Question 1

Why use se respectă here instead of translating 'are respected' directly as sunt respectate?

Accepted Answer

Romanian frequently uses the reflexive pronoun se alongside the active verb to form the passive voice, especially for general rules or statements where the doer of the action is unknown or irrelevant. While sunt respectate is grammatically correct, se respectă is much more natural and common in everyday Romanian for expressing 'are respected' in a broad sense.

Question 2

Why does the subject legile internaționale come after the verb?

Accepted Answer

In Romanian passive or impersonal constructions using se, the subject often follows the verb. This is especially true when the sentence starts with a location or context phrase like Pe acest teritoriu. Putting the subject at the end places the focus on what is being respected.

Question 3

Since legile is plural, shouldn't the verb respectă have a plural form?

Accepted Answer

It actually is in the plural form here. For the verb a respecta (to respect), the third-person singular and the third-person plural forms are identical: respectă.

Question 4

Why do we use acest teritoriu instead of the genitive/dative form acestui teritoriu?

Accepted Answer

The preposition pe (on) always takes the accusative case. For demonstrative adjectives like acest and nouns like teritoriu, the accusative form is identical to the standard dictionary form (nominative). You would only use acestui for genitive (of this) or dative (to this) situations.

Pe acest teritoriu se respectă legile internaționale.

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