Azi n-am cumpărat gem, pentru că mai avem acasă.

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Breakdown of Azi n-am cumpărat gem, pentru că mai avem acasă.

• a avea: to have
• azi: today
• pentru că: because

Questions & Answers about Azi n-am cumpărat gem, pentru că mai avem acasă.

Why is n-am written with a hyphen?

N-am is the shortened form of nu am.

In Romanian, nu often contracts with forms of a avea in everyday speech and writing:

• nu am → n-am
• nu ai → n-ai
• nu are → n-are

So n-am cumpărat means I didn’t buy. The hyphen shows that two words have been compressed together.

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What tense is n-am cumpărat?

It is the perfectul compus, the most common past tense in everyday Romanian.

It is formed with:

• the present tense of a avea as an auxiliary
• plus the past participle

Here:

• am = auxiliary
• cumpărat = past participle of a cumpăra

So:

• am cumpărat = I bought / I have bought
• n-am cumpărat = I didn’t buy / I haven’t bought

In normal conversational Romanian, this is the usual way to talk about completed past actions.

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Why does am mean I have here, but later avem means we have?