"Ei îi este frică de ele."

Translation: She is afraid of them.

[ocalex86]

Why isn't it "ea este frică de ele"?
I don't understand the initial "Ei"

[potestasity]

The initial "ei" is the genitive/dative form of the third person singular feminine personal pronoun.
This is a very common way to express sensations in Romanian:
Mie îmi este frig. - I'm cold.
Ție îți este foame. - You are hungry.
Ei/Lui îi este rușine. - She/He is ashamed.
Nouă ne este sete. - We are thirsty.
Vouă vă este scârbă. - You are disgusted.
Lor le este rău. - They are sick.

[Motanu11]

Sorry to be dense but I still don't get it. "Ei (she) looks to be the subject of the sentence and therefore nominative. Why use a dative pronoun here? Thanks potestasity.

[potestasity]

Actually, the subject of this sentence is the noun "frică" and "ei" is an indirect object. This is one of the situations where the subject goes after the verb; it's a really a confusing structure, but it is very common.

[Motanu11]

Thanks potesasity. This is especially difficult for me. In English, "afraid (frică) is an adjective, not a noun.

[potestasity]

The Romanian adjective that properly translates "afraid" is "înfricoșată" and indeed you can say:
Ea este înfricoșată de ele.

Which is a perfect word-for-word correspondence with English. You can do that with pretty much every sensation. I gave examples here.

If you find this more comfortable because it matches English grammar, feel free to use it, but there's two problems:
1. Using the noun + dative of pronouns is by far more common and more natural; a native would probably use that.
2. The adjective needed is not very intuitive. (e.g. frică - înfricoșat; somn - somnoros) and similar forms change meaning: "fricos" expresses a general character trait, "fearful".

[CarrieSlus]

Thanks for this discussion! This also explains why the verbs seem not to be conjugated for the pronouns. That was confusing me as well.

[ocalex86]

Thank you! I didn't see that "ei" could both mean "they" and the stressed feminine genitive/dative pronoun.

[JonEnMiljon]

It's confusing indeed. Romanian personal pronouns is a sea of "e*"s... I often give the wrong answer when I'm a little tired ( I also mix up "ne" and "nu" way too often) :/ Dar îmi place încă limba această :)

[lisadoglio1]

Thanks a lot for your explaination. I was confused, too.

[Abidaga]

Shouldn't "she is frightened of them" be accepted?

[Tony713682]

What is happening in this set of lessons? Here is a supposedly Romanian sentence to be translated into English:
"No him It is fear from he" Is this some form of "Romglais"
.

[Laura56120]

I am amazed by the sugestive sentences this app gives about romania. Like.. 3 question ago i got past a questiom about corruption which is very common in romania. I feel bad about the people that are going to learn this language with this exercises. Romania is a beautiful country, yea it has some major defects but that s only because of the people.. So please don t continue to put these kind of sentences or question because it s not fair and ok.

[ANfg91]

Frica - another Romanian word that is better than English at capturing the enotion you can almost hear the freak out and see the hair standing up on end!

[PerfectPer5]

Ei? Thta is supposed to be for female "them" or can sb explain this grama structure

[CarloPost]

Think it should be ea este