Word
Băiatul trebuie să rămână singur în spital.
Meaning
The boy must stay alone in the hospital.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Breakdown of Băiatul trebuie să rămână singur în spital.
băiatul
the boy
în
in
să
to (subjunctive marker)
trebui
to have to / to be needed (with a dative: to need)
Questions & Answers about Băiatul trebuie să rămână singur în spital.
Why does the verb change to rămână here instead of rămâne?
After the linking word să, we use the subjunctive form. For the 3rd person (he/she/they), verbs that normally end in -e in the present tense change their ending to -ă. So the regular el rămâne (he stays) becomes să rămână (that he stays).
Does trebuie change if we are talking about more than one boy?
No, trebuie is a special verb that means 'it is necessary'. It doesn't change its form to match the person doing the action. Whether it's one boy or many, you always use trebuie să.
If it was a girl staying alone, would the word singur change?
The English translation says 'in the hospital', but în spital looks like just 'in hospital'. Where is 'the'?
In Romanian, when a noun comes right after a simple preposition like în (in), the definite article (the 'the' ending) is usually dropped. So we just say în spital instead of în spitalul.
Just for a quick refresher, how does Băiatul become 'The boy'?