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Cuțitul este pe șervețelul curat.

Cuțitul este pe șervețelul curat.
The knife is on the clean napkin.
From Lesson 66:Setting the Table·Romanian

Questions & Answers about Cuțitul este pe șervețelul curat.

I don't see a word for "the" in this sentence. How do we know it's "the knife" and "the napkin"?
In Romanian, the word for "the" (the definite article) attaches to the end of the noun instead of being a separate word in front of it. Cuțit is "knife", and adding -ul makes it cuțitul ("the knife"). The same rule applies to șervețel becoming șervețelul.
Why is it șervețelul curat instead of curatul șervețel like in English?
In Romanian, descriptive adjectives like curat (clean) usually come right after the noun they describe. You are literally saying "the napkin clean".
If both words mean "the clean napkin", why doesn't curat also get an -ul at the end?
When you have a noun and an adjective together, usually only the first word gets the attached "the" ending. Since the noun comes first in șervețelul curat, the noun gets the -ul, and the adjective curat just stays in its normal dictionary form.
Both cuțitul and șervețelul use the -ul ending. Does this mean they are masculine words?
Close! They are actually neuter nouns. Neuter is a special noun gender in Romanian that acts masculine when there is just one (singular) and feminine when there are multiple (plural). Because there is only one knife and one napkin here, they both use the masculine/neuter singular ending -ul.

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