Learn Romanian: Două fete citesc aici. - Two girls are reading here.

Două fete citesc aici.

Two girls are reading here.

Breakdown of Două fete citesc aici.

Questions & Answers about Două fete citesc aici.

Why do we use două instead of doi for the number two here?

In Romanian, the number two changes depending on the gender of the noun it counts. Since fată (girl) is a feminine noun, we must use the feminine form două. If we were counting masculine nouns, like boys (băieți), we would use doi.

I know the word for girl is fată. Why is it spelled fete here?

Fete is the plural form of fată. In Romanian feminine nouns, the ending -ă often changes to -e in the plural. Also, the vowel a in the middle of the word changes to e, which is a common sound change you will see in Romanian plurals.

The translation says 'are reading'. How would I say 'Two girls read here' instead?

You would say it exactly the same way! Romanian does not have a separate '-ing' tense for ongoing actions like English does. The single present tense verb citesc covers both 'read' and 'are reading' depending on the context.

How do we know citesc is the right form of the verb for this sentence?

Citesc is the 'they' form of the verb a citi (to read). Because the subject of our sentence is două fete (two girls), which represents 'they', we must use this plural form of the verb.