Zăpada este groasă pe trotuar și sub copaci.

The snow is thick on the sidewalk and under the trees.

Breakdown of Zăpada este groasă pe trotuar și sub copaci.

• a fi: to be
• și: and
• pe: on
• zăpada: the snow
• gros: thick
• trotuarul: the sidewalk
• sub: under
• copacul: the tree

Questions & Answers about Zăpada este groasă pe trotuar și sub copaci.

Why is the noun zăpada written with -a at the end instead of just zăpadă?

In Romanian the definite article is a suffix.

• zăpadă = “snow” (indefinite/general)
• zăpada = “the snow” (definite)
  Here we’re talking about a specific layer of snow, so we use the definite form zăpada.

Why is the verb este used instead of e?

Both este and e are 3rd-person singular present forms of a fi (“to be”).

• este is the full (standard/written) form.
• e is the short (colloquial/spoken) form.
  They mean the same thing; you’ll see este more often in writing.

Why does the adjective appear as groasă, ending in -ă?

Romanian adjectives agree in gender and number with the noun they describe.

• zăpada is feminine singular.
• The masculine form of “thick” is gros, which becomes groasă in the feminine singular to match zăpada.

Why do we say pe trotuar instead of în trotuar?

Romanian uses pe to indicate location on a surface. A sidewalk is treated as a surface you walk on, so you say pe trotuar (“on the sidewalk”). Using în trotuar would imply being inside the sidewalk, which doesn’t make sense here.

What grammatical case are trotuar and copaci in after these prepositions?

Prepositions like pe and sub take the accusative case when indicating location. For inanimate nouns, the accusative form is identical to the nominative:

• trotuar is accusative singular (looks like nominative).
• copaci is accusative plural (looks like nominative).

Why don’t trotuar and copaci show the definite articles -ul or -ii at the end?

When a noun follows a preposition in Romanian, you drop the enclitic definite article. Even if you mean “the sidewalk” or “the trees,” after pe or sub the noun remains in its bare form.

Why is there a different preposition (sub) before copaci rather than reusing pe?

Each preposition conveys a specific spatial relation:

• pe = "on"
• sub = "under"
  You cannot use pe for “under,” so you need sub copaci for “under the trees.”

Could we drop the subject Zăpada and say Este groasă pe trotuar și sub copaci?

Yes. Romanian often drops subjects when the verb form makes them clear. Este groasă… is grammatically correct and understandable in context, but including Zăpada makes it explicit what is being described.