Personal Pronouns

01

They Are Usually Dropped

Because the verb ending already shows the person, Romanian normally leaves the subject pronoun out. You add it only for emphasis or to avoid confusion. Compare:

• Sunt acasă.

  I am at home.

• Eu sunt acasă, dar el este la muncă.

  I am at home, but he is at work.

In the second sentence the pronouns are kept because two subjects are contrasted.

02

'They' Has Two Forms

Unlike English "they", Romanian distinguishes ei (masculine or mixed) from ele (all feminine). The same split runs through the whole grammar, because everything agrees with gender.

• Ei sunt frați.

  They are brothers.

• Ele sunt surori.

  They are sisters.

03

Subject vs. Object

These are the subject pronouns - the doer of the verb. When the pronoun is instead the object ("me", "him", "to me"), Romanian uses different, shorter words (mă, îl, îmi …) that sit before the verb. Those are covered in the Direct Object and Indirect Object topics. The polite way to say "you", dumneavoastră, has its own topic as well.