Question 1

Why does the sentence use mașina and televizorul instead of just mașină and televizor?

Accepted Answer

In Romanian, the word for "the" is attached to the end of the noun. Mașină means "a car", but when you change the ending -ă to -a, it becomes mașina ("the car"). Similarly, adding -ul to the end of televizor makes it televizorul ("the TV").

Question 2

Why is the word for white albă here, instead of just alb?

Accepted Answer

Adjectives (describing words) in Romanian have to match the gender of the noun they describe. Because mașina (the car) is a feminine noun, you have to use the feminine form of the adjective, which is albă. If you were describing a masculine noun, you would use alb.

Question 3

Is televizorul a masculine noun since it uses the adjective negru instead of the feminine neagră?

Accepted Answer

Televizor is actually a neuter noun. In Romanian, neuter nouns act like masculine nouns when there is only one of them (singular), and like feminine nouns when there is more than one (plural). Since we are talking about exactly one TV here, it uses the masculine adjective negru.

Question 4

If the word for car is mașină, why doesn't adding "the" make it mașinăa?

Accepted Answer

When a feminine noun ends in -ă, you don't just add an -a to the end to mean "the". Instead, the -a actually replaces the -ă. So, mașină drops its little hat to become mașina.

Mașina este albă, dar televizorul este negru.

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