Learn Romanian: Vrem să știm dacă clientul a citit chestionarul. - We want to know if the client read the questionnaire.

Yes, dacă translates to both 'whether' for reported questions and 'if' for conditions. In this sentence, it acts as 'whether' to connect the main verb to a reported Yes/No question. It replaces the need for a question mark.

Does Romanian change the verb tense when reporting a question, like English sometimes does?

No, Romanian is much simpler here! While English often shifts tenses backwards in reported speech, Romanian usually keeps the exact same tense as the original direct question. The direct question was A citit clientul chestionarul? so the reported version keeps the compound past tense a citit.

Why does the sentence use să știm instead of an infinitive like the English 'to know'?

This is a great reminder about how Romanian links verbs. After verbs expressing a desire or intention, like vrem (we want), Romanian uses the subjunctive mood. You use să followed by a conjugated verb, so vrem să știm literally means 'we want that we know'.

Both clientul and chestionarul end in the definite article -ul. Do they belong to the same gender?

Not exactly. Clientul (the client) is masculine, while chestionarul (the questionnaire) is neuter. However, in the singular form, Romanian neuter nouns behave exactly like masculine nouns and take the same -ul or -le endings to mean 'the'.