Copiii se joacă în parc acum.

The children are playing in the park now.

Breakdown of Copiii se joacă în parc acum.

• acum: now
• în: in
• parcul: the park
• copilul: the child

Questions & Answers about Copiii se joacă în parc acum.

Why is there se before joacă?

The verb a se juca (“to play”) is a pronominal verb in Romanian. The se is a reflexive pronoun that turns juca into this pronominal form. It doesn’t mean “the children are playing themselves” – it’s simply part of the verb’s basic form. Without se, a juca would be a different, transitive verb (“to play something,” e.g. cards).

What tense is joacă, and how does Romanian express “are playing” versus “play”?

joacă is the 3rd-person plural present tense of a se juca. Romanian does not have a separate progressive (“be + –ing”) form: the simple present covers both “play” and “are playing.” To signal that the action is happening right now, you add the adverb acum.

Why does copiii have three i’s at the end?

Start with copil (child). Its plural is copii (children), ending in two i’s. To make it definite (“the children”), Romanian adds the article -i to the plural form. So copii + -i → copiii, which gives you three consecutive i’s.

Why is it în parc and not la parc or pe parc?