"I see the blue color of the platform."

Translation: Eu văd culoarea albastră a peronului.

[Motanu11]

What is the function of the word, "a"?

[Lurch_M]

It corresponds to "of" in the English sentence. There is a detailed explanation here.

[Renardo_11]

However helpful Lurch's explanations usually are, here they might be a bit misleading for speakers of certain languages. Saying that “a” corresponds to “of” might suggest that it is a preposition; instead it is a kind of article-pronoun, and the “of” is in the genitive of “peronului.”

Speakers of certain languages (such as mine) might have an easier way thinking of “the blue color the one of the platform.” The “a” would then correspond to “the one.”

Lurch, please don't take it personally.

[Motanu11]

Thank you Lurch_M.

[CarloGamag1]

Since peronului is already in the genitive form isn't a superfluous?

[Lurch_M]

Normally, we would indeed have:

• the color of the platform / the platform's color = culoarea peronului

But here, the possessed noun ("color") is qualified by an adjective ("blue"), and in such cases we need to use one of the possessive articles (al, a, ai, ale), so we have:

• the blue color of the platform / the platform's blue color = culoarea albastră a peronului

Which possessive article to choose depends on the possessed noun's gender and number. The tips and notes page for chapter "Possessive" describes it, but the breakdown is this:

• al - for masculine singular
• a - for feminine singular
• ai - for masculine plural
• ale - for feminine plural

[Jill635577]

If the "a" is missing, what is the sense of the sentence, or is there no sense without it? Thank-you.