Breakdown of Când eram bolnav, stăteam în dormitor și ascultam povești la radio.
Questions & Answers about Când eram bolnav, stăteam în dormitor și ascultam povești la radio.
They are in the imperfect tense (indicativ, imperfect).
The imperfect in Romanian describes:
- ongoing actions in the past
- repeated or habitual actions in the past
- background situations in a story
So eram bolnav, stăteam în dormitor și ascultam povești la radio suggests something like “When I was sick (whenever/usually), I used to stay in the bedroom and listen to stories on the radio,” not just a single, one‑time event.
Yes, grammatically you can say:
- Când am fost bolnav, am stat în dormitor și am ascultat povești la radio.
This changes the meaning:
- With imperfect (eram, stăteam, ascultam): it sounds habitual or descriptive – how things generally were when you were sick.
- With perfect compus (am fost, am stat, am ascultat): it sounds like one specific occasion in the past when you were sick and that time you stayed in the bedroom and listened to stories.
So the original sentence focuses on a repeated situation or background habit.
Romanian is a “pro‑drop” language: subject pronouns (eu, tu, el, etc.) are often omitted because the verb ending already shows the person.
- eram, stăteam, ascultam all have the 1st person singular ending, so they clearly mean “I was, I stayed, I listened.”
- You could say Eu când eram bolnav…, but it sounds more emphatic, like stressing “I, when I was sick…”
In normal, neutral speech, eu is usually left out here.
Bolnav is the masculine singular form of the adjective “sick / ill.”
In Romanian, adjectives agree in gender and number with the noun or implied subject.
- For a man speaking: Când eram bolnav…
- For a woman speaking: Când eram bolnavă…
Because eu is omitted, the form bolnav tells us the speaker is (at least grammatically) male. A female speaker would naturally use bolnavă.
The structure is:
- Când eram bolnav, = a subordinate clause (when‑clause, time clause)
- stăteam în dormitor și ascultam povești la radio. = the main clause
Romanian normally separates a fronted subordinate clause from the main clause with a comma, so we write Când eram bolnav, stăteam…
In the main clause, stăteam and ascultam share the same subject (“I”) and are joined by și as a compound predicate (two verbs for the same subject). Romanian does not put a comma between such verbs, so no comma before și ascultam.
ÎN is the usual preposition for being inside a room or enclosed space:
- în dormitor = in the bedroom (inside it)
- în bucătărie = in the kitchen
- în baie = in the bathroom
La is more like “at / to” a place and is not normally used with rooms of a house in this sense.
So stăteam în dormitor is the natural, idiomatic choice for “I stayed in the bedroom.”
Both forms are possible, but they are used a bit differently:
- în dormitor – often understood as “in the bedroom”, especially when it’s clear we’re talking about my / our bedroom. Romanian can omit the article when the room is a familiar part of “home.”
- în dormitorul – literally “in the bedroom” with a definite article; it sounds a bit more specific or contrastive (that particular bedroom).
In everyday speech about your own home, în dormitor is totally normal and usually implies “in the bedroom (mine / ours).”
For “in a bedroom (not a specific one),” you’d say într‑un dormitor.
Povești is the indefinite plural: “stories” (in general, not specific ones).
- ascultam povești la radio ≈ “I listened to stories on the radio” (some stories, not particular known ones).
- poveștile would mean “the stories”, specific ones already known in the context.
- niște povești would mean “some stories”, adding a slight emphasis on “some, a few.”
Here povești on its own is the most neutral way to talk about listening to stories in general.
Literally, la radio is “at the radio”, but the idiomatic meaning is “on the radio” (via the radio as a medium).
Romanian uses la with mass media and devices like:
- la radio – on the radio
- la televizor – on TV
- la telefon – on the phone
So ascultam povești la radio matches English “I listened to stories on the radio,” and la is the normal preposition in this expression.
You can, but the nuance changes:
- la radio – standard, idiomatic, referring to the broadcast medium: on the radio.
- la radioul / la aparatul de radio – refer more to the physical device (the radio set) and sound a bit heavier or more technical in this context.
For everyday speech about listening to broadcasts, la radio is by far the most common and natural form.
In la radio, radio is effectively singular and treated as a noun referring to “the radio” as a medium.
About gender:
- Traditionally, radio is considered neuter in Romanian.
- In many fixed expressions (like la radio), it appears in an invariable form without article or visible case ending.
With a definite article, you may see radioul (“the radio set”), and in the plural radiouri (“radio sets”), which clearly behave like a neuter noun.
Romanian word order is fairly flexible, so these variations are possible:
- …stăteam și ascultam povești în dormitor la radio.
- …stăteam în dormitor și ascultam la radio povești.
The basic meaning stays the same: you were sick, you stayed in the bedroom, you listened to stories on the radio.
Changing the order slightly can shift emphasis (for example, highlighting where you listened or what you listened to), but none of these versions becomes wrong or radically different in meaning. The original order is simply very natural and neutral.