Page:A simplified grammar of the Roumanian language.djvu/77

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SYNTAX.
65

The Relative Pronouncare, ce.

The relative pronoun care, ce, occurs more frequently in Roumanian than in English, where it is avoided by a simpler construction: thus—

Omul de care ṭi-am vorbit a venit iar,
‘The man I told you of has come again.’

We cannot translate ‘The man I saw,’ ‘The time I came,’ etc., without the insertion of the relative pronoun between the subject and the verb.

VERBS.

We have seen that verbs may be used without the subject being expressed by a personal pronoun, though the use of the latter is not incorrect:

ar or eŭ ar, ‘I plough.’
cred, or eŭ cred, ‘I believe,’ etc.

In compound tenses the auxiliary usually precedes the verb; sometimes, however, when it is a single and not a compound auxiliary, it follows the verb:

am arat, arat-am.
aĭ arat, arat-aĭ, etc.

When the auxiliary aṣĭ, aĭ, ar, etc., follows the verb, we use the second form of the infinitive:

aṣĭ ave, avere-aṣĭ.
aĭ ave, avere-aĭ.
ar ave, avere-ar, etc.

But when the auxiliary is a compound one, it must always precede the verb:

Vo fi arat or fi-voiŭ arat.
Veĭ fi arat or fi-vofi-veĭ arat.
Va fi arat, or fi-vofi-va arat. etc.