Breakdown of Atât substantivul, cât și adjectivul își schimbă forma.
schimba
to change
forma
the shape
își
(for) himself / herself / themselves (reflexive dative)
atât
both (followed by cât și: both … and)
Questions & Answers about Atât substantivul, cât și adjectivul își schimbă forma.
Why use atât ... cât și instead of just saying și substantivul, și adjectivul?
While și ..., și ... works for 'both ... and ...', atât ..., cât și ... is a slightly more formal and precise correlative conjunction. It literally translates to 'as much ..., as well as ...' and is heavily used in written Romanian, making it perfect for grammatical or technical explanations like this one.
Why is there an își before the verb? Doesn't the sentence translate to 'change their form'?
Yes, but Romanian frequently uses the dative reflexive pronoun își to indicate possession, especially for inherent qualities, body parts, or items closely belonging to the subject. Instead of saying schimbă forma lor (change their form), Romanian phrasing prefers își schimbă forma (change the form to themselves).
There are two subjects (the noun and the adjective), so why doesn't the verb schimbă look like a plural form?
Since there are two things changing, why is forma (the form) in the singular instead of plural?
In Romanian, when multiple subjects each possess one of a certain item (each word has its own grammatical form), the object is often kept in the singular. Saying își schimbă formele might accidentally imply that each individual word has multiple forms it is changing all at once.