Breakdown of Trebuie să reciclăm cartonul și hârtia.
și
and
să
to (subjunctive marker)
trebui
to have to / to be needed (with a dative: to need)
hârtia
the paper (material)
Questions & Answers about Trebuie să reciclăm cartonul și hârtia.
Why is it Trebuie să reciclăm and not Trebuim să reciclăm?
In Romanian, trebuie (must/have to) is an impersonal verb, meaning it never changes its ending to match the person doing the action. Instead of conjugating trebuie, you use să followed by the conjugated verb to show who is acting. Here, reciclăm shows that "we" are the ones doing the recycling.
Does carton mean the same thing as a "carton" in English?
They are false friends! While they look similar, carton in Romanian refers strictly to the material "cardboard". If you want to talk about a "milk carton" in Romanian, you would normally say o cutie de lapte (a box of milk).
How do the definite articles (meaning "the") work on the words cartonul and hârtia?
Romanian attaches the definite article to the end of the noun. Carton is a neuter noun, so it takes the ending -ul to become cartonul (the cardboard). Hârtie (paper) is a feminine noun ending in -e, which drops the "e" and adds -a to become hârtia (the paper).
Why do we say cartonul și hârtia (the cardboard and the paper) if we are just talking about recycling in general?
In Romanian, general categories of things or uncountable materials usually take the definite article when you make a broad statement about them. While in English we usually just say "recycle cardboard and paper", Romanian naturally prefers using "the" for both materials here.