Questions & Answers about Afară bate vântul.
Why is the verb before the subject here?
Romanian word order is very flexible. While you will often see Subject-Verb (like in English), it is very common to put the verb before the subject. This often happens when starting a sentence with a location word like afară (outside). You could say Vântul bate afară, but Afară bate vântul sounds very natural.
Doesn't the verb bate normally mean "to beat"?
Where is the word for "the" in this sentence?
In Romanian, the word for "the" (the definite article) is attached to the end of the noun instead of being a separate word in front. The base word for "wind" is vânt. To say "the wind", you attach the ending -ul to make vântul.
The English translation says "blows", but can this also mean "is blowing"?
Yes! Romanian does not have a separate "-ing" tense for things happening right now. The present tense verb bate means both "blows" (in general) and "is blowing" (at this very moment). Given the context of looking outside, "The wind is blowing outside" is a perfect translation here.
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