Questions & Answers about Telefonul a lui Andrei este în geantă.
Why is telefonul used instead of telefon?
In Romanian the definite article is attached to the end of the noun. Masculine singular nouns like telefon take -ul to become telefonul, meaning the phone. Without the suffix, telefon is indefinite (a phone).
What does a lui Andrei mean and how does it work?
a lui Andrei is an analytic genitive construction: a is a genitive article and lui is a possessive pronoun pointing back to Andrei. Together, they mean of Andrei or Andrei’s. Here it shows that the phone belongs to Andrei.
Why not just say Telefonul Andrei?
Romanian requires a genitive marker to show possession. You can’t place two nouns side by side like in English. You need either
• a genitive pronoun lui/ei (e.g. telefonul lui Andrei)
• or a possessive adjective/pronoun (e.g. telefonul său).
What’s the difference between a lui Andrei, lui Andrei and al lui Andrei?