Când eram mic, mergeam rar la spital.

to be

Breakdown of Când eram mic, mergeam rar la spital.

• a merge: to go
• la: to
• când: when

Questions & Answers about Când eram mic, mergeam rar la spital.

Why is it eram mic and not am fost mic?

Romanian uses the imperfect tense (eram) to describe a background state or habit in the past. Being small/young is a long‑lasting state, not a single finished event.

• eram mic ≈ I was little / I used to be little (ongoing state in the past)
• am fost mic would sound like you are treating “being small” as one completed episode, which is unusual in this context.

So Când eram mic means When I was little (as a child) in a general, continuous way, which is exactly what you want here.

Why is mergeam used instead of am mers for “went”?

Again, this is the imperfect tense.

• mergeam ≈ I used to go / I would go / I was going (repeated or habitual action in the past)
• am mers ≈ I went (one completed action in the past)

In Când eram mic, mergeam rar la spital, you are talking about a habitual pattern in childhood: you rarely used to go to the hospital. That’s why mergeam is the natural choice.

Why is there no explicit eu (I) in the sentence?