The Preposition Problem
In Romanian, many verbs and adjectives are tightly linked to specific prepositions. For example, you say you are aware of something (conștient de), or that an experiment relies on something (se bazează pe).
If you want to follow these prepositions with a simple noun, it's easy. But if you want to follow them with a whole new clause (using the conjunction că, meaning "that"), you hit a grammatical wall: you cannot place a preposition directly before că.
The "Faptul Că" Workaround
To solve this, we use a syntactic bridge: the dummy noun phrase faptul (the fact).
By inserting faptul after the preposition, we give it a noun to attach to. Then, we simply add că and our normal indicative verb clause. This creates the structure preposition + faptul că ("the fact that").
| The student is aware of the fact that the social experiment is fake. | Studenta este conștientă de faptul că experimentul social este fals. |
| Some boys are aware of the fact that this conformity is dangerous. | Niște băieți sunt conștienți de faptul că acest conformism este periculos. |
Explaining Causes and Effects
This workaround is incredibly useful for discussing sociology, experiments, and human behavior, where you often need to explain how one complex idea relates to another.
Notice how faptul că pairs with different prepositions depending on what the main verb or adjective requires:
- în faptul că (in the fact that)
- pe faptul că (on the fact that)
- cu faptul că (with the fact that)
- din faptul că (from the fact that)
| Conformity consists in the fact that some people accept the group's norm. | Conformismul constă în faptul că unii oameni acceptă norma grupului. |
| This group relies on the fact that the social norm is accepted by all. | Grupul acesta se bazează pe faptul că norma socială este acceptată de toți. |
| The behavior she imitates is connected to the fact that she is afraid of social exclusion. | Comportamentul pe care ea îl imită are legătură cu faptul că se teme de excluderea socială. |
| The validity of the study depends on the fact that the participants do not imitate the researchers. | Validitatea studiului depinde de faptul că participanții nu îi imită pe cercetători. |
| This norm derives from the fact that the group wants to keep the validity of the rules. | Această normă derivă din faptul că grupul vrea să păstreze validitatea regulilor. |
