Copiii așteaptă liniștiți, pentru că le place când bunicul povestește.

The children wait calmly because they like it when grandfather tells stories.

Breakdown of Copiii așteaptă liniștiți, pentru că le place când bunicul povestește.

• când: when
• pentru că: because
• copilul: the child
• le: them
• a plăcea: to like
• bunicul: the grandfather
• a povesti: to tell
• a aștepta: to wait
• liniștit: calmly

Questions & Answers about Copiii așteaptă liniștiți, pentru că le place când bunicul povestește.

Why does copiii have three i’s at the end, and how do you pronounce it?

Copiii is “the children” (definite plural) from the noun copil (child).

Forms:

• copil = child
• copii = children (indefinite plural)
• copiii = the children (definite plural)

So: copii + the definite article -i → copiii
That’s why you see three i’s.

Pronunciation:

• Syllables: co-pi-i
• Phonetically: /koˈpi.i/ — like “co-PEE-ee”, with a small extra i sound at the end, but in normal speech it often sounds like a slightly lengthened i rather than two very separate syllables.

Why is liniștiți used here, and what form is it?

Liniștiți is an adjective meaning calm / quiet in masculine plural form.

Agreement:

• Subject: copiii (children) → grammatically masculine plural (even if there are girls, mixed groups default to masculine plural).
• Adjective: must agree → liniștiți (masc. pl.).

So Copiii așteaptă liniștiți literally means:

• The children are waiting (and they are) calm/quiet.

Romanian often uses an agreeing adjective like this where English would use an adverb:

• Copiii așteaptă liniștiți. ≈ The children wait quietly.

Other forms:

• masc. sg.: liniștit
• fem. sg.: liniștită
• masc. pl.: liniștiți
• fem. pl.: liniștite

The verb așteaptă looks the same for he/she waits and they wait. How do I know which it is here?

The verb așteaptă is the present tense of a aștepta (to wait).

Present forms:

• eu aștept
• tu aștepți
• el/ea așteaptă
• noi așteptăm
• voi așteptați
• ei/ele așteaptă

So așteaptă is both third person singular and plural.

In Copiii așteaptă liniștiți, the subject copiii is clearly plural, so here așteaptă = they wait.

In Romanian, you almost always know the number (singular/plural) from the subject noun or pronoun, not from the verb ending alone.

Why is there a comma before pentru că?

Pentru că introduces a subordinate clause giving the reason (a because-clause).

Structure:

• Main clause: Copiii așteaptă liniștiți
• Causal clause: pentru că le place când bunicul povestește.

Romanian normally separates a main clause and a pentru că clause with a comma:

• Copiii așteaptă liniștiți, pentru că le place…

If you reverse the order, you also use a comma:

• Pentru că le place când bunicul povestește, copiii așteaptă liniștiți.

What exactly is going on with le place? Why not just say ei plac for “they like”?

The verb a plăcea works the other way round compared to English:

• Romanian literally says “Something pleases to somebody.”
• The person who likes something is in the dative case (indirect object).
• The thing that is liked is the subject of a plăcea.

In le place când bunicul povestește:

• le = to them (dative, 3rd person plural, unstressed pronoun, referring to copiii)
• place = pleases (3rd person singular)
• când bunicul povestește = what pleases them (the subject of place)

Literal structure:
→ (It) pleases them when grandpa tells stories.
Natural English:
→ They like it when grandpa tells stories.

So you do not say ei plac când… for “they like when…”.
Instead, you say le place când… (to them pleases when…).

Why is it le place and not îi place?

Both îi and le are dative pronouns meaning roughly “to him/her/them”, but:

• îi = to him / to her (3rd person singular)
• le = to them (3rd person plural)

Here the people who like something are the children (copiii, plural), so you must use the plural dative pronoun le:

• Le place când bunicul povestește. = They like it when grandpa tells stories.

If it were just one child, you’d say:

• Îi place când bunicul povestește. = He/She likes it when grandpa tells stories.

Why is the verb place singular here and not plural plac?

With a plăcea, the verb agrees with what is liked, not with the people who like it.

Patterns:

• Singular subject → place
  
  • Îmi place muzica. (I like the music.)
• Plural subject → plac
  
  • Îmi plac melodiile. (I like the songs.)

In le place când bunicul povestește:

• Subject = the whole clause când bunicul povestește (when grandpa tells stories).
• A clause like this counts as singular in Romanian grammar.

So you must use place (singular), not plac:

• ✅ Le place când bunicul povestește.
• ❌ Le plac când bunicul povestește. (ungrammatical)

Where is the English “it” in “They like it when grandpa tells stories”? Romanian only has le place când…

Romanian doesn’t need an explicit “it” here.

Structure:

• English: They like it when grandpa tells stories.
  • it is a dummy object linked to the when-clause.
• Romanian: Le place când bunicul povestește.
  • The când-clause itself acts as the subject of place.
  • The children are in the dative (le = to them).

So Romanian doesn’t insert a separate “it”; the whole când bunicul povestește already fills that role in the sentence structure.

Can I put le after the verb, e.g. place le, or does it always go before?

Unstressed object pronouns like le normally go before the verb in simple tenses:

• ✅ Le place când bunicul povestește.
• ❌ Place le când bunicul povestește. (wrong in standard Romanian)

There are some constructions where pronouns attach to the verb (clitic doubling, infinitives, imperatives, etc.), but in this simple present-indicative sentence, you keep le before place.

What does bunicul mean exactly, and why is there a -l at the end?

The noun is bunic = grandfather, grandpa.

Forms:

• bunic = (a) grandfather (indefinite singular)
• bunicul = the grandfather (definite singular)

The ending -ul is the masculine singular definite article:

• bunic
  • -ul → bunicul

So in the sentence, bunicul means “the grandfather”, and in context it’s normally understood as their grandfather (the children’s grandpa), even though lor (their) is not explicitly said.

What is povestește, and is it about the present moment or a repeated action?

Povestește is the 3rd person singular present of a povesti = to tell (stories), to narrate.

Present forms:

• eu povestesc
• tu povestești
• el/ea povestește
• noi povestim
• voi povestiți
• ei/ele povestesc

In când bunicul povestește, the present tense can express:

• a habitual/repeated action:
  when grandpa tells stories (whenever he does this)
• or a situation that is going on now in a narrative context:
  when grandpa is telling stories (right now).

So it covers the English simple present in “when grandpa tells stories” and can also match a present progressive meaning depending on context.