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