Eu iau trenul la ora opt.

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Breakdown of Eu iau trenul la ora opt.

• la: at
• ora: the hour
• opt: eight

Questions & Answers about Eu iau trenul la ora opt.

Do I need the pronoun eu in the sentence?

No, you don’t strictly need eu because Romanian verbs are conjugated to show the subject. Saying Iau trenul la ora opt is perfectly grammatical. You include eu only if you want to add emphasis or contrast (e.g. Eu iau trenul, dar el merge cu mașina).

What’s the verb iau, and what is its infinitive?

Iau is the 1st person singular present tense of the irregular verb a lua, which means “to take.” Conjugation in the present is:
eu iau
tu iei
el/ea ia
noi luăm
voi luați
ei/ele iau

Why is trenul used instead of tren?

Romanian expresses the definite article by attaching it to the end of the noun.
tren = “a train” (indefinite)
trenul = “the train” (definite)
Since tren is a masculine noun, its singular definite article is -ul.

Why do we use la before the time expression ora opt?

In Romanian, to say “at [a certain hour],” you use the preposition la plus ora (“the hour”) and a cardinal number. So:
la ora opt = “at eight o’clock.”