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Questions & Answers about Cine este el?
Why is the word order exactly the same as in English?
For simple questions with cine (who), Romanian uses the exact same structure as English: Question Word + Verb + Subject. You just put cine at the beginning, and you never need helper words like 'do' or 'does'.
Does my voice go up at the end of this question?
No. Because this question starts with a specific question word (cine), your voice should actually drop slightly at the end of the sentence. In Romanian, you only use a rising tone at the very end of a sentence for yes/no questions.
Could I say Cine e el? instead?
Yes! The word e is the shorter, very common spoken version of este (is). In everyday conversation, you will actually hear Cine e el? more often than the full formal version.
Do I have to include el here, or can I just ask Cine este?
If you want to specifically ask 'Who is he?', you need to keep el. If you drop the pronoun and just ask Cine este?, it usually means 'Who is it?' or 'Who is there?' (for example, when someone knocks on your door).