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Questions & Answers about Copiii cer apă acum.
What does Copiii mean?
Copiii is the definite plural form of copil (child). So Copiii means the children.
Why does copiii end in -ii?
In Romanian masculine nouns take -i for the plural (copil → copii = children). A second -i is then the plural definite article suffix, so copii → copiii = the children.
What is the verb cer, and how is it formed?
Cer is the third person plural present tense of a cere (to ask/request). Because the subject is copiii (they), the verb appears as cer = they ask (or they are asking).
Why isn’t there a preposition before apă?
In Romanian a cere takes a direct object with no preposition: a cere ceva = to ask (for) something. Thus cer apă literally means ask water, i.e. ask for water.
Is apă definite or indefinite here?
It’s indefinite (they ask for some water). To make it definite you add -a: apa = the water. So Copiii cer apa would mean the children ask for the water.
What case is apă?
Apă is in the accusative case as a direct object. Feminine singular nouns look the same in nominative and accusative, so apă remains unchanged.
What does acum do, and can its position change?
Acum is an adverb meaning now. It commonly follows the verb or appears at the end, but you can also place it at the beginning for emphasis: Acum copiii cer apă.
Why isn’t there a subject pronoun like ei?
Romanian is pro-drop: the verb ending (-r in cer) already signals third person plural, so adding ei (“they”) would be redundant.
What is the neutral word order in this sentence?
The default order is Subject–Verb–Object–Adverb: Copiii (S) cer (V) apă (O) acum (Adv). Romanian allows flexible word order for emphasis, but SVOAdv is unmarked.