Profesoara decide să repetăm exercițiul dificil mâine.

tomorrow

Breakdown of Profesoara decide să repetăm exercițiul dificil mâine.

• dificil: difficult
• exercițiul: the exercise
• profesoara: the teacher
• a repeta: to repeat
• a decide: to decide

Questions & Answers about Profesoara decide să repetăm exercițiul dificil mâine.

Why is there no word for “we” in the Romanian sentence?

Romanian is a pro‑drop language: subject pronouns are often omitted because the verb ending shows the person and number.

In să repetăm, the ending ‑ăm clearly marks 1st person plural (we), so adding noi (we) is usually unnecessary.

You could say Profesoara decide să repetăm noi exercițiul dificil mâine, but the extra noi would add emphasis (like “that we repeat it”), not be required for grammar.

What exactly does „să repetăm” mean, and why is să used here?

Să introduces the subjunctive mood in Romanian. After verbs of willing, deciding, wanting, ordering, etc., Romanian typically uses să + subjunctive instead of an infinitive.

• să repetăm = “that we (should) repeat” / “for us to repeat”

So Profesoara decide să repetăm exercițiul… literally feels like:
“The teacher decides that we (should) repeat the exercise…”

In English we say decides to repeat / decides that we will repeat, but Romanian grammar prefers verb + să + subjunctive rather than an infinitive in many of these cases.

Is repetăm here present tense or something else? It looks like the normal present form.

The form repetăm is identical for:

• Present indicative: (Noi) repetăm exercițiul. – “We repeat / we are repeating the exercise.”
• Present subjunctive (after să): (să) repetăm exercițiul. – “(that) we repeat / (that) we should repeat the exercise.”

In this sentence, because it comes after să, it is subjunctive, even though it looks like the plain present. Romanian often uses the same endings for these two moods in the 1st person plural; the să is what tells you it’s subjunctive.

Could the sentence use „decide că repetăm” instead of „decide să repetăm”?

You can say decide că repetăm…, but it changes the meaning slightly:

• decide să repetăm… = “decides to have us repeat / decides that we should repeat” (a decision about a future or intended action)
• decide că repetăm… = “decides / concludes that we are repeating…” (a conclusion about a fact, more like “figures out that we are repeating”)

With verbs of decision or intention, the natural construction for “decides to do X” is a decide să + subjunctive:
Profesoara decide să repetăm exercițiul.

Why is it „Profesoara” and not just „profesor”? What does the ending ‑a show?

Profesoara is:

• feminine noun profesoară = “female teacher”
• with the enclitic definite article ‑a = profesoara = “the (female) teacher”

Romanian usually attaches the definite article to the end of the noun:

• un profesor – a (male) teacher
• profesorul – the (male) teacher
• o profesoară – a (female) teacher
• profesoara – the (female) teacher

So Profesoara tells you both gender (female) and definiteness (the).

Why is it „exercițiul dificil” and not „dificil exercițiul”?

In Romanian, descriptive adjectives most often come after the noun:

• exercițiul dificil = “the difficult exercise”

Putting the adjective before the noun is possible only in specific, more literary or emphatic cases (and usually with the article also moving: dificilul exercițiu), but the neutral, everyday order is:

noun + adjective → exercițiul dificil

So the given order is the standard, natural one.

What does the „‑ul” on „exercițiul” mean?

The ‑ul is the definite article attached to the masculine singular noun exercițiu (“exercise”):

• un exercițiu – an exercise
• exercițiu – exercise (bare form)
• exercițiul – the exercise

Romanian uses enclitic articles (stuck to the end of the word), not separate words like the. So in the sentence, exercițiul dificil = “the difficult exercise.”

Can „mâine” go in another position, or must it be at the end?

Mâine (tomorrow) is fairly flexible in word order. All of these are grammatically correct:

• Profesoara decide să repetăm exercițiul dificil mâine.
• Profesoara decide să repetăm mâine exercițiul dificil.
• Mâine, profesoara decide să repetăm exercițiul dificil.

Placing mâine:

• at the end is very common and neutral.
• before exercițiul dificil slightly emphasizes the time.
• at the beginning strongly emphasizes tomorrow (“Tomorrow, the teacher decides…”).

In your original sentence, final position is the most typical choice.

Why is the verb „decide” in the present, when in English we might say “the teacher decided…”?

The Romanian sentence is literally present: Profesoara decide… = “The teacher decides…”.

If you want the past, you would usually say:

• Profesoara a decis să repetăm exercițiul dificil mâine.
  (“The teacher decided that we will repeat the difficult exercise tomorrow.”)

Romanian present can sometimes describe decisions being made right now or as a habitual action, which can overlap with English usages like “The teacher decides that we repeat the hard exercise tomorrow” in narrative or summary style.

What’s the difference between „dificil” and „greu”? Could I say „exercițiul greu” instead?

Both dificil and greu can mean “difficult / hard.” They overlap a lot:

• exercițiul dificil – the difficult exercise
• exercițiul greu – the hard / difficult exercise

Dificil is a bit more formal or “bookish”; greu is very common in everyday speech. In this sentence, exercițiul greu would sound perfectly natural in most contexts.

How do I pronounce the special letters ă, â, and ț in this sentence?

In Profesoara decide să repetăm exercițiul dificil mâine we have:

• ă in să and repetăm: a mid‑central vowel, like a short, relaxed “uh” (similar to the a in sofa for many speakers).
• â in mâine: also a central vowel, but tenser and longer than ă; it has no perfect English equivalent, somewhere between uh and er but without the r.
• ț in exercițiul: pronounced like “ts” in cats.

So roughly: să ≈ suh, repetăm ≈ reh-peh-TUHM, mâine ≈ M-ˆne (with that special central vowel), and ț = ts.