Learn Romanian: Ea vrea să cumpere această rochie.

Ea vrea să cumpere această rochie.

She wants to buy this dress.

Breakdown of Ea vrea să cumpere această rochie.

Questions & Answers about Ea vrea să cumpere această rochie.

Why is there a să before cumpere?

In Romanian, when you connect two verbs like 'want' and 'buy', you use să to link them. It acts like the 'to' in 'want to buy', but grammatically it means 'that'. The sentence literally works out as 'She wants that she buy'.

I learned that 'she buys' is ea cumpără. Why does it change to cumpere here?

Because of the word să. When verbs follow să (a structure called the subjunctive mood, used for wishes and possibilities), their endings often change for the 'he', 'she', and 'they' forms. For the verb a cumpăra (to buy), the standard cumpără becomes să cumpere.

Could I say rochia aceasta instead of această rochie?

Yes! Both mean 'this dress' and are very common. When the word for 'this' goes before the noun, it is această, and the noun takes no article (această rochie). If it goes after the noun, the noun needs its attached 'the' ending, and 'this' becomes aceasta (rochia aceasta).

How can I tell that rochie is a feminine noun?

The noun rochie (dress) ends in -ie, which is a very strong clue that a Romanian word is feminine. You can also tell it is feminine here because it is paired with the feminine adjective această (this). If the word were masculine or neuter, you would use acest.