Glazurăm marginea fie cu buretele, fie cu pensula.

We glaze the rim either with the sponge or with the brush.

Breakdown of Glazurăm marginea fie cu buretele, fie cu pensula.

• cu: with
• fie … fie: either … or
• pensula: the brush
• marginea: the rim; edge

Questions & Answers about Glazurăm marginea fie cu buretele, fie cu pensula.

What form is glazurăm, and why is Romanian using we here?

Glazurăm is the 1st person plural, present tense form of a glazura.

So literally it means we glaze.

In Romanian instructions, recipes, tutorials, and demonstrations, this we form is very common. It often does not mean a literal group of people; it is just a natural way to guide the reader through the steps. In English, this can feel like:

• we glaze the edge
• let’s glaze the edge
• sometimes simply an instruction like glaze the edge

So the form is grammatical we, but the function is often instructional.

Why does the sentence begin with glazurăm?

Romanian word order is fairly flexible, and starting with the verb is very normal in instructions.

Beginning with glazurăm puts the focus on the action first, which is especially common in procedural language.

This sentence could also be rearranged, but the given order sounds natural and efficient:

• Glazurăm marginea... = natural for instructions
• Noi glazurăm marginea... = possible, but noi is usually unnecessary unless you want emphasis

So the verb-first order here is not strange; it is actually very typical.

Why is it marginea and not margine?