The Impersonal Construction With the Dative Indicating a State of Being

Whew mercy, that’s a handful isn’t it? Just the title alone gives me the shivers. What am I talking about? I’m talking about phrases like Mi-e foame (I am hungry) versus Eu sunt mai român decât tine (I am more Romanian than you). Please understand that what follows isn’t comprehensive, that is to say, it doesn’t cover all situations of similar usage (the dative case … Continue reading The Impersonal Construction With the Dative Indicating a State of Being

Sam Cel RomanMarch 1, 2011March 2, 20119 Comments

Romanian language

Grammar/Language Questions

Many of you are outstanding experts in the field of Romanian language, grammar and usage and I thank you for all of your help in this regard. But some of you are not native Romanian speakers. I was looking through some of my notes here to see what topics I’d like to write about and I’d like your input. Is there any particular part of … Continue reading Grammar/Language Questions

Sam Cel RomanFebruary 28, 201115 Comments

my personal life

Singing in the Dark

Looks like I wasn’t the only one: Romania’s National Bank (BNR) was left without electricity for about 20 minutes on Friday because of an “incident”, as electricity provider Electrica put it when contacted by HotNews.ro. BNR Governor Mugur Isarescu was not present at the bank headquarters when the incident took place. Continue reading Singing in the Dark

Sam Cel RomanFebruary 28, 2011April 19, 2011Leave a comment

Hungarian language

Hungarian Word of the Day: Atom

Just about every language on the planet, including Hungarian, uses the Greek word atom to refer to one of the smallest units of matter in existence. The word comes from a (equivalent to English “un”) and tom meaning “to cut” because originally it was thought that it was the smallest unit and was “uncuttable” or indivisible. Incidentally, the CAT scan (often called just CT now) … Continue reading Hungarian Word of the Day: Atom

Sam Cel RomanFebruary 28, 20114 Comments

CATS! (pisicile)