Breakdown of Învățăm să vorbim româna.
vorbi
to speak
româna
the Romanian language
să
to (subjunctive marker)
învăța
to learn / to study (attend school)
Questions & Answers about Învățăm să vorbim româna.
Why do we use să vorbim instead of an infinitive for "to speak"?
English uses the infinitive to say "to speak" after another verb. Romanian does this differently. It uses the connecting word să followed by a conjugated verb. You can think of it literally as "We are learning that we speak."
Why do both verbs end in -m (învățăm and vorbim)?
The -m ending shows that the action is done by "we". When you link two verbs with să, the second verb must be conjugated to match the person doing the action. Since "we" are learning and "we" will be doing the speaking, both verbs take the "we" form.
Why does the sentence use româna instead of just română?
Româna has the definite article attached to the end, making it mean "the Romanian language". In Romanian, when you name a specific language as a direct object like this, you typically use the definite form.
Where is the word for "we" (noi) in this sentence?
Romanian verbs change their endings to show who is doing the action. Because învățăm and vorbim already mean "we learn" and "we speak", you do not need to add noi unless you want to put special emphasis on the fact that we are doing it.