Durerea de dinți începe noaptea.

The toothache starts at night.

Breakdown of Durerea de dinți începe noaptea.

• noaptea: at night
• a începe: to start
• durerea de dinți: the toothache

Questions & Answers about Durerea de dinți începe noaptea.

Why is it durerea and not durere?

Because durerea is the definite form of durere (pain).

Romanian usually puts the definite article at the end of the noun:

• durere = pain / a pain
• durerea = the pain

So durerea de dinți means the toothache or literally the pain of teeth.

Why does Romanian say de dinți? Why not just one word for toothache?

Romanian commonly expresses toothache as durere de dinți or durerea de dinți.

Literally, it is:

• durere = pain
• de = of / related to
• dinți = teeth

So the structure is basically pain of teeth. This is just the normal Romanian way to express the idea.

Why is it dinți plural when English says tooth in toothache?

Because Romanian uses the plural noun in this expression: durere de dinți.

Even though English has toothache with singular tooth, Romanian idiomatically says pain of teeth with plural dinți.

Useful forms:

• dinte = tooth
• dinți = teeth

So this is something to learn as a set phrase.