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Tu o cunoști pe colega mea?

Tu o cunoști pe colega mea?
Do you know my colleague?
From Lesson 46:Personal direct objects (pe)·Romanian

Questions & Answers about Tu o cunoști pe colega mea?

Why do we need the word pe here? Doesn't it usually mean 'on'?
You are right, pe often means 'on'. But when a specific person is the direct object of a sentence (the one receiving the action), Romanian requires you to put pe in front of their name or noun. Here, the specific person being known is colega mea (my colleague), so we must use pe.
What is the o doing before the verb?
When you use pe to point out a specific person, Romanian grammar also requires a matching short pronoun right before the verb. Since the colleague is feminine singular, we use o (her). It feels a bit like saying 'Do you her know my colleague?', which is exactly how this structure works!
Why use cunoști instead of știi for 'know'?
Romanian has two common verbs for 'to know'. You use a cunoaște (here conjugated as cunoști) when you mean being acquainted with a person, a place, or a thing. You use a ști for knowing facts, information, or how to do a skill. Because this sentence is about knowing a person, cunoști is the right choice.
Why is the word for colleague spelled colega here instead of colegă?
In Romanian, when you follow a noun with a possessive word like mea (my), that noun almost always needs the definite article ('the') attached to its end. The base word for a female colleague is colegă, and adding the feminine definite article turns it into colega (literally 'the colleague my').

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