Learn Romanian: Acest gând mă face să acționez imediat. - This thought makes me act immediately.

We use the verb a face (to make) plus the direct object pronoun mă (me) plus the subjunctive să acționez (that I act). While English says 'makes me act' using an infinitive, Romanian requires the subjunctive mood connected by să for this causative structure.

Why does mă come before face instead of right before să acționez?

The pronoun mă (me) is the direct object of the verb a face (it makes me). In Romanian, accusative unstressed pronouns (clitics) are always placed immediately before the conjugated verb they belong to, which is face here.

Why is the second verb conjugated as să acționez instead of taking a neutral base form?

In this causative structure, the verb after să must agree with the person actually performing that action. Since the thought makes me act, the subjunctive verb is conjugated in the first-person singular: să acționez.

Why do we use the masculine demonstrative acest for gând?

The word gând (thought) is a neuter noun. Remember that neuter nouns use masculine adjectives and demonstratives in the singular, so we use acest instead of the feminine această.