Chelnerul ne arată un meniu nou acum.

The waiter is showing us a new menu now.

Breakdown of Chelnerul ne arată un meniu nou acum.

• un: a
• acum: now
• chelnerul: the waiter
• ne: us

Questions & Answers about Chelnerul ne arată un meniu nou acum.

What does chelnerul mean and why is -ul attached to the end?

Chelnerul means the waiter. Romanian marks the definite article (“the”) as a suffix on the noun rather than a separate word. Here, chelner (a waiter) + -ul (masculine singular definite) = chelnerul (the waiter).

What is ne doing in this sentence, and why does it come before the verb?

Ne is the indirect object pronoun meaning to us (or simply “us” in English). The verb a arăta (to show) takes both a direct object (un meniu nou) and an indirect one (ne). In Romanian, object-pronoun clitics are placed immediately before the conjugated verb, so ne appears before arată.

Why is arată translated as “is showing” rather than just “shows”?

Romanian does not differentiate between simple present and present continuous like English does. Arată is the third-person singular present of a arăta and can mean both “(he) shows” and “(he) is showing.” The adverb acum (“now”) signals the progressive sense, so in English it becomes “is showing.”

How do you pronounce the Romanian letter ă, as in arată?