Questions & Answers about Noi mâncăm fără pâine seara.
Why is the subject pronoun Noi used here? Is it mandatory in Romanian?
What tense and aspect does mâncăm express? How does it map to English?
Romanian present tense covers both simple present and continuous. mâncăm is the present tense of a mânca – to eat – for noi. Context tells you if it’s habitual or ongoing.
Why is there no article before pâine? Could I say o pâine or pâinea?
After the preposition fără “without,” the noun stays in its base form with no article. fără o pâine would mean “without a loaf of bread,” and fără pâinea is ungrammatical because fără never takes the definite article.
What role does fără play, and what case does it govern?
fără is a preposition meaning “without.” It governs its object in the accusative, but since Romanian marks the accusative only on certain pronouns and masculine nouns, here pâine looks the same as the nominative.
What does seara mean here? Is it a noun or an adverb?