Learn Romanian: Ți-a plăcut cartea? - Did you like the book?

In Romanian, the verb a plăcea (to like) works backwards compared to English. Instead of saying "You liked the book", you literally say "The book was pleasing to you". The person who likes the object is the receiver, shown here by the pronoun ți- (to you).

What exactly is Ți-a made of?

It is a contraction of îți (the indirect object pronoun meaning "to you") and a (the helper verb used for the past tense). They are joined with a hyphen because the starting vowel of îți is dropped so it flows better in speech.

Why is the helper verb a instead of ai?

Because the grammatical subject doing the action is cartea (the book). You are technically saying "The book has pleased you." Since "the book" is an "it" (third-person singular), you must use the third-person helper verb a, rather than the "you" form ai.

How do you get cartea from the dictionary word carte (book)?

In Romanian, the word for "the" attaches to the end of the noun. For most feminine nouns ending in -e like carte, you drop the -e and add the definite article suffix -ea, giving you cartea (the book).