Learn Romanian: Pisica este sub masă. - The cat is under the table.

Pisica este sub masă.

The cat is under the table.

Breakdown of Pisica este sub masă.

to be (sunt, ești, este, suntem, sunteți, sunt)

Questions & Answers about Pisica este sub masă.

Why does the sentence use pisica instead of pisică?

Pisică means "a cat". In Romanian, to say "the cat", you attach the equivalent of "the" to the end of the noun. For feminine words ending in -ă, the -ă changes to -a, making it pisica.

The English translation says "under the table", but masă means "table". Why isn't it masa?

This is a very important rule in Romanian! After simple prepositions like sub (under), pe (on), or în (in), you usually drop the definite article ("the"). So you say sub masă (literally "under table") to mean "under the table".

Could I say Pisica e sub masă instead?

Yes, absolutely! E is the shorter, everyday version of este (is). Both mean exactly the same thing and are used interchangeably in spoken Romanian.

Is the word sub related to the English prefix "sub-"?

Exactly! They both share the same Latin root. In Romanian, sub is a standalone word meaning "under" or "below", whereas in English you usually see it attached to other words (like "submarine" or "subway").