Ana vorbește bine română.

Ana

Breakdown of Ana vorbește bine română.

• a vorbi: to speak
• româna: the Romanian language
• bine: well

Questions & Answers about Ana vorbește bine română.

What tense and person is vorbește, and how does it relate to the infinitive a vorbi?

vorbește is the 3rd person singular present indicative of a vorbi (“to speak”). Verbs of this conjugation (ending in -i) use the stem vorb- plus the ending -ește for “he/she speaks.”

Why is there no subject pronoun meaning “she” in the sentence?

Romanian is a pro-drop language: the verb ending -ește already tells you the subject is “he” or “she.” You only add ea (“she”) if you want to emphasize it:
 •• Ea vorbește bine română.

What role does bine play, and why is it placed between vorbește and română?

bine is an adverb meaning “well,” modifying the verb vorbește. In Romanian the neutral word order for verb + adverb + object is:
 •• vorbește bine română.
Moving bine elsewhere (e.g. before the verb) sounds emphatic or less natural.

Why isn’t română capitalized like “Romanian” in English?

In Romanian orthography, names of languages are written in lowercase. So română stays lowercase even though English “Romanian” is capitalized.

Do you need a preposition such as în (“in”) before **română”?

No. When you say “to speak a language,” Romanian uses the direct object without a preposition:
 •• Vorbește română.
You can add în for extra emphasis or contrast—vorbește în română—but it isn’t required.

Why is there no definite article before română?

Romanian marks definiteness by a suffix on the noun (e.g. română → româna). Here the noun is indefinite (just “Romanian” in general), so you leave it without an article. If you wanted “the Romanian language” you’d normally say limba română, with limba carrying the article.

How are the letters ă and ș pronounced in vorbește and română?

•• ă (a with breve) is a mid-central vowel, like the “a” in English “sofa” (ə).
•• ș (s with comma) is /ʃ/, the “sh” sound in “ship.”
So vorbește is pronounced [vor-BE-ʃte], and română is [ro-MƏ-nə].

How would you turn Ana vorbește bine română into a yes-no question?

You can simply use rising intonation:
 •• Ana vorbește bine română?
Or invert subject and verb for a more formal question:
 •• Vorbește Ana bine română?
You can also add nu? at the end for a tag-question:
 •• Ana vorbește bine română, nu?