Learn Romanian: Caietele sunt aici. - The notebooks are here.

Caietele sunt aici.

The notebooks are here.

Breakdown of Caietele sunt aici.

to be (sunt, ești, este, suntem, sunteți, sunt)

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Questions & Answers about Caietele sunt aici.

How do we build the word caietele from the base word caiet?

Caiet (notebook) is a neuter noun. To make it plural, we add the neuter plural ending -e, giving us caiete (notebooks). Then, to say 'the notebooks', we attach the definite plural article -le to the end, resulting in caietele.

Why is the word for 'the' attached to the end of caietele?

In Romanian, the definite article (the word for 'the') attaches to the end of the noun instead of sitting in front of it. For plural neuter nouns ending in -e or -uri, this attached 'the' suffix is always -le.

Wait, doesn't sunt mean 'I am'? Why is it used for notebooks here?

Yes, eu sunt means 'I am'. However, the verb a fi (to be) is a special case in Romanian because its 'I' form and 'they' form are exactly the same word. Since 'the notebooks' acts as 'they', we use sunt here to mean 'are'.

How can I tell if a neuter noun like caiet takes the -e ending or the -uri ending?

Unfortunately, there is no strict rule to predict whether a neuter noun's plural will end in -e (like caiete) or -uri (like timpuri). The best strategy is to simply memorize the plural form at the same time you learn the singular word.