Breakdown of Psihologul pe care l-am ales are multă empatie.
avea
to have
mult
a lot
îl
him / it (m, n)
alege
to choose
pe care
which / that (direct object)
psihologul
the psychologist
empatia
the empathy
Questions & Answers about Psihologul pe care l-am ales are multă empatie.
Why is there an l- in front of am ales? Doesn't pe care already mean "whom"?
Yes, pe care means "whom," but Romanian requires a "resumptive pronoun" when a relative clause has a direct object. You are literally saying "The psychologist whom I chose him." The l- is the shortened form of îl (him), and it is mandatory here.
Could I just say Psihologul care am ales, similar to English where we often drop "whom"?
No, that's a common trap for English speakers! First, Romanian never allows you to skip the relative pronoun. Second, when care is the direct object (the person being chosen), standard Romanian grammar requires both the preposition pe before it and the matching object pronoun (l-) before the verb.
If the sentence were about a female psychologist (psiholoaga), how would the phrase pe care l-am ales change?
You would need to change the masculine pronoun l- (him) to the feminine pronoun o (her). Because o does not combine with the auxiliary verb am using a hyphen, it must go after the past participle instead: psiholoaga pe care am ales-o.
Why do we use multă here instead of just mult?
The word empatie is a feminine singular noun. In Romanian, words that express quantity like mult (much/a lot) act as adjectives and must agree in gender and number with the noun they describe, taking the feminine singular form multă.
Learn Psihologul pe care l-am ales are multă empatie and more in Romanian
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free