Questions & Answers about Oaia albă doarme în grădină.
Why is "the sheep" oaia instead of oaie?
The base word for sheep is oaie, which is a feminine noun. In Romanian, the word for "the" attaches to the end of the noun. For feminine nouns ending in -e, the definite article changes the ending to -a or -ea. So, oaie becomes oaia (the sheep).
Why does the adjective albă come after the noun?
In Romanian, descriptive adjectives usually go after the noun they describe. Instead of saying "the white sheep", you say "the sheep white" (oaia albă). The adjective also ends in -ă to match the feminine singular noun.
The dictionary form of the verb is a dormi (to sleep). Why does it change to doarme?
Romanian verbs often have small vowel changes when conjugated. For the "he/she/it" form, the o in the root changes to oa. While "I sleep" is eu dorm, "it sleeps" becomes ea doarme.
If the translation is "in the garden", why is there no "the" attached to the end of grădină?
This is a very common Romanian rule. After short prepositions like în (in) or pe (on) used for location, the noun drops its definite article. We just use the plain form grădină instead of the definite form grădina, even though we still translate it as "in the garden" in English.
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