The Focus of This Lesson is Cases (Part 1)

Bună ziua, aș dori să văd niște fuste.
"Hello, I'd like to see some skirts."

Eu?! Nu, mulțumesc. Îi cumpăr prietenei mele. Aveți ceva din piele?
"Me?! No, thank you. I'm buying for my girlfriend. Do you have something made out of leather?"

Da, sunt la capătul coridorului.
"Yes, they are at the end of the aisle."

In this lesson, we will learn how to:

1. use cases in Romanian

2. recognize various prepositions and the cases they determine

3. conjugate nouns and their case declension

1. How to use cases in Romanian

The case is the form taken by the noun to express its syntactic function in a statement.

The Romanian case represents a grammatical category associated to a noun, pronoun, adjective, numeral or article. It is used to express the syntactic function in a sentence of these elements or their relation to a process expressed by a verb.

In Romanian, there are five grammatical cases: nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, and vocative. You can find below the questions that the nouns used in each case respond to.

In Romanian, the Nominative case is used to express the subject of action in a sentence. Therefore, the noun in nominative can respond to one of the questions Cine? "Who?" or Ce? "What?" (...is doing that action). Moreover, the questions Cine este? "Who is?" or Ce este? "What is?" can be used. In more particular cases, that of an appositional attribute in nominative, the question Care? "Which?" applies.

In later lessons we'll introduce the rest of the cases in more detail. Please stay tuned for three more cases that will be discussed in detail (the accusative in lesson 6 and the genitive and dative in lesson 16).

Let's see some sample sentences for the nominative case:

1. Andreea pune o întrebare.
   "Andreea asks a question."
2. Question: Cine? "Who?"
   Answer: Andreea "Andreea;" (syntactic function = subject)
3. Aceasta este o fustă.
   "This is a skirt."
4. Question: Ce este? "What is that?"
   Answer: o fustă "a skirt;" (syntactic function = predicative)
5. Prietenul meu, Masanobu, învață română.
   "My boyfriend, Masanobu, learns Romanian."
6. Question: Care? "Which?"
   Answer: Masanobu "Masanobu;" (syntactic function = appositional attribute)

2. How to recognize various prepositions and the cases they determine

Preposition in Romanian is the non-flexible part of the speech that links an attribute or an object (direct or indirect) to the word it determines.

By form, prepositions can be:

Some prepositions come from other parts of the speech.

Examples:

1. Articulate adverb with a definite article: înaintea "before," împotriva "against," împrejurul "around," dedesubtul "underneath;"
2. Nouns: grație "thanks to;"
3. Verbs (past participle): datorită, mulțumită "thanks to."

Prepositions in the Accusative Case

Most basic and compound prepositions are constructed with nouns, pronouns,

adjectives, or numerals in the accusative case.

1. Nu merg acolo fără tine.
   "I'm not going over there without you."

Prepositions in the Genitive Case

The following sentences accompany words in the Genitive case:

- asupra "over," contra "against:"

1. Asupra orașului sunt nori negri.
   "Over the city are black clouds."
2. Lupta contra lui Mihai s-a sfârșit.
   "The fight against Mihai is over."

- înaintea, înapoia, dinaintea (prepoziţii provenite din adverbe prin articulare),"in front of, behind, before (prepositions from adverbs through articulations):"

1. E liniştea dinaintea furtunii.
   "This is the calm before the storm."

Prepositions in the Dative Case

These prepositions are required:

- coming from adverb with non-articulate form: înaintea "before," asupra "over."

1. Bem un pahar de vin înaintea mesei.
   "We drink a glass of wine before the meal."

- derived from nouns: grație "thanks to"

1. Grație lui am ajuns în România.
   "Thanks to him I got to Romania."

- coming from some adverbs: asemenea "similar (to)," conform "according (to)"

1. Am răspuns asemenea ei.
   "I've responded similar to her."

- coming from some verbs: datorită "thanks to," mulţumită "thanks to."

1. Am obținut rezultatele astea datorită profesorilor.
   "I got these results thanks to my teachers."

3. How to conjugate nouns and their case declension

Declension of nouns indicates the number (singular or plural), case (nominative, accusative, dative, genitive or vocative) and gender (feminine, masculine or neutral).

There are three types of declension according to the termination a noun has in nominative case, singular form, non-articulated.

"Declension Types for Nouns" chart

"Nouns and Case Declension" chart

Let's see some sample sentences (Nominative Case, nouns in different number and gender)

1. Leii stau în cușcă.
   "The lions stay in the cage."
2. Femeia locuiește în România.
   "The woman lives in Romania."
3. Avionul are o aripă avariată.
   "The airplane has a broken wing."

Examples from the Dialogue

1. Bună ziua, aș dori să văd niște fuste.
   "Hello, I'd like to see some skirts."
2. Eu?! Nu, mulțumesc. Îi cumpăr prietenei mele. Aveți ceva din piele?
   "Me?! No, thank you. I'm buying for my girlfriend. Do you have something made out of leather?"
3. Da, sunt la capătul coridorului.
   "Yes, they are at the end of the aisle."

Sample Sentences:

1. Peisajele României sunt variate.
   "The landscapes of Romania are diverse."
2. O învăț pe Maria limba italiană.
   "I am teaching Maria Italian."
3. Îi adaug cafelei zahăr.
   "I add sugar to the coffee."

la capătul
"at the end of"

la is a preposition and it means "at," while capătul is capăt, which can mean "head" or "end," with the definite article -ul to mean "the end."

This phrase is used when you want to indicate the location of a building, object, person etc.. As this is just a compound adverbial expression used to indicate concrete location of objects, buildings, people etc., there is no distinction between formal and informal usage. It's ok to use it in both informal and formal situations.

For example:

1. Este o brutărie la capătul acestei străzi.
   "There is a bakery at the end of this street."

vreo întrebare
"any questions"

Vreo is an indefinite pronoun and means "any" and întrebare means "question." So this phrase means just as it literally translates - "Any questions?"This phrase is used when you want to ask whether someone wants to know further information. It can be used in both formal and informal situations.

For example:

1. Ai vreo întrebare?
   "Do you have any questions?"

Fashion in Romania

Fashion in Romania depends a lot on ideas, individuality and authenticity. Fashion, by definition, talks about change and is relevant not only to the clothes we wear. It has to do with illusion, a contribution to our well-being. Style is a reflection of personal choice and today's fashion is a reflection of personal style. Nowadays, men in Romania are increasingly interested in fashion. Lumbersexual is very widespread among young Romanians. Long beard, plaid shirt, boots and an unobtrusive look. Women in Romania are increasingly interested in fashion as well. They are following the trends from abroad. They listen to the principle: life is too short to wear dull clothes. Leaving the communist regime, access to the internet and opportunities to visit other countries helped the Romanians to refine their style, appearance, and exterior image. In the 90s, men discovered that it is absolutely normal to use a moisturizing cream and to be concerned about your own style, thus appeared the metrosexual. Along with hipster and lumbersexual, these are the strongest male trends in the last 30 years. Women often prefer to buy their clothes abroad, in places like Paris, Milan, and London. 30 years ago, women wore only what they could find in the shops. Since the fashion industry was underdeveloped, their clothing choices were simple, without any particular items to stand out. Today, their outfits range from eccentric and vivid to the classic of Coco Chanel.

Useful expression

1. Haina îl face pe om.
   "Fine feathers make fine birds."