Learn how to ask "Who?" in Romanian
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| Bună tuturor! Sunt Raluca. Hi everybody! I’m Raluca. Welcome to RomanianPod101.com’s Româna în 3 minute. The fastest, easiest, and most fun way to learn Romanian. |
| In the last lesson, you learned how to ask "When" questions in Romanian. |
| This time, we are going to ask questions with the Romanian question word for "Who" which is cine. |
| Imagine you’re at a friend’s party and see a girl you haven’t met before. Here, the question you can ask your friend is ¿Cine este fata aceea? meaning “Who is that girl?” |
| [slowly] ¿Ci-ne este fata aceea? |
| So let’s break down this answer. |
| First we have Cine which is the basic translation of "Who" in Romanian. |
| Then comes este, which means "are," and is the 3rd person form of the verb a fi, which we have already learned. |
| Finally, fata aceea literally means "that girl." |
| All together, it’s ¿Cine este fata aceea? “Who is that girl?” |
| So in Romanian, "Who" is mainly translated as Cine to ask about someone's identity. |
| For example, if you want to ask "Who are these people?" You will say ¿Cine sunt aceste persoane?, when we are talking about an unknown group of persons. |
| Cine only works for people, so you can't use it to ask information about things or places. |
| Cine can also be used to ask who did something, for example. If you are in a museum for instance, you can ask ¿Cine a pictat acest tablou? This means "Who painted this painting?" |
| You can also use the word Cine to ask the question "for whom is it?" In Romanian, we use the question phrase ¿Pentru cine? |
| So if you want to know "For whom is this cake?" It would be ¿Pentru cine este acest tort? |
| Another interrogative formula with Cine that is used a lot is ¿De cine? In this case, it can be translated as "Whose", where you’re asking about the owner of something. |
| So if you want to ask "Whose painting is The Last Supper?" you will have to say ¿De cine este pictată “Cina cea de taină”? |
| If we break down this question, it is- |
| De cine which is "whose" |
| Then Este, which is the verb a fi in the 3rd person form in the present tense indicative. |
| Pictată means “painted”. |
| And finally, Cina cea de taină which means "The Last Supper." |
| Now it’s time for Raluca’s Insights. |
| If someone that you didn't expect is knocking at your door in Romania, the common question you can ask is ¿Cine e? before opening the door. This literally means "Who is it?" |
| In this lesson, you learned how to correctly use the interrogative word for "Who" which is Cine, and also its variations. Now you can easily know who is who! The next lesson will be our last of this absolute beginner series. |
| We will deal with the last but not least common question word “Why”or in Romanian, De ce? I’ll be waiting for you in the next Româna în 3 minute lesson. Pe curând! See you soon! |
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