Dă-mi lapte pentru cafea.

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Breakdown of Dă-mi lapte pentru cafea.

• cafeaua: the coffee
• laptele: the milk
• mi: me

Questions & Answers about Dă-mi lapte pentru cafea.

What does Dă-mi mean and how is it formed?

Dă-mi means “give me.” It’s made of the second-person singular affirmative imperative of a da (which is dă) plus the enclitic pronoun mi (to me), joined with a hyphen.

Why is the pronoun mi attached to the verb with a hyphen?

In Romanian affirmative imperatives, object pronouns must attach to the verb (enclisis) and are written with a hyphen: dă-mi, spune-mi, arată-mi.

Why is it mi instead of îmi?

Before the verb in enclitic position, the full form îmi loses its initial vowel and becomes mi. The same happens with îți → ți, îl → l, etc.

Why isn’t there an article before lapte?

Lapte here means “some milk” in general. If you wanted “the milk,” you would use the definite form laptele.

Why isn’t cafea definite? Shouldn’t it be cafeaua?

Again, it’s indefinite (“coffee” in general), so no article. Use cafeaua only if you mean “the coffee” (a specific one you already mentioned).