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Questions & Answers about Am pașaportul său.
Why is there an "-ul" at the end of pașaport if the translation doesn't say "the"?
In Romanian, possessive adjectives like său (his/her) must come directly after a noun that has a definite article attached to it. Because pașaport is a neuter noun in the singular, it takes the definite article -ul to become pașaportul (the passport). Literally, the Romanian structure is "I have the passport his."
If the passport belonged to a woman, would the word său change?
No, it stays exactly the same! This is a big difference from English. In Romanian, possessive adjectives like său agree with the gender and number of the object being owned, not the person who owns it. Since pașaport is a neuter singular noun, it acts like a masculine noun in the singular. Therefore, we use the masculine/neuter singular form său regardless of whether the owner is a man or a woman.
I learned earlier that lui means "his." Can I say Am pașaportul lui instead?
Where is the word for "I" in this sentence?
The Romanian word for "I" is eu, but you do not need it here. Because the verb am specifically means "I have," the subject is already obvious. Romanian speakers usually drop the subject pronoun unless they want to add special emphasis.