Questions & Answers about Eu cumpăr o roșie și o ceapă.
Does roșie mean 'tomato' or 'red'?
It means both! In Romanian, the word for tomato is literally just the feminine word for the color red (roșie). Because it has o in front of it here, we know it is acting as a noun meaning 'a tomato'.
Why do we use o before roșie and ceapă?
The word o is the equivalent of the English 'a' or 'an' for feminine words. Both roșie (tomato) and ceapă (onion) are feminine nouns in Romanian, so they both get the feminine articleo.
Could I leave out the word Eu and just say Cumpăr o roșie și o ceapă?
Yes, absolutely! In Romanian, the verb ending usually tells you who is doing the action. The form cumpăr already means 'I buy', so the pronounEu (I) is optional and is mostly used here just for emphasis.
I have seen the verb 'to buy' written as a cumpăra. Why is it cumpăr here?
A cumpăra is the dictionary form of the verb. When you want to say 'I buy' for this specific group of verbs, you drop the final -a to make it match the 'I' form, leaving you with cumpăr.