Word
Polițistul este pe stradă.
Meaning
The police officer is on the street.
Part of speech
sentence
Pronunciation
Course
Lesson
Breakdown of Polițistul este pe stradă.
fi
to be (sunt, ești, este, suntem, sunteți, sunt)
pe
on
strada
the street
polițistul
the police officer
Questions & Answers about Polițistul este pe stradă.
Why is 'the' at the end of Polițistul?
In Romanian, the definite article (the equivalent of 'the') attaches to the end of the noun. For masculine singular nouns like polițist, we add -ul to get polițistul (the police officer).
Why doesn't stradă have a 'the' ending attached to it, if the translation says 'the street'?
After many short prepositions like pe (on), Romanian uses the plain dictionary form of the noun without the 'the' ending. Even though we say 'on the street' in English, in Romanian it is just pe stradă rather than pe strada.
What is the difference between using pe and în here?
pe means 'on' and is used because the police officer is standing on the surface of the street. în means 'in' or 'inside'. If you said în stradă, it would sound like the officer is standing right in the middle of the road where the cars drive.