Negating Dative Pronouns
When negating a sentence that contains a dative pronoun (îmi, îți, or îi), the negative word nu is placed immediately before the pronoun. Because nu ends in a vowel and the singular dative pronouns begin with one, they naturally contract in everyday speech. The î drops out, and the two words are joined with a hyphen.
| Full form | Contraction | Meaning |
|---|
| nu + îmi | nu-mi | not to me |
| nu + îți | nu-ți | not to you |
| nu + îi | nu-i | not to him / not to her |
This makes pronunciation smoother and is the standard way to speak and write in Romanian.
Expressing Opinions and Feelings
Many common Romanian verbs that describe personal feelings, reactions, or preferences take an indirect object. For example, verbs like a păsa (to care) and a conveni (to suit) use these contracted forms to politely refuse or express that something doesn't matter to someone.
Possession and Lack
You will also use these negative contractions to talk about what people do not have, what does not belong to them (a aparține), or what they are not missing (a lipsi).
Finally, dative contractions are used for actions directed away from someone, such as hiding something (a ascunde).
They are also essential for fixed expressions describing personal states of being, like a-i fi foame (to be hungry, literally "to be hunger to him/her").
