Question 1

Why are the words mama and tatăl used here instead of just mamă and tată?

Accepted Answer

In Romanian, the word for "the" (the definite article) attaches to the end of the noun rather than sitting in front of it. Mamă means "mother", so adding the -a ending makes it mama ("the mother"). For masculine nouns ending in a vowel like tată ("father"), we add -l to make tatăl ("the father").

Question 2

The English translation uses the word "are". Since we are learning the verb a avea (to have), why don't we use the Romanian word are here?

Accepted Answer

This is a very common trap for English speakers! The English word "are" means "they are" (the verb to be). In Romanian, "they are" is sunt. The Romanian word are looks exactly the same as the English word, but it actually means "he/she has" from the verb a avea. Always translate the meaning, not just the spelling!

Question 3

Does acasă mean "home" or "at home"?

Accepted Answer

Acasă is an adverb that means "at home" (when talking about location) or "towards home" (when talking about direction). If you want to talk about a house as an object, you would use the noun casă. So, sunt acasă is the most natural way to say "they are at home".

Question 4

Since sunt means "they are" here, isn't it also the word for "I am"?

Accepted Answer

Yes, exactly! For the verb a fi (to be), the forms for "I am" (eu sunt) and "they are" (ei/ele sunt) are identical. You can tell which one it is by the context of the sentence. Here, because we are talking about two people (mama și tatăl), we know it means "they are".

Mama și tatăl sunt acasă.

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