Questions & Answers about Cât costă cafeaua?
Why is the word for coffee cafeaua instead of just cafea?
In Romanian, words for "the" are attached to the end of the noun rather than sitting in front of it as a separate word. Cafea means "coffee", and the ending -ua makes it cafeaua, meaning "the coffee".
Where does the -u- come from in cafeaua?
When a feminine noun ends in a stressed vowel like -ea (as in cafea), Romanian adds a linking -u- before the definite article -a to make it easier to pronounce. So it becomes cafea + u + a = cafeaua.
In English we ask "How much does the coffee cost?". Why is the word order different here?
In Romanian questions, the verb (costă) usually comes immediately after the question word (cât) and before the subject (cafeaua). Also, Romanian doesn't use helping verbs like "does" to form questions. This sentence translates literally to "How much costs the coffee?".
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