G1.5 I see you - Te văd - Romanian personal pronouns as direct objects
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Knowing which form of the Romanian personal pronouns to use (e.g. mă, te, îl, -l, l-, o, ne, vă, îi, le) can be a bit challenging. We are going to teach you all about it, and you'll be able to master this topic that seems a bit complicated, but actually it isn't. If you do not know yet the Nominative/Dictionary form of the Romanian personal pronouns (e.g. eu,tu,el) we advice you to check out the previous lesson. In the two next lessons will be covering the Dative and Genitive cases.
In this lesson we'll:
- start with an example in the Nominative form of the verb: To see - A vedea
- teach you how to say I see you, You see me, He sees her...
- teach you how to emphasises the person(s) at the receiving end of the action: I see you, really you, pe mine, pe tine
First of all, which is the Accusative case? It's the case of the direct or indirect object.Let's take this sentence:
Eu te văd - I see you. You is in the accusative case.
Stressed and Unstressed Romanian Personal Pronouns in the Accusative case
Romanian has two forms of the personal pronouns in the Accusative case, an unstressed shorter form and a stressed one. Just to help you we have added as a reference point the Nominative form of the personal pronouns:
| Number | Person | Nominative | Accusative Stressed |
Accusative Unstressed |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| singular | 1st | eu (I) | mine? (me) | mă, m- (me) |
| singular | 2nd | tu (you) | tine (you singular) | te (you singular) |
| singular | 3rd (masculine) | el (he) | el (him) | îl, -l, l- (him) |
| singular | 3rd (feminine) | ea (she) | ea (her) | o, -o, o- (her) |
| plural | 1st | noi (we) | noi (us) | ne (us) |
| plural | 2nd | voi (you) | voi (you plural) | vă, -v, v- (you plural) |
| plural | 3rd (masculine) | ei (they) | ei (them masculine) | îi, -i, i- (them men) |
| plural | 3rd (feminine) | ele (they) | ele (them feminine) | le (them women) |
As you can see above, and in the examples below, it is quite frequent, especially in spoken Romanian, that there is only one letter (m-,o-,l-...) that refers to the personal pronoun. Moreover this letter is pronounced together with the preceding or the following word. This means that you need to listen attentively! In the following short video the man is saying:
Cum l-am citit m-am dat jos. - As soon as I've read it I'll get down. (Literally:As soon as I've read him I'm getting myself down)
The unstressed forms can be used without the stressed ones.You can say: Mă spăl.
However the stressed/accentuated forms can only be used with the unstressed ones.
You cannot say spăl pe mine.
You can say: Mă spăl pe mine
How to conjugate the verb To see - A vedea in Romanian
How to conjugate the verb to see in Romanian
| English | Romanian translation |
Audio | Phonetic Transcription |
|---|---|---|---|
I see | Eu văd | | |
you see (where "you" refers to one person) | tu vezi | | |
He sees | El vede | | |
She sees | Ea vede | | |
We see | Noi vedem | | |
You see | Voi vedeți | | |
They see where they refer to masculine plural | Ei văd | |
In spoken Romanian when the subject is obvious it can be left out
In spoken Romanian it is common to omit the Romanian pronoun in the Nominative case eu, tu, el, ea, noi, voi, ei, ele. In written form, except for formal letters, this is also the case that the personal pronoun subject can be left out.
If you want to tell someone You see this - in spoken Romanian this is translated as Vezi asta. In English, there must always be a subject. In Romanian, when the subject is obvious, in colloquial Romanian in 99%, the obvious subject is left out; it's not pronounced. It is possible to recognize the subject by the ending of the verb, as they are all different:
- vezi - can be used only with Tu - Tu vezi - You (singular) see. Vezi cannot be used with another personal pronoun subject
eu vezi- is incorrect - vede - can be used only with Ea or El - Ea vede - She sees. You cannot use vede with another personal pronoun subject
Tu vede- is incorrect - vedem - can be used only with Noi - Noi vedem - We see. You cannot use vedem with another personal pronoun subject
El vedem- is incorrect - vedeți - can be used only with Voi - Voi vedeți - You (plural) see. Vedeți cannot be used with another personal pronoun subject
Noi vedeți- is incorrect
In Spanish and Portuguese it is the same. One would say directly Veo - Văd.
Verbs at the first person singular and third person plural have sometimes the same form
In the table above we have seen: Eu văd - I see Ei văd - They (masculine plural) see Ele văd - They (feminine plural) see Thus if a person would start a conversation with by saying just one word Văd you would not know 100% whether the speaker means I see or They see. Without any other context 99% it is sure that the speaker means "I see" This is typically quite easy to guess from the context. If the speaker is talking about several persons, (s)he needs to introduce the persons first, say a few words about them, or just say They see - Ei văd.
