Learn how to recognize an implied subject in Romanian
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Intro |
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| Antoni: Is it common to omit the subject in Romanian sentences? |
| Anna: And why? |
| Antoni: At RomanianPod101.com, we hear these questions often. In the following situation, Veronica Voicu is in a bookstore with her friend, Sasha Lee. She points at a book and says, |
| "[Do you] see that book?" |
| Veronica Voicu: Vezi cartea aceea? |
| Dialogue |
| Veronica Voicu: Vezi cartea aceea? |
| Sasha Lee: Este interesantă? |
| Antoni: Once more with the English translation. |
| Veronica Voicu: Vezi cartea aceea? |
| Antoni: "[Do you] see that book?" |
| Sasha Lee: Este interesantă? |
| Antoni: "Is it interesting?" |
Lesson focus |
| Antoni: In this lesson, you will be learning that it is common to drop the subject in Romanian sentences. We will be discussing why this is and looking at some examples. |
| Romanian, like many Romance and Slavic languages, is called a pro-drop language. This means that, in Romanian, it's okay to leave the subject pronoun out of a sentence. One of the reasons this is possible is because the word order is a lot more flexible than, say, in English but, most importantly, it is possible because the pronoun can be implied by the inflection of the verb. We mention this in another lesson as well and give quite a few examples of the different ways in which the pronouns are contained in the inflected verbs. So, if you would like to learn more about that, please have a listen to that lesson. In this lesson, we will be focusing more on the contexts in which one can leave out the subject in Romanian sentences. These include certain questions, verb inflections, and various greetings. |
| [Recall 1] |
| Antoni: Let's listen to the dialogue again so that we can have a closer look at specific examples of the subject being dropped. |
| Do you remember how Veronica Voicu says "[Do you] see that book?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Anna as Veronica Voicu: Vezi cartea aceea? |
| Antoni: The direct translation of this question would be: "See book that?," which would seem strange to English speakers. That said, while this doesn't translate directly, there is a similar construction in English. It is not unusual for an English speaker to drop the subject in a question like, "See that book?." This is a perfectly acceptable and understandable question, but, when phrased this way, it is usually the preamble to another sentence. Perhaps the speaker wants to add, "It is my favorite," or something along those lines. In Romanian, however, it is perfectly acceptable for a sentence like this to stand on its own. The verb has been conjugated in such a way as to include the subject. How was this done? Well, the verb stem for "see" is |
| Anna: vedea |
| Antoni: and it was inflected according to person. In other words, it was inflected to imply the pronoun "you" or |
| Anna: tu. |
| Antoni: The way this is done in Romanian is, usually, to add an "I" at the end of the verb stem, but sometimes it's a little more complicated than that. As you heard, the verb we are currently discussing does have an "I" at the end, but it also required other changes in order for it to become |
| Anna: vezi. |
| [Recall 2] |
| Antoni: Now let's take a look at our second sentence. |
| Do you remember how Sasha Lee says, "Is it interesting?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Anna as Sasha Lee: Este interesantă? |
| Antoni: Sasha's answer translates directly to: "Is interesting?" This is not a construction that would ever be allowed in English, but it is very normal in Romanian. If you see an "E" at the end of the verb, it is likely to be in the third person. |
| Interestingly, this particular verb conjugation is quite similar to English because this is the "to be" verb. In English, the "to be" verb also changes in accordance with person—more so than other verbs do. Consider how the first person "am" changes to "are" in the second person, and to "is" in the third person. The difference between English and Romanian is that, in English, one still needs to include the pronoun. |
| [Summary] |
| Antoni: In this lesson, so far, you have learned that Romanian is a pro-drop language, which means that it is okay to not use the subject pronoun in some constructions. This is because Romanian verbs can be conjugated according to person—they take different inflections, depending on whether the sentence uses the first, second, or third person. This also applies to plural pronouns. In this way, the pronoun is implied by the conjugation of the verb. Let's look at some more examples in order to illustrate the dropping of the subject. |
| First, we have the sentence: |
| Anna: Mănânc salată. |
| Antoni: which means "I eat salad." Now listen to this sentence and try to spot the difference in the verb: |
| Anna: Mănâncă salată. |
| Antoni: This time, Anna said, "He eats salad." Did you notice how there was no pronoun? The only thing that changed was the conjugation of the verb. Let's try one more with the same verb: |
| Anna: Mâncăm salată. |
| Antoni: In this case, Anna implied a plural pronoun. What she said translates to: "We eat salad." |
| As you can see, it really is quite normal to leave out the subject pronouns in Romanian sentences. |
| Expansion/Contrast (Optional) |
| Antoni: We've looked at ways to drop the subject in declarative sentences, so now, let's look at examples of how the subject can be dropped in questions as well. The most common question word in Romanian is |
| Anna: Ce |
| Antoni: and it means "what." When we use it in a question like "What are you doing?" or |
| Anna: Ce faci?, |
| Antoni: we still don't need to include the subject pronoun in Romanian. Just as in other sentences, the verb can be conjugated to include the pronoun. In this case, the infinitive form of the verb "to do" is |
| Anna: a face |
| Antoni: and when we want to conjugate it to imply the second person pronoun, "you," we say: |
| Anna: faci. |
| Antoni: In the same way, |
| Anna: Ce face? |
| Antoni: means "What is he doing?" The same can be done when other question words are used. Take, for instance, the question, "When are you coming?" or |
| Anna: Când vii? |
| Antoni: This question cuts down to two words what it takes four words to ask in English. It consists of the question word |
| Anna: când |
| Antoni: meaning "when," and the verb |
| Anna: vii, |
| Antoni: which translates to "Are you coming?" |
| The Romanian language really is very economical in this sense. |
| Cultural Insight/Expansion (Optional) |
| Antoni: Finally, let's look at some greetings. It is common in many languages to drop the subject and to drop pronouns when issuing greetings. Consider how, in English, we can simply say "good day" without using a subject pronoun. It is the same in Romanian. The Romanian way to say "good day" is: |
| Anna: Bună ziua. |
| Antoni: If you want to be polite, you can always add a title and say, "Good day, Madam," or |
| Anna: Bună ziua, Doamnă. |
| Antoni: And if the person you are talking to is a man, you could say, "Good day, sir," or |
| Anna: Bună ziua, Domnule. |
| Antoni: One can use this greeting at any time of day, except at night. Other greetings, more specific to the time of day, are: |
| Anna: Bună seara, |
| Antoni: meaning, "Good evening," or "Good night," and |
| Anna: Bună dimineața, |
| Antoni: which means, "Good morning." |
| While it is always good to err on the side of politeness, do keep in mind that, these days, it is not all that common to use the titles |
| Anna: Doamnă |
| Antoni: and |
| Anna: Domnule. |
| Antoni: That's not to say you shouldn't use them. If you want to be very polite, go ahead! People always appreciate good manners and are, more than likely, going to respond to you in a positive way. |
Outro |
| Antoni: Do you have any more questions? We're here to answer them! |
| Anna: La revedere. |
| Antoni: See you soon! |
| Credits: Anna (Romanian, Romania), Antoni (English, synthetic voice) |
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