Feelings as States: The Dative Experiencer
In English, we usually describe our feelings with "I am" followed by an adjective: "I am ashamed" or "I am sleepy." Romanian thinks about many deeper emotional states and physical urges a bit differently. Instead of saying what you are, you express that a feeling exists to you.
To do this, Romanian uses a dative pronoun (indicating "to whom" the feeling belongs) + the verb a fi (to be) + a noun representing the feeling. Literally, it translates to phrases like "to me is shame" or "to me is sleep."
The unstressed dative pronouns can be used with the full form of the verb (este), but they most commonly combine with the short form (e):
- mi-e / îmi este (to me is)
- ți-e / îți este (to you is)
- îi e / i-e / îi este (to him/her is)
- ne e / ne este (to us is)
- vă e / vă este (to you all/formal is)
- le e / le este (to them is)
Specifying the Cause: de
When you want to express what is causing the emotion—what you are ashamed of, or terrified of—add the preposition de immediately after the emotion noun.
Emphasizing "Who" is Feeling It
If you want to contrast your feelings with someone else's, or draw special attention to the experiencer, add a stressed dative pronoun (like mie or ție) at the beginning of the sentence.
To specify exactly who is experiencing the feeling, you can replace the stressed pronoun with a noun in the dative case (like băiatului or Mariei).
Fear and Longing
Two of the most common states expressed with this grammar are frică (fear) and dor (longing).
To say "I am afraid of", use mi-e frică de (literally, "to me is fear of").
To say "I miss" someone or something, Romanian uses the beautiful word dor (longing). The phrase mi-e dor de means "I miss" (literally, "to me is longing of").
