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Questions & Answers about Nu vreau să pierd trenul.
What role does să play in Nu vreau să pierd trenul?
să is the marker for the subjunctive in Romanian. After verbs of will or desire (like vreau), you use să + infinitive to express “to do something.” In English it corresponds roughly to “to” in “I want to go,” even though it’s grammatically different.
Why isn’t there a direct object marker pe before trenul?
Romanian uses pe only with definite, human or animate direct objects (e.g., pe Maria, pe doctor). Trenul (the train) is inanimate, so you don’t use pe.
Why is the noun tren written as trenul?
Romanian attaches the definite article to the end of the noun. So tren (train) becomes trenul (the train). If it were indefinite you’d say un tren (a train).
Is pierd a special form? What’s the infinitive?
The infinitive is a pierde (to lose/miss). pierd is the first-person subjunctive form used after să. If you conjugated it in the indicative for “I lose,” it would be pierd as well, but here it’s subjunctive because of să.
Does Nu vreau să pierd trenul literally mean “I don’t want to lose the train”?
Yes, literally it’s “I don’t want to lose the train,” but in natural English you’d say “I don’t want to miss the train.” Romanian pierde trenul covers both “lose” and “miss.”
Why is the negation nu placed before vreau and not before să or pierd?
In Romanian, nu precedes the conjugated verb it negates. Here the main verb is vreau, so nu comes right before it: Nu vreau. You don’t say vreau nu or vreau să nu (that would shift the negation to the subordinate clause).
Could you say Nu vreau pierd trenul without să?
No. After vreau you must use să + subjunctive. Omitting să (i.e., Nu vreau pierd trenul) is ungrammatical. The să is essential to link the two verbs.