Learn Hardcore Romanian: Dacă avem o lecție lungă, profesoara ne lasă o pauză scurtă înainte de exerciții. - If we have a long lesson, the female teacher gives us a short break before the exercises.

Dacă avem o lecție lungă, profesoara ne lasă o pauză scurtă înainte de exerciții.

If we have a long lesson, the (female) teacher gives us a short break before the exercises.

Breakdown of Dacă avem o lecție lungă, profesoara ne lasă o pauză scurtă înainte de exerciții.

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Questions & Answers about Dacă avem o lecție lungă, profesoara ne lasă o pauză scurtă înainte de exerciții.

Why is it Dacă avem and not something like Când avem? Aren’t both if / when?

Dacă means if, introducing a condition.
Când means when, introducing a time.

Dacă avem o lecție lungă = If we have a long lesson (it may or may not happen; it’s conditional).
Când avem o lecție lungă = When we have a long lesson (whenever that situation occurs; more like “whenever” / “every time”).

In your sentence, the idea is a condition: only if the lesson is long, the teacher gives you a break. So dacă is the natural choice.

Why is avem in the present tense? In English I might say If we have a long lesson, the teacher lets us take a short break (habit).

In Romanian, the present tense is also used for general truths and habits, just like English.

Dacă avem o lecție lungă, profesoara ne lasă o pauză…
= a general rule: Whenever / if we have a long lesson, she lets us take a break.

This is called the present habitual use. So avem (we have) and lasă (she lets) are in the plain present, but the meaning is habitual, not “right now, this very moment”.

Why is it o lecție lungă and o pauză scurtă (article o + noun + adjective)? Why does the adjective come after the noun?

In Romanian, the normal word order is:

indefinite article + noun + adjective
o lecție lungă = a long lesson
o pauză scurtă = a short break

So:

o = feminine singular indefinite article (a in English)
lecție (fem.) + lungă (fem. adj. agreeing with lecție)
pauză (fem.) + scurtă (fem. adj. agreeing with pauză)

Adjectives usually follow the noun in Romanian, especially basic descriptive ones (long, short, big, small, beautiful, etc.).
They can come before the noun, but that often adds emphasis, style, or a slightly different nuance (more literary or expressive), which is not needed here.

Why does the adjective change: lungă, scurtă? Why not just lung, scurt?

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

lecție = feminine singular → lungă (fem. sg.)
pauză = feminine singular → scurtă (fem. sg.)

The basic forms you see in dictionaries are:

lung (long) – masculine singular
scurt (short) – masculine singular

But with feminine singular nouns, they change:

lung → lungă (fem. sg.)
scurt → scurtă (fem. sg.)

So agreement is:
o lecție lungă, o pauză scurtă, but un curs lung, un exercițiu scurt (masculine).

Why is it profesoara and not o profesoară or just profesoară?

Here, profesoara means the teacher (a specific female teacher that everyone in the context knows).

profesoară (no article) = a teacher in general / a person’s job
- Ea este profesoară. = She is a teacher.
o profesoară = a (female) teacher (one, but not specified which)
profesoara = the (female) teacher (the known, specific one)

The -a at the end is the definite article for feminine singular nouns ending in -ă:

profesoară → profesoara = the teacher
doamnă → doamna = the lady
mamă → mama = the mother

In many school contexts, Romanians use the definite form profesoara to mean our teacher / the teacher of this class. The possessive (our) is often understood and not said.

How can ne mean us in profesoara ne lasă o pauză scurtă? Where does it go in the sentence?

ne is the clitic pronoun for us (1st person plural). Here it functions as an indirect object:

profesoara = the teacher (subject)
ne = to us / for us
lasă = leaves / lets / allows
o pauză scurtă = a short break (direct object)

So literally: The teacher leaves us a short break (i.e. lets us have a short break).

Placement: in normal statements, clitic pronouns like ne go before the verb:

ne lasă (she lets us)
ne vede (she sees us)
ne dă o carte (she gives us a book)

They usually move after the verb only in forms like imperative:

Lasă-ne o pauză! = Give us a break!

In English we say lets us take a break. Why is there no verb like “take” in ne lasă o pauză scurtă?

Romanian often uses a lăsa + someone + something where English uses let + someone + have/do something.

ne lasă o pauză scurtă
literally: she leaves us a short break
natural English: she lets us take a short break

You could also say, more explicitly:

profesoara ne lasă să luăm o pauză scurtă
= the teacher lets us take a short break

But everyday Romanian is happy to skip să luăm and just say ne lasă o pauză. The idea of “taking” the break is understood from context.

Why is înainte de used here? What’s the difference between înainte, înainte de, and înainte să?

înainte on its own = before / in front (in space or time), but usually needs something after it.
înainte de + noun = before + noun
- înainte de exerciții = before (the) exercises
înainte să + verb = before + verb clause
- înainte să începem exercițiile = before we start the exercises

In your sentence we have a noun (exerciții), so înainte de exerciții is the correct pattern.

Why is it înainte de exerciții and not înainte de exercițiile or înainte de niște exerciții?

exerciții without an article is used in a general / non-specific sense: “before doing exercises”.

înainte de exerciții
= before (the) exercises in general in this context (the part of the class called “exercises”)

You could say:

înainte de exercițiile de la sfârșitul lecției
= before the exercises at the end of the lesson (very specific)

înainte de niște exerciții
= before some (unspecified) exercises

But here, you’re talking about the regular exercises that are known in the classroom routine, so just exerciții is natural and enough. Romanian often drops the article in such generic “activity” contexts.

Why is profesoara feminine? How would it look in the masculine?

profesoara is the feminine definite form of profesoară (female teacher).

Masculine is:

profesor (indefinite)
profesorul (definite: the male teacher)

So you’d get:

Dacă avem o lecție lungă, profesorul ne lasă o pauză scurtă înainte de exerciții.
= If we have a long lesson, the (male) teacher gives us a short break before the exercises.

The rest of the sentence doesn’t change; only the noun for the person changes gender.

What’s the nuance of lecție here? Is it like class, course, or lesson?

lecție most directly corresponds to lesson.

In a school context:

o lecție de română = a Romanian lesson
lecția de azi = today’s lesson

Other common words:

ora (de română, de matematică, etc.) = literally “the hour” → often used like class period
curs = typically course / lecture (more often at university level)

In your sentence, lecție fits best because it’s talking about one particular class/lesson that can be long or short.

Why are lecție and pauză both introduced with o, but profesoara has no o?

o lecție, o pauză: o is the indefinite article (a/an) for feminine singular nouns. These are new / not yet identified items in the sentence: a (any) long lesson, a (any) short break.
profesoara: this is definite (the teacher we already know about). The definite article for feminine nouns like profesoară is -a stuck onto the end:
- profesoară → profesoara = the teacher

So the pattern is:

o lecție lungă (a long lesson) – indefinite
o pauză scurtă (a short break) – indefinite
profesoara (the teacher) – definite

This mix of definite + indefinite articles is very normal: specific teacher, but any long lesson and short break that fit the rule.