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Vaca mănâncă iarba curată.

Vaca mănâncă iarba curată.
The cow eats the clean grass.
From Lesson 70:In the Wild·Romanian

Breakdown of Vaca mănâncă iarba curată.

curat
clean
mânca
to eat
vaca
the cow
iarba
the grass

Questions & Answers about Vaca mănâncă iarba curată.

Why does the sentence use vaca and iarba instead of vacă and iarbă?
In Romanian, the word for 'the' attaches to the end of the noun. For feminine nouns that normally end in -ă (like vacă for cow and iarbă for grass), you drop the -ă and add -a. This gives us vaca (the cow) and iarba (the grass).
Why is the adjective for clean spelled curată here?
Adjectives in Romanian change to match the gender of the noun they describe. The base dictionary word for 'clean' is curat, which is the masculine form. Since iarbă (grass) is a feminine word, the adjective must take the feminine ending -ă, becoming curată.
Why does the sentence say iarba curată instead of putting the adjective first like in English?
In Romanian, adjectives usually come after the noun they describe. So instead of 'the clean grass', the sentence is ordered as 'the grass clean' (iarba curată).
What is the dictionary form of the verb mănâncă?
The dictionary form (the infinitive) is a mânca (to eat). The form mănâncă is used for 'he, she, or it eats' as well as 'they eat'. It is a slightly irregular verb, meaning its spelling changes a bit when conjugated, adding the letter ă in the middle.

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