by Today is a public holiday in Romania. It’s Rusalii, or Pentecost.
Pe. Two little letters. A mountain of complications. Outside any consideration of pronouns, pe is a preposition, which is usually equivalent to on (pe masă = on the table; although there are exceptions, such as pe cer = in the sky). Pe mâine means until tomorrow or see you tomorrow.
Pe is also used with direct object (accusative) pronouns, for emphasis. To give extra weight, you use both the unstressed accusative pronoun and the emphatic pronoun. In my previous post in the series, I said that te iubesc meant I love you. If you extend this to te iubesc pe tine, it means I love you, only you, and nobody else but you.
Here are the full set of emphatic accusative pronouns, with examples:
(Tu) m-ai sunat pe mine?: Did you call me?
(Eu) te-am chemat pe tine: I called you
(Eu) l-am întrebat pe el: I asked him
(El) a văzut-o pe ea: He saw her
(Voi) ne vedeți pe noi?: Can you see us?
(Noi) nu vă vedem pe voi: We can’t see you
(Eu) îi urăsc pe ei: I hate them (males or a mixture)
(Ea) le-a cerut pe ele: She asked them (to do something; a request) (females only)
This is actually fairly straightforward; the emphatic pronouns are the same as the stressed accusative pronouns, but with the addition of pe. You just have to be careful to never use them with the dative pronouns which I’ll talk about in my next post.
We’ve so far dealt with the case where pe is optional, but often it’s mandatory. When you talk about specific people, you must use the same constructions as in the list above, with the unstressed accusative pronoun and an emphatic-style pronoun with pe, except that instead of pe el or pe ea, you say pe Dan or pe Maria or whatever the case may be. It’s not just named people that you have to do this with. Mum and the policeman and the kids and nobody all trigger pe. Animals and plants and inanimate objects don’t, however. Here are some examples:
Ai văzut-o pe Simona?: Have you seen Simona?
Nu îi am pe copiii mei: I haven’t got my children
L-am cerut pe medic: I asked the doctor
Le-ai sunat pe fete?: Did you call the girls?
Încerc să-i învăț pe băieți: I’m trying to teach the boys
The last example uses the verb a învăța, which can mean both to learn and to teach. Similarly, a împrumuta means both to borrow and to lend. The fact that each of these Romanian verbs maps to two English verbs, one for each direction, causes a headache for my students.
When you want to say somebody, anybody, everybody or nobody, you no longer use the unstressed accusative pronoun, but you still need pe.
Cunoașteți pe cineva care poate să …?: Do you know somebody who can …?
Poți să chemi pe oricine: You can call anybody
Nu poți mulțumi pe toată lumea: You can’t please everybody
Nu am pe nimeni: I don’t have anybody (In Romanian, you say I don’t have nobody)
With non-people, it’s much easier: no pronouns, no pe:
Am văzut câinele: I’ve seen the dog
Citești cartea asta?: Are you reading this book?
Now we come to another important use of pe. To say the book you read or the boy you hit, you need pe care, which is a bit like of which in English, along with the unstressed accusative pronoun. (This is counterintuitive to me; with pe care, it feels like you shouldn’t need that pronoun as well, but you do.) What’s more, pe is used here whether you’re talking about people or not. Some examples:
Cartea pe care ai citit-o: The book (that) you read
Băiatul pe care l-am învățat: The boy (who) I taught
Mășinile pe care le vindem: The cars (that) we sell
Banii pe care îi câștigi: The money (that) you earn (Money is plural in Romanian)
This is all vital stuff for me. So often I find myself drowning. Next time I’ll try and deal with the dative (indirect object) pronouns, which are another ball game entirely.
