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Mama mănâncă în bucătărie.

Mama mănâncă în bucătărie.
Mom is eating in the kitchen.
From Lesson 56:Rooms in a House·Romanian

Breakdown of Mama mănâncă în bucătărie.

mama
the mother
mânca
to eat
în
in
bucătăria
the kitchen

Questions & Answers about Mama mănâncă în bucătărie.

Why does the translation say "is eating" instead of "eats"?
Romanian does not have a separate present continuous tense for actions happening right now (like the English "is doing"). The single present tense verb mănâncă covers both "eats" and "is eating". You rely on the context of the sentence to know which one fits best in English!
I learned that mother is mamă. Why does this sentence use mama?
In Romanian, the word for "the" (the definite article) attaches to the very end of the noun instead of standing alone before it. Changing the ending of mamă to "a" makes it mama. This literally means "the mother" but is used as a direct equivalent to "Mom" in English.
The English translation says "in the kitchen", but bucătărie doesn't have the "-a" ending for "the". Shouldn't it be bucătăria?
This is a very common difference between English and Romanian! When stating a location after simple prepositions like în (in), la (at), or pe (on), Romanian usually drops the "the" ending on singular nouns. So you say în bucătărie (literally "in kitchen") to mean "in the kitchen".
Is the word mănâncă only used for "he" or "she"?
It is actually used for "they" as well! For the verb a mânca (to eat), the "he/she/it" form and the "they" form are exactly the same. So ea mănâncă means "she eats", and ele mănâncă means "they eat".

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