# am putea pentru ca să spunem



## margareta9

I'm confused by the above phrase. Initially I thought it meant roughly "we may say", but now I see there's more to it. It is taken from a satirical article on Basescu and the constitutional crisis in 2012 by Plesu, who appears to be one of the few writers to use the phrase: 
"Dintr-un garaj prăpădit, fără telefon operativ, evacuat de la Cotroceni de guvern, parlament şi o bună parte din popor, Traian Băsescu pune zilnic în mişcare ţara şi, am putea pentru ca să spunem, mapamondul".


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## hersko1

No, it's just "so to say" or "we may say"
But it looks like the writer started with: "am putea spune"
And ended with "ca sà spunem".
but it's just "so to say"


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## farscape

This type of construction "pot pentru ca să spun / putem pentru ca să spunem" centred around "pentru ca" is plain wrong and should not be used in proper Romanian. 

However, in that particular context it's used as a pun, a clichè borrowed from the works of the famous playwright I.L. Caragiale who used such fancy but incorrect constructions to portray pompous characters in his satires.

While still keeping the ironical tone but with proper grammar one could say "TB pune zilnic în mișcare țara și, am putea spune, mapamondul." (...and, dare we say, the whole world).


Best,

.


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## margareta9

farscape said:


> This type of construction "pot pentru ca să spun / putem pentru ca să spunem" centred around "pentru ca" is plain wrong and should not be used in proper Romanian.
> 
> However, in that particular context it's used as a pun, a clichè borrowed from the works of the famous playwright I.L. Caragiale who used such fancy but incorrect constructions to portray pompous characters in his satires.
> 
> While still keeping the ironical tone but with proper grammar one could say "TB pune zilnic în mișcare țara și, am putea spune, mapamondul." (...and, dare we say, the whole world).
> 
> 
> Best,
> 
> .



Thanks for the informative and insightful reply!


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