Băiatul are gura murdară.

Breakdown of Băiatul are gura murdară.

băiatul
the boy
avea
to have
murdar
dirty
gura
the mouth

Questions & Answers about Băiatul are gura murdară.

Why is "the boy" translated as a single word, Băiatul?
In Romanian, the word for "the" (the definite article) is attached to the end of the noun instead of coming before it. The base word for "boy" is băiat, and because it is a masculine noun, we add -ul to the end to make it băiatul (the boy).
The English translation says "a dirty mouth", but gura literally means "the mouth". Why doesn't Romanian use the word for "a" here?
When talking about body parts, Romanian typically uses the definite article ("the") rather than saying "a" or using possessive words like "his". So while we say "a dirty mouth" in English, Romanian naturally says "the dirty mouth" (gura murdară) because it is obvious whose mouth it is.
How does the base word gură (mouth) change to become gura (the mouth)?
For most feminine nouns that end in the letter -ă, you drop the -ă and add an -a to the end to mean "the". This is how gură changes into gura.
Why is it gura murdară instead of murdară gura, and why does the adjective end in -ă?
In Romanian, descriptive words (adjectives) almost always come right after the noun they describe. The base word for dirty is murdar, but because it is describing a feminine noun (gură), it must take the feminine ending -ă to match, becoming murdară.

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