Romanian Tenses versus English Tenses
Romanian Tenses versus English Tenses

Summary/Abstract: Romanian English teachers should know the Romanian language perfectly. This helps them create the correct connections between the Romanian language grammar and the English language grammar. Although Romanian and English are distinctive languages that do not share the same origins: the first one is of Latin origin and the second one is of Germanic origin, we can find similarities and differences between their grammars. In this article I will illustrate how the verbs from Romanian language take different forms based on Romanian grammar rules versus English verbs and their tenses. The English language verb tenses as well as the Romanian verb tenses are intuitive and one of the most important differences is that English tenses have aspects. The two main aspects in English are: perfect and progressive. In Romanian language, the verb is the main part of speech, it is flexible and it can act as an independent part of speech and therefore it can create the predicate of the sentence. The English verb does not have this characteristic – even in small sentences it is accompanied by other words (in general pronouns): e.g. (Romanian): Plouă / Ninge. / Citeam o carte. – in English: It rains/ It snows / I was reading a book. Such examples and comparisons will continue throughout my article.

• Details
• Contents