Learn Romanian: Mă gândesc la tine. - I'm thinking about you.

In Romanian, the verb for 'to think' is reflexive: a se gândi. The mă is the reflexive pronoun for the 'I' form. English doesn't use reflexives for thinking, but in Romanian, leaving out the mă is grammatically incorrect. You are essentially saying 'I think myself'.

Why does the sentence use la instead of despre for 'about'?

The verb a se gândi strongly pairs with the preposition la when you are thinking about a person, place, or object. If you translated 'about' literally as despre, it would sound unnatural. It helps to imagine you are saying 'I am directing my thoughts at you.'

Why is the word for 'you' tine instead of tu?

Because it comes directly after a preposition. In Romanian, most prepositions like la (at/to), pentru (for), and cu (with) require the accusative case of the pronoun. For the informal 'you', the accusative form is tine.

How do we know this means 'I am thinking' rather than 'I think'?

Romanian does not have a separate continuous tense like English does with its '-ing' verbs. The present tense mă gândesc translates to both 'I think' and 'I am thinking'. You rely entirely on the context of the conversation to tell the difference.