Learn Romanian: Îmi place vacanța mare.

Îmi place vacanța mare.

I like the big vacation.

Breakdown of Îmi place vacanța mare.

Questions & Answers about Îmi place vacanța mare.

Why do we use Îmi instead of Eu for "I"?

In Romanian, the verb a plăcea works a lot like saying "to be pleasing to". Îmi means "to me", so you are actually saying "The big vacation is pleasing to me." You don't use Eu (I) because you aren't the one doing the action; the vacation is!

If the pronoun is "me", why is the verb place instead of a first-person verb form?

Because the grammatical subject of the sentence is actually vacanța (the vacation), which is a singular "it". The verb must match the thing that is pleasing to you. If you liked plural things, like apples (mere), the verb would change to match them: Îmi plac merele (Apples are pleasing to me).

Why is there an -a at the end of vacanța?

The letter -a at the end is the Romanian definite article, meaning "the". So vacanță is "vacation" and vacanța is "the vacation". In Romanian, when you talk about liking a specific thing or a general category of things, you must include "the" attached to the end of the noun.

What does vacanța mare actually refer to, and why is mare at the end?

Adjectives like mare (big) usually come after the noun they describe in Romanian. While it literally translates to "the big vacation", vacanța mare is the specific phrase Romanians use to talk about the long summer school break.