Breakdown of Am mers la circ aseară.
avea
to have
merge
to go / to run (of a machine)
la
at / to
aseară
last night
Questions & Answers about Am mers la circ aseară.
The English translation says 'We went', but couldn't am mers also mean 'I went'?
Yes, it absolutely can. In the Romanian past tense (perfect compus), the auxiliary word am is used for both the first-person singular (I) and the first-person plural (we). Because the subject pronouns eu and noi are usually dropped, you have to rely entirely on context. As a standalone sentence, 'I went to the circus last night' is an equally valid translation.
Could I use the reflexive verb a se duce here and say ne-am dus instead of am mers?
Yes, ne-am dus is perfectly natural here and interchangeable with am mers. While a merge sometimes emphasizes the physical act of moving or walking, and a se duce focuses more on the destination or leaving, native speakers use both interchangeably for everyday trips to venues like the circus.
Is there any difference between using aseară and saying ieri seară?
There is no difference in meaning or register; both mean 'last night' or 'yesterday evening' and are completely interchangeable. Aseară is simply a fused, single-word version that is very common in spoken Romanian.
Why do we use the preposition la here instead of în to say 'to the'?