Atâta timp cât fisura rămâne mică, netezim marginea.

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Breakdown of Atâta timp cât fisura rămâne mică, netezim marginea.

• a rămâne: to remain
• marginea: the rim; edge
• fisura: the crack

Questions & Answers about Atâta timp cât fisura rămâne mică, netezim marginea.

What does atâta timp cât mean here?

In this sentence, atâta timp cât means as long as.

So:

• Atâta timp cât fisura rămâne mică = As long as the crack remains small

It introduces a condition that stays true over a period of time. In many contexts, it can feel both:

• temporal: while
• conditional: provided that / as long as

Here, as long as is the most natural match.

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Why does Romanian use the whole phrase atâta timp cât instead of just one word?

Romanian often expresses this idea with the fixed expression atâta timp cât.

Literally, the parts are roughly:

• atâta = so much / this much
• timp = time
• cât = as / how much / that

But you should learn atâta timp cât as one unit meaning as long as.

It works similarly to English expressions that are not translated word-for-word, such as:

• as long as
• provided that
• so long as

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Why is it fisura and not fisură?