Calea este lungă.

to be

Breakdown of Calea este lungă.

• lung: long
• calea: the way; path

Questions & Answers about Calea este lungă.

Why is it calea and not just cale?

Because Romanian usually puts the definite article at the end of the noun.

• cale = way / path / road in an indefinite sense
• calea = the way / the path

So -a here is the feminine singular definite article attached to cale.

This is one of the big differences from English: Romanian says the road by changing the noun itself, not by putting a separate word like the in front.

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What gender is cale, and how does that affect the sentence?

Cale is a feminine noun.

That matters because the adjective has to agree with it:

• masculine singular: lung
• feminine singular: lungă

Since calea is feminine singular, Romanian uses lungă, not lung.

So the pattern is:

• drumul este lung = the road is long
• calea este lungă = the way/path is long

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Why is the adjective lungă and not lung?