Petentul este convins.

Petentul is a fairly formal, often legal or administrative word. It refers to a person who has submitted a request, complaint, petition, or claim. Depending on context, it might be translated as the petitioner, the applicant, the claimant, or the complainant.

In ordinary everyday speech, Romanians often use more common words such as solicitantul or a more specific noun, depending on the situation.

Because Romanian usually puts the definite article at the end of the noun instead of using a separate word like English the.

So:

• petent = petitioner / applicant
• petentul = the petitioner / the applicant

The ending -ul is the masculine singular definite article here.

Este is the 3rd person singular present form of a fi, which means to be.

So:

• eu sunt = I am
• tu ești = you are
• el/ea este = he/she is

In this sentence, este simply means is.

Romanian normally keeps this verb in standard sentences, so you cannot usually drop it the way some languages do.

Because convins agrees with petentul, which is masculine singular.

Romanian adjectives often change form to match the noun in gender and number:

• masculine singular: convins
• feminine singular: convinsă
• masculine plural: convinși
• feminine plural: convinse

So:

• Petentul este convins. = masculine singular
• Petenta este convinsă. = feminine singular

It is historically the past participle of a convinge = to convince, but in this sentence it functions like an adjective.

That is very similar to English convinced in He is convinced.

So in Petentul este convins, convins describes the subject’s state: the petitioner is in a convinced state.

Not always in the most literal sense. Depending on context, a fi convins can also mean to be sure or to be certain.

For example:

• Sunt convins că are dreptate. = I am sure he is right.

So the basic idea is that the person firmly believes something.

Yes, but Petentul este convins is the most neutral and standard order.

Romanian word order is somewhat flexible, but changing it can change the emphasis.

For example:

• Petentul este convins. = neutral statement
• Este convins petentul. = marked order, unusual in normal conversation, with special emphasis or style

Also, be careful with petentul convins. That does not mean the same full sentence by itself. It usually means the convinced petitioner, where convins directly modifies the noun.

You would change both the noun and the adjective form as needed.

For a feminine singular subject:

• Petenta este convinsă.

Here:

• petenta = the female petitioner / applicant
• convinsă = feminine singular form of convins

So Romanian shows gender agreement more clearly than English does.

A rough pronunciation guide is:

pe-tent-ul es-te kon-vins

A few useful points:

• c in convins is pronounced like k
• s is pronounced like English s, not z
• the ending -ul is pronounced, though the u can sound very short in natural speech

Romanian spelling is generally fairly phonetic, so words are usually pronounced close to how they are written.