Questions & Answers about Ea poartă blugi și o bluză albă.
The translation says 'is wearing', but isn't poartă just present tense?
Yes! Romanian doesn't have a separate continuous tense like the English 'is wearing' or 'is doing'. The simple present tense poartă covers both 'she wears' and 'she is wearing'.
Why does bluză have the word o in front of it, but blugi doesn't have an article?
o is the word for 'a' or 'an' for feminine nouns, so o bluză means 'a blouse'. For plural nouns like blugi (jeans), Romanian usually drops the article when talking about wearing things in general, just like in English. You could say niște blugi (some jeans), but it is completely natural to leave it out here.
Why is it bluză albă instead of albă bluză?
In Romanian, descriptive adjectives almost always come after the noun they describe. Also, the adjective has to match the noun's gender and number. Since bluză is a feminine singular noun, the word for white takes its feminine singular form, albă (instead of the masculine alb).
The dictionary form of the verb 'to wear' is a purta. Where does the 'oa' in poartă come from?
The verb a purta has a vowel change when it is conjugated. When the ending of the word is an 'ă' or 'e', the 'u' in the root of the word changes to 'oa'. This is a very common sound pattern in Romanian, making the third-person form ea poartă instead of 'ea purtă'.