How to say You see me, I see you in Romanian?
First, for ease of learning we will start with an explicit mentioning of the Romanian Nominative personal pronouns (eu, tu, ...). This is correct, grammatically speaking, and is perfectly acceptable in both written and oral form.
I see you, You see me...
| English | Romanian translation |
Audio | Phonetic Transcription |
|---|---|---|---|
I see you | Eu te văd | | |
You see me where you refers to one person | Tu mă vezi | | |
You see them where you refers to one person | Tu le vezi | | |
She sees us | Ea ne vede | | |
He sees you | El vă vede | | |
We see her | Noi o vedem | | |
You see them | Voi îi vedeți | | |
They see him where they refer to masculine plural | Ei îl văd | |
How to say in Romanian: I see her, She sees you, You see us - Omitting the subject
| English | Romanian translation |
Audio | Phonetic Transcription |
|---|---|---|---|
I see her | O văd | | |
You see them Them refers to several men You refers to one person, thus singular | Îi vezi | | |
She sees you | Te vede | | |
Te vede The subject is actually missing in Romanian, however based on the form of the verb vede the subject can be either El (he) or Ea (she) Therefore: He sees you - is also a correct translation | |||
We see them Them refers to several women or feminine nouns | Le vedem | | |
You see me (the form of the verb see is the one of you (plural)) | Mă vedeți | | |
They see us | Ne văd | | |
How to stress that it is me, you, him, her, us, them in Romanian
| English | Romanian translation |
Audio | Phonetic Transcription |
|---|---|---|---|
I see you Literally: I you see on you where you refers to one single person | Eu te văd pe tine | | |
You see me. Literally: Me see on me (where "you" refers to one person) | Tu mă vezi pe mine | | |
You see them Literally: You them see on they where You refers to several feminine nouns e.g. two girls | Tu le vezi pe ele | | |
She sees us Literally: She us sees on we | Ea ne vede pe noi | | |
He sees you Literally: He you sees on you Where you refers to several persons | El vă vede pe voi | | |
We see her Literally: We her see on she | Noi o vedem pe ea | | |
You see them Literally: You them see on they Where You refers to several men | Voi îi vedeți pe ei | | |
They see him Literally: They him see on he | Ei îl văd pe el | |
Romanian pronouns in accusative - stressed form - omitting the subject
| English | Romanian translation |
Audio | Phonetic Transcription |
|---|---|---|---|
I see her Literally: her see on she | O văd pe ea | | |
You see them Literally: Them see on they You refers to one person, thus singular | Îi vezi pe ei | | |
She sees you Literally: You sees on you You refers to one person | Te vede pe tine | | |
We see them Literally: Them see on they | Le vedem pe ele | | |
You see me. Literally: Me see on me (where "you" refers to several persons) | Mă vedeți pe mine | | |
They see us Literally:Us see on we | Ne văd pe noi | |
6 comments
3rd Person Plural Nominative Incorrect
3rd Masc. Plural should be "ei"
3rd Fem. Plural should be "ele"
Romanian Personal pronouns - Cases
Thank you very much,
I've corrected it. It was a wrong copy paste of the singular. Now it's correct.
Where is the accusative pronoun in your example sentence?
You gave an example of a sentence using the accusative case:
Eu am mâncat fulgi iaurt acasă dimineață
But where is the accusative pronoun in that sentence?
the accusative
She just used that sentence to illustrate what the accusative case is before giving the accusative pronouns.
Accusative and Dative cases
The accusative case is only the case of the direct object. The indirect object takes the *dative case (with different pronouns: îmi, îți, etc.).
Hi,
Hi,
You are right, and actually it goes beyond that. In Romanian the dative case is the one of the indirect object but only the indirect objects that indicate the recipient or beneficiary of an action.
In the example
Marius i-a trimis un mail Georgianei de la șeful lui.
Georgianei is in the dative case whereas "de la șeful lui" is in the accusative case.
Typically the indirect object without preposition in Romanian is in the dative case whereas with preposition would be in the accusative case.
I like this topic quite a lot, since it is a rather complex one. The mapping of accusative and dative in other languages is not the same as in Romanian.
Romanians learn in school that the a noun or pronoun in dative case is the one answering to the question "Cui?" "To whom" thus as I was saying above indicating the recipient or beneficiary of an action.
Happy to help!
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