Seara, mama mea face ciorbă de legume.

In the evening, my mother makes vegetable soup.

Breakdown of Seara, mama mea face ciorbă de legume.

• mea: my
• leguma: the vegetable
• de: of
• seara: the evening
• mama: the mother
• ciorba: the soup
• a face: to do

Questions & Answers about Seara, mama mea face ciorbă de legume.

Why is it Seara and not În seara or În fiecare seară to mean “in the evening / every evening”?

Romanian often uses a bare time word at the beginning of the sentence to express a habitual time, without any preposition:

• Seara, mama mea face ciorbă de legume.
  = (In the) evening, my mother makes vegetable soup (as a habit).

You can say:

• În fiecare seară, mama mea face ciorbă de legume. – Every evening… (stronger emphasis on “every”)
• Seara, mama mea… – usually understood as “in the evening / in the evenings” from context.

So Seara alone, at the start, is very natural for a repeated action in the evening.

Why is there a comma after Seara?

Seara here is a time expression moved to the front of the sentence for emphasis. Romanian usually separates such a fronted adverbial with a comma:

• Seara, mama mea face ciorbă de legume.

You can also put it at the end:

• Mama mea face ciorbă de legume seara.

At the end of the sentence, you normally do not use a comma. Both word orders are correct; the version with Seara, emphasizes the time a bit more.

What is the difference between seară and seara?

• seară = evening (indefinite form, like “an evening / evening”)
• seara = the evening (definite form, like “the evening”)

In the sentence:

• Seara, mama mea face ciorbă de legume.

we have seara = “the evening”, used adverbially, meaning “(in) the evening / in the evenings”. Romanian often uses the definite form of time words this way:

• Dimineața – in the morning
• Noaptea – at night
• Duminica – on Sundays

Why is it mama mea and not mea mama, if it means “my mother”?

In Romanian, possessive adjectives normally come after the noun:

• mama mea – my mother
• fratele meu – my brother
• cartea mea – my book

So the normal order is: noun + possessive.
Putting the possessive before the noun (mea mama) is wrong in standard Romanian.

Why is it mama and not mamă or mame?

• mamă = mother (indefinite, like “a mother”)
• mama = the mother (definite form)
• mame = mothers (indefinite plural)
• mamele = the mothers (definite plural)

As the subject of the sentence, Romanian almost always uses the definite form when we are talking about a specific known person:

• Mama mea face ciorbă de legume. – My mother makes vegetable soup.

Literally it’s closer to “the mother of mine”, but in English we just say “my mother”.

The verb face literally means “makes/does”. Is it really natural to use it for cooking?

Yes. a face is very commonly used for food and drinks, similar to English “make”:

• Mama mea face ciorbă. – My mother makes soup.
• Fac cafea. – I’m making coffee.
• Fac o prăjitură. – I’m making a cake.

You can also say:

• gătește ciorbă de legume – gătește = cooks
• prepară ciorbă de legume – more formal/literary: prepares

In everyday speech, face ciorbă sounds completely natural.

Does face here mean “is making” (right now) or “makes” (habitually)?

The Romanian present tense can express both:

• a current action: “is making”
• a habitual action: “makes (regularly)”

Context decides which one is meant. In this sentence, starting with Seara, strongly suggests a habitual action:

• Seara, mama mea face ciorbă de legume.
  → In the evenings, my mother makes vegetable soup. (habit)

To stress the habitual meaning even more, you could say:

• În fiecare seară, mama mea face ciorbă de legume. – Every evening…

What exactly is ciorbă? Is it just “soup”?

ciorbă is a type of soup, but with a cultural nuance:

• ciorbă – usually a sour soup (often soured with vinegar, borș, lemon, etc.), thicker, with vegetables and/or meat.
• supă – usually a clearer broth, often served strained, sometimes with noodles (supă de pui cu tăiței = chicken noodle soup).

So ciorbă de legume is a Romanian-style vegetable sour soup, not just any generic soup, though in English we usually translate it simply as “vegetable soup”.

Why is there no article before ciorbă de legume? Why not o ciorbă de legume or ciorba de legume?

All three are possible, but the meaning changes slightly:

• Mama mea face ciorbă de legume.
  → She makes vegetable soup (as a general dish / in general / habitually).

• Mama mea face o ciorbă de legume.
  → She makes a vegetable soup (one pot, one batch, more like a single occurrence).

• Mama mea face ciorba de legume.
  → She makes the vegetable soup (a specific one you already know about: maybe a planned soup for today).

In habitual sentences about what someone generally cooks, Romanian often drops the article, as in the original sentence.

What does de mean in ciorbă de legume?

de is a very common preposition, and here it corresponds to English of or with / made of:

• ciorbă de legume – vegetable soup (soup of vegetables)
• cafea cu lapte – coffee with milk
• pâine de secară – rye bread (bread of rye)

In food names, X de Y often means “X made with Y” or “X whose main ingredient is Y”.

What is the singular form of legume, and what does it mean?

• legumă (feminine singular) – a vegetable
• legume (feminine plural) – vegetables

So:

• o legumă – a vegetable
• două legume – two vegetables
• ciorbă de legume – soup made with vegetables

In the sentence, legume is plural because the soup typically contains several kinds of vegetables.