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Questions & Answers about El vine de la birou acum.
What tense and aspect is vine? Is it like the English present continuous?
Vine is the 3rd person singular present indicative of a veni (“to come”). Romanian does not have a separate present continuous form. The simple present covers both English simple present (“he comes”) and present continuous (“he is coming”). You use context or adverbs like acum (“now”) to show ongoing action.
Do I have to include the pronoun El (“he”)?
Romanian is a pro-drop language: the verb ending -e on vine already signals 3rd person singular. Including El is optional and is used only for emphasis, clarity, or contrast (for example, to stress that he and not someone else is coming).
Why is it de la birou and not din birou?
Use de la plus a place when you talk about coming or going from a point you normally go to with la (e.g. la birou, la școală). Din is used to express movement out of an enclosure or interior (like din casă, “out of the house”) or when the noun appears with its own article. In this context, vine din birou would be incorrect—Romanian requires de la birou.
Why isn’t birou definite? Shouldn’t it be biroul?
When a location is introduced by la or de la, the noun stays in its base (indefinite) form: la birou, de la birou. The definite article -l in biroul can’t co-occur with la/de la in these constructions.
Where can acum (“now”) be placed in the sentence? Does its position change the meaning?
Acum can appear at the beginning (Acum el vine de la birou) or at the end (El vine de la birou acum). Moving acum to the front puts stronger focus on the timing (“now, he’s coming…”), while at the end it simply adds timing information.
Can I use a future tense like va veni instead of the present?
Yes—if you want a more remote future, e.g. El va veni de la birou mâine (“He will come from the office tomorrow”). But for an action happening right now or very soon, Romanian uses the present tense plus adverbs (like acum).
Could I use merge or ajunge instead of vine here?
No: merge means “he goes” (away from the speaker/destination), not “he comes here.” Ajunge means “to arrive” (focuses on the end point): El ajunge de la birou acum suggests “he’s arriving from the office now,” whereas vine emphasizes his movement toward you.
Does Romanian have cases? Why is birou unchanged after de la?
Romanian retains a simplified case system (nominative/accusative and genitive/dative), but nouns rarely change form after prepositions. After de la, birou stays in its base form. Cases in Romanian are more visible on pronouns (e.g., eu vs. mie) and on adjectives/articles, not on most nouns in prepositional phrases.