Learn Hardcore Romanian: Iarna, zăpada acoperă toată grădina vecinului. - In winter, snow covers the entire neighbor's garden.

Iarna is the definite form of iarnă (winter) and here means “in winter.” In Romanian you can drop the preposition în and use the bare noun with its article to express seasons or times of year. Saying iarna (“in winter”) is perfectly natural; you could also say în iarnă with almost no change in meaning.

What does zăpada mean, and why does it end in -a?

Zăpada means “the snow.” The ending -a is the enclitic definite article for feminine singular nouns. The base form is zăpadă (“snow”), and attaching -a makes it “the snow.”

What tense and person is acoperă, and how do I recognize it?

Acoperă is the third-person singular present indicative of a acoperi (“to cover”). You know it’s present because Romanian present-tense verbs for 3 sg. often end in -ă, -e, or -i depending on the conjugation. Here it agrees with the subject zăpada (feminine singular).

Why is toată used before grădina, and why not tot or toate?

Toată means “whole” or “entire.” It must agree in gender and number with the noun it modifies. Grădina is feminine singular, so you use toată (fem. sing.). If it were masculine singular you’d use tot, and if it were plural you’d use toate (fem.) or toți (masc.).

How do I translate grădina vecinului, and why is vecinului in that form?

Grădina vecinului means “the neighbor’s garden.” Grădina is “the garden,” and vecinului is the genitive (possession) of vecin (“neighbor”). Romanian shows possession by putting the possessor in genitive form with endings like -lui for masculine singular, instead of using a separate preposition like of.

Why don’t we need a word for “of” before vecinului?

Because Romanian uses case endings rather than prepositions for possession. The genitive-dative case is marked by suffixes (here -lui), so you simply change the form of vecin to vecinului to mean “of the neighbor.”

Can I move iarna to the end of the sentence, and will the meaning change?

Yes. Romanian word order is flexible. You could say Zăpada acoperă toată grădina vecinului iarna. The meaning stays “In winter, the snow covers the neighbor’s entire garden,” though placing iarna at the start emphasizes the time more strongly.

Both zăpada (subject) and grădina (object) have definite articles. Do I always need them?

You add the definite article when you refer to a specific, known entity. Here you’re talking about “the snow” in winter and “the neighbor’s garden,” both definite. If you spoke generally (e.g. “Snow covers gardens”), you’d drop or change the articles: Zăpadă acoperă grădini (“Snow covers gardens”).