Questions & Answers about Spune-mi unde este harta.
Why is the pronoun -mi attached to spune instead of standing alone?
In Romanian, in the 2nd-person singular imperative you must attach object pronouns as enclitics. So the imperative spune (“say/tell!”) takes -mi (“to me”) right after it, joined with a hyphen: spune-mi (“tell me”).
Why do we use mi here and not mă or îmi?
Mi is the enclitic form of the 1st-person singular dative pronoun (“to me”).
- Mă is the 1st-person singular accusative pronoun (“me” as a direct object).
- Îmi is the proclitic (pre-verbal) dative pronoun, used in non-imperative moods (e.g. Îmi spui unde e harta? “Can you tell me where the map is?”).
What does unde mean, and why does it come before este harta?
Unde means “where.” In Romanian direct and indirect questions, the interrogative word typically comes first, followed by the verb and then the subject. Hence Unde este harta? (“Where is the map?”) becomes …unde este harta in an embedded question after spune-mi.
Why is harta spelled with an -a at the end? How would I say “a map” instead of “the map”?