile sound unnatural?

[Lurch_M]

Both orders are perfectly fine and common in Romanian.

[DavidONeil4]

The proposition does not require the definite article (which is implied), unless the noun is qualified eg by an adjective (so the translation of eg "on the big Island" would have required the "insula" form.

[Lurch_M]

DavidONeil4, I think you replied to the wrong message. :)

[DavidONeil4]

Well spotted! Thanks :-)

[Renardo11]

Why is “on the island” translated by “pe insulă”, not by “pe insula?” Wouldn't the former be translated to English as “on an island” (any)?

[Lurch_M]

Please see DavidONeil4's post. That should have been the reply to your question.

[Renardo11]

Thanks to both of you.

[DavidONeil4]

Thanks to Lurch for noting I posted in the wrong place. Post copied here for convenience:
The proposition does not require the definite article (which is implied), unless the noun is qualified eg by an adjective (so the translation of eg "on the big Island" would have required the "insula" form.