Breakdown of Calculatorul care este pe masă pare destul de vechi.
a fi
to be
masa
the table
pe
on
vechi
old
care
that
destul de
enough
calculatorul
the computer
a părea
to seem
Elon.io is an online learning platform
We have an entire course teaching Romanian grammar and vocabulary.
Questions & Answers about Calculatorul care este pe masă pare destul de vechi.
What does Calculatorul mean, and how is the definite article expressed in Romanian?
Calculatorul means “the computer.” In Romanian, the definite article (“the”) is a suffix attached to the noun. For masculine singular nouns ending in a consonant (e.g. calculator), you add -ul → calculatorul. For feminine nouns ending in -ă, you add -a (e.g. masă → masa).
Why is it pe masă (“on the table”) with no article on masă, even though Calculatorul has one?
When you use pe to express location (“on”), Romanian normally takes the bare (no-article) form of the noun: pe masă. Although masa is the definite form of “table,” dropping the article after pe is the standard way to say “on the table.” Adding the article (pe masa) is grammatically possible but less common in everyday speech.
What is the function of care in this sentence, and why can’t it be omitted?
care is a relative pronoun (“which/that”) referring back to Calculatorul. Here, care is the subject of the relative clause care este pe masă (“that is on the table”). Romanian requires an explicit relative pronoun in such clauses, so you cannot omit care as you might in English.
Must we include este in the relative clause, or can it be dropped or contracted?
The copula este (“is”) is needed to form a full clause: care este pe masă. In colloquial speech you can contract it to care e or care-i: Calculatorul care-i pe masă. However, you can’t drop the copula completely if you still want a full verb in the clause.
Could we rephrase Calculatorul care este pe masă more concisely?
Yes. A common idiomatic alternative is to replace the relative clause with a prepositional phrase: Calculatorul de pe masă. Both mean “the computer on the table,” but de pe masă is shorter and more typical in spoken and written Romanian.
What does pare destul de vechi mean, and how do pare and destul de work here?
- pare is the third-person singular present of a părea (“to seem”).
- destul de before an adjective means “quite” or “rather.”
So pare destul de vechi literally means “seems quite old.”
Why is it pare and not the impersonal se pare?
When you have a clear subject (Calculatorul) doing the “seeming,” you use pare. The form se pare appears in impersonal constructions like se pare că… (“it seems that…”), where there is no specific grammatical subject.