Page:A simplified grammar of the Roumanian language.djvu/47

Rh

It is to be remarked that the third person singular of this class of verbs always ends in ă:—el da, ‘he gives;’ el mancă, ‘he eats;’ el spală, ‘he washes;’ etc. The third person plural can end with ă or without it; thus—eĭ ară or ei ar, ‘they till;’ eĭ spală or eĭ spăa, ‘they wash;’ and when without ă, we prefer to add an ŭ (mute) to distinguish this plural from the first person singular, when they occur unaccompanied by pronouns: But many verbs belonging to this class have a prolonged form in ez for the three persons singular and the third plural:

So, too, a respecta, a stima, etc. These may take both forms, but there are others which can take only the form in ez, as a vissa, ‘to dream,’ a lucra, ‘to work,’ etc. This occurs also in the present subjunctive and imperative. It can be learnt only by practice.