Breakdown of După ce arheologul descoperise ruina castelului, a sunat la muzeu.
muzeul
the museum
la
at / to
suna
to call
castelul
the castle
descoperi
to discover
după ce
after (+ clause)
arheologul
the archaeologist
ruina
the ruin
Questions & Answers about După ce arheologul descoperise ruina castelului, a sunat la muzeu.
Why do we use descoperise instead of the normal past tense a descoperit here?
Descoperise is the Mai mult ca perfectul (Pluperfect) tense, which translates to "had discovered". We use it to clearly show that this action happened before another past action in our story. Here, the archaeologist found the ruins first, and only after that did he make the phone call (a sunat).
How is the form descoperise built?
The Mai mult ca perfectul is usually formed by taking the verb stem, adding the specific marker -se-, and then adding the personal ending. For the verb a descoperi (to discover), we take the stem descoperi-, add -se, and since the 3rd person singular ending is blank, the final word is simply descoperise (he/she had discovered).
Why does the word for castle end in -ului (castelului)?
This is the Genitive case, which shows possession or association, meaning "of the castle". Because castel is a neuter noun, its definite article changes from -ul (the castle) to -ului (of the castle) in the singular Genitive form.
Why do we say a sunat la muzeu and not just a sunat muzeul?
In Romanian, when you telephone an institution, a business, or a general place, you use the preposition la (at/to), literally "called at the museum". If you were calling a specific person, you would treat them as a direct object instead, such as l-a sunat pe arheolog (called the archaeologist).
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