Questions & Answers about Ea a trântit ușa; mă rog, nu contează acum.
Why is mă rog translated as "whatever" here? I thought it meant "please" or "I pray".
Literally, mă rog means "I pray (to myself)", and it is sometimes used as a slightly archaic "please". However, in modern conversational Romanian, it is a very common discourse marker. Here, it acts as a verbal shrug meaning "whatever", "anyway", or "I mean". The speaker is using it to wave off the fact that she slammed the door so they can move on to the main point.
Since this lesson also covers în fine, could I use it instead of mă rog in this sentence?
Yes, absolutely! You could say Ea a trântit ușa; în fine, nu contează acum. Both mă rog and în fine are used to abruptly cut off a train of thought, dismiss what was just said, or move the conversation forward. În fine (literally "in the end" or "finally") feels a bit more like "anyway", while mă rog leans slightly more towards a dismissive "whatever".
Is the verb a trânti used only for slamming doors?
I often want to translate "it matters" as "importă". Why is contează used here instead?