Learn Hardcore Romanian: Familia noastră locuiește într-un oraș mic.

In this sentence, familia literally means “the family” (and then we add noastră = our). Even though English just says our family, Romanian naturally keeps the definite article on the noun: familia noastră (literally the our family).

Why is it familia noastră instead of noastră familie, like “our family” in English?

In Romanian, possessive adjectives (my/your/our/their, etc.) normally come after the noun, not before it.

English: our family
Romanian: familia noastră (literally: the family our)

This is the usual pattern:

cartea mea – my book
prietenul tău – your friend
mașina lor – their car

So familia noastră is the natural, standard word order.

Why is it noastră and not nostru or something else?

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

The forms for “our” are:

nostru – masculine singular (e.g. băiatul nostru – our boy)
noastră – feminine singular (e.g. familia noastră – our family)
noștri – masculine plural (e.g. prieteni noștri – our (male/mixed) friends)
noastre – feminine plural (e.g. casele noastre – our houses)

Familia is grammatically feminine singular, so you must use noastră.

What gender and number is familia, and what case is it in?

Gender: feminine
Number: singular
Case: nominative (also called nominative–accusative in Romanian, but here it functions as the subject of the sentence)

So familia = the family in feminine singular nominative, acting as the subject of locuiește.

What does locuiește come from, and what exactly does it mean?

Locuiește is the 3rd person singular present tense of the verb a locui = to live, to reside (to have one’s home).

Conjugation (present indicative, singular):

(eu) locuiesc – I live
(tu) locuiești – you live
(el/ea) locuiește – he/she lives

So locuiește means “lives / resides” for he/she/it or for a singular subject like familia (the family).

Why do we use locuiește and not trăiește? Don’t both mean “lives”?

Both can translate as lives, but they focus on different ideas:

a locui – to live in the sense of residing somewhere (having your home there).
- Familia noastră locuiește într-un oraș mic. – Our family lives (resides) in a small town.
a trăi – to live in the sense of being alive / existing / experiencing life.
- El trăiește o viață fericită. – He lives a happy life.
- Câinele mai trăiește. – The dog is still alive.

Because the sentence is about where the family lives, locuiește is the natural choice.

What exactly is într-un? Is it one word or two?

Într-un is a contracted form of:

în (in)
- un (a / one, masculine or neuter singular)

So:

în + un oraș → într-un oraș

The -tr- appears for euphony and historical reasons; you don’t normally say în un oraș.

Similarly:

în + o casă → într-o casă – in a house
în + un sat → într-un sat – in a village

So think of într-un as “in a” before a masculine/neuter singular noun.

Why is there a hyphen in într-un?

The hyphen shows that this is a contraction of a preposition (în) with an article (un) into a single phrasal unit.

You’ll see the same pattern with other combinations:

de + un → de-un (often written de-un or de-un in some styles)
pe + un → pe-un in some colloquial usage

But with în, the contracted forms într-un and într-o are standard and written with a hyphen. It signals “these words are grammatically glued together.”

What does oraș mic mean exactly? Is it “small city” or “small town”?

The noun oraș is usually translated as town or city, depending on size and context. Romanian doesn’t strictly distinguish town vs. city the way English sometimes does; both can be oraș.

oraș mic literally = small town / small city
In natural English, you’d most likely say small town.

So oraș mic is “a town (or city) that is small” – context decides the best English word.

Why is it oraș mic and not mic oraș?

In Romanian, the default placement of descriptive adjectives is after the noun:

oraș mic – small town
casă mare – big house
om înalt – tall man

Adjectives can sometimes come before the noun to give a special nuance (more subjective, emotional, or stylistic), but the neutral, usual position is after the noun. So oraș mic is the normal word order.

Why is the adjective mic in this form? Does it agree with oraș?

Yes. Adjectives agree in gender and number with the noun.

Oraș is grammatically neuter. In Romanian, neuter nouns behave:

like masculine in the singular,
and like feminine in the plural.

So:

Singular: un oraș mic – a small town (masculine singular form of the adjective mic)
Plural: orașe mici – small towns (feminine plural form mici)

Here we have a singular neuter noun (oraș) used in the singular, so the adjective takes the masculine singular form: mic.

Why does familia take a singular verb locuiește? In English we sometimes say “my family live”.

In Romanian, familia is grammatically singular, and agreement is strictly grammatical, not semantic. So you must use the singular verb:

Familia locuiește... – The family lives…
Familia noastră locuiește într-un oraș mic.

There is no option to make the verb plural just because the group has multiple members. Even when meaning a group, if the noun is grammatically singular (familia, echipa, guvernul), the verb remains singular.

How do you pronounce the special letters in this sentence, like ă, â/î, and ș?

Key diacritics in this sentence:

ă (as in noastră) – a mid, central vowel, somewhat like the a in “sofa” or the u in “sun”, but shorter and more central.
â / î (as in într-un) – these two letters represent the same sound, a deeper, central vowel; it doesn’t exist in English. Think of a very “dark,” central vowel pronounced near the back of the mouth.
ș (as in locuiește) – like English “sh” in “she”.

Very approximate pronunciation (slashes show stress):

Fa-MI-li-a no-AS-tră lo-cu-IEȘ-te într-un o-RAȘ mic.

Romanian stress is usually on the penultimate (second-to-last) syllable, as in noastră, locuiește, oraș.