Question 1

Why does the Romanian sentence say în mină without a definite article, when the English translation says into the mine?

Accepted Answer

In Romanian, nouns immediately following most prepositions (like în, la, pe, din) do not take a definite article unless they are followed by an adjective or a possessive. Because mină stands alone after the preposition în, the definite article is dropped, even though you are talking about a specific mine. If you added an adjective, the article would return, as in în mina adâncă (into the deep mine).

Question 2

The verb is coboară. What is the infinitive and why does it have an oa in it?

Accepted Answer

The infinitive is a coborî (to descend or go down). In the third-person singular (el/ea coboară) and plural (ei/ele coboară), the root vowel o changes to the diphthong oa. This vowel alternation is a very common phonetic rule in Romanian that happens when the word's stress falls on that specific syllable.

Question 3

Could I translate goes down literally as merge în jos here?

Accepted Answer

You will rarely hear a native speaker say that. Unlike English, which often uses a basic verb plus a directional word (go down, come up, walk out), Romanian strongly prefers specific verbs of motion. You should almost always use a coborî for going down and a urca for going up.

Question 4

Why doesn't fiecare change its ending to match the feminine noun dimineață?

Accepted Answer

The adjective fiecare (every or each) is invariable, meaning its form stays exactly the same whether it modifies a masculine, feminine, or neuter noun. Just like in English, it is always followed by a noun in the singular form.

Minerul coboară în mină în fiecare dimineață.

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