# i-am



## wanipa

Bună!

Could someone help  me to translate the sentence?

Am avut noroc că i-am văzut!

By the way, how to use i- correctly?

Mulțumesc mult!


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## irinet

Hi,

_I was lucky that I saw them.
_
First of all, *I- *can be Dative (= îi/lui/ei) or Accusative (= pe ei).

1.The short form of personal pronoun in the Accusative, *i-*, is translated 'them' in English. It is masculine, plural form in your example.

2.There is another *i-*, in the Dative, which is singular, masculine/feminine: _I-am spus ceva. 
= I told him/her (lui/ei) something.
_
Secondly_, _it can be used before ar after a verb: *i- *or *-i*.

_*I) Pre-verb Position*
Normally, I'd say that we use this form, either cases, when the verb is in the Simple/Perfect Past with the Indicative/Conditional Mood: I would have helped *them*... =  *I-*aş fi ajutat... or I whispered into his/her ears -* I-*am şoptit.
*II) POST-POSITION*
However, the short form of this pronoun in the Accusative or Dative can be found after the verb, too.
a) In the Imperative: Lasă*-i*! = Let them! (Acc)
b) Fă-*i* ceva, repară-l! Fix it! (Dat.)
*III) IN-BETWEEN*: Mood particle/conjunction + -i + lexical verb
b) Subjunctive, Accusative: Să-*i* fi ştiut =  If only We knew them
c) Present Tense, pronoun in the Dative: Dă-*i* cartea / Vrei, te rog, *să-i dai *cartea?! = Give the book to him/her. Will you give the book to him/her._

3. Similarly, I may as well rephrase, by using the Present or Past Continuous: *Î*_*i *şoptesc ceva. I'm whispering something into his/her ears.
*Îi* ajutam = I was helping *them*.
_
Thirdly, it can sound neutral without any context.

So, as you can see, _*i- ,*_ stands for the personal pronoun, third person. It could be a little confusing with regard to gender or number sometimes. Context may sort things out. The same uncertainty about gender (both in English and Romanian) can be read in: _*Le*-am spus ceva. I told something *to them*. _We use 'le-' with Present Tense, too, as it does not seem to be restrictive to Tense or Aspect: _Le_ spun ce să facă = I am telling them what to do.

More interesting things to be read on this link: Clitic Doubling in the Balkan Languages


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## wanipa

Thanks irinet for your kind explanation!

It's really a lot and I'm afraid I'll have some more questions to ask about it later on. ;-)

Thank you also, for you've resolved me my riddle on the word "am". According to the 
translation, it should be "avem" not "am".

Nice Friday and nice weekend!


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## farscape

Hi wanipa,

Not sure where the problem is with the text you're referencing, except for sie vs ihnen:

Wir hatten Glück -> (Noi) am avut noroc
Dass wir (_sie_) ihnen gesehen haben -> că l-am văzut.

Care to elaborate, please?


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## wanipa

hi farscape,

thanks for reply!

Wir hatten Glück -> (Noi) am avut noroc

Why not "(Noi) avem avut noroc"?

If "am" can replace "avem", then the translation of

"Am avut noroc că i-am văzut!"

"We were lucky that we've seen them!"

is correct, right?

Danke!


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## farscape

No, not really  This is past tense and the verb to have (a avea) is both  the main verb and the auxiliary verb used to form the past tense.

- _avem_ is not the auxiliary form and cannot be used to form the past tense.

For I/we the auxiliary form of *a avea* is *am*. You can find the full conjugation of the verb at dexonline.ro (select the tab C_onjugări_) for both forms of the verb.


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## irinet

I'd say that "I/we've been lucky...."/ "I/we were lucky..." can be translated "am avut noroc că/să... ...".

Similarly, _am fost norocos să îi cunosc/ am fost norocoşi să îi cunoaştem.

_


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## farscape

Brief side note : in Romanian we have both expressions: to be lucky and to have luck, therefore :

- eu/noi am avut noroc (I/we had luck, not exactly proper English)
- eu /noi am fost norocoși (I/we were lucky or were in luck)

Later,


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## irinet

_She *has* all the luck!_ = *Este* foarte norocoasă/ _*Are* foarte mult noroc.
_
It seems that 'to have some luck' or 'to be lucky' needs contextualised in order to find the most appropriate translations. In our language, 'a avea noroc' can be similar to 'a fi norocos' at different degrees of this 'wonderful luck'. 

I sometimes get so lucky.....


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## wanipa

That's great! Now I've got the point.

The word "am" has irrated me a lot, for I thought "am avut / crezut" refers to first person singular I only.

Now I've got that "am avut / crezut" 
means both
"I have seen / thought" and
"We have seen / thought"

Thanks again and nice weekend!


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## irinet

Have an excellent week, too!

Next time, give us please more details about what is bothering you most, for the only reason to avoid getting you more confused with our/my explanations !


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## wanipa

OK, thanks!

By the way, how would you make the difference bt. I and we if someone says

"Am avut noroc."?


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## irinet

You look around .

Context.


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## wanipa




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