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Romanian "a avea sa..": formal/informal? | ||
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 Language Learning Forum : Specific Languages |  | |
| tennisfan Triglot Senior Member United States Joined 5360 days ago 130 posts - 247 votes  Speaks: English*, Italian, Spanish Studies: German | Message 1 of 2 19 October 2011 at 7:47am | IP Logged |
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I'm looking for some clarification by Romanian speakers. I've just discovered that "a avea" + "să" roughly equals "...was going to..." in English. For example (just some quick ones I found on Google, fara diacritice, imi pare rau...):
"Chiar si atunci aveam un presentiment ca ceva rau avea sa se intample." "Cele 18 "sate noi" care aveau sa rasara astfel au slujit de adaposturi familiilor deportate timp de cinci ani." "Asta a declansat tot ce avea sa se intample in urmatorii 4 ani." "Aveam sa citesc o carte, dar n-am avut timp." etc etc Before I discovered this, I probably would have used "aveam de gand sa..." And that would work sometimes, but not always. And when it didn't fit, I would just try to avoid saying it. For example, "Aveam de gand sa te sun, dar n-am avut timp." ---this seems to be okay. but if I want to say something like this, "Nu stiam ce avea sa se intample," I can't say "nu stiam ce avea de gand sa se intample" !!!! I would probably just have said "nu stiam ce se va intampla." *** So I have obviously been fascinated by this since I discovered what it meant because it seems something so basic, something that I *imagine* Romanians would say about 100 times a day. But then I saw this in Comprehensive Romanian Grammar: "The future in the past is used in Romanian to indicate an action completed in the past, subsequent to another past action. It shows an action that would definietly happen in a future located sometime in the past from the point of view of the moment of speaking, but in the future from the point of view of the first action mentioned in the past. This tense occurs mainly in literary texts. In common speech the future action completed in the past is rendered either by one of the futures of the indicaitve,or by the compound perfect indicative: Nimeni nu ştia atunci că el avea să devină scriitorul cu cel mai mare succes din generaţia sa. Nimeni nu ştia atunci că el va deveni scriitorul cu cel mai mare succes din generaţia sa. ... Okay. So that author says that it mainly occurs in literary texts, and that it is not a feature of spoken language as much. Yet other sources I have seen say that it is, in fact, more popular, sort of like "o sa.." and "am sa.." for the future. So, which is true? I was really hoping this was something used more often in speech than in literary texts. In English, "I was going to," "you were going to.." are used ALL THE TIME in spoken language. Is "aveam sa..." mostly for literature, then, or do you use it often in your everyday speech? please say yes! If so, it would mean I could say things very informally and casually like "aveam sa ma duc la servici, dar m-am imbolnavit," or "aveam sa gatesc pentru noi, dar vad ca ai ridicat ceva deja," or "nu stiam ca avea sa se intample asta"---all of which seem very casual and a part of common speech, not literary at all. Any thoughts would be greatly appreciated. 1 person has voted this message useful | |
| Sergiu05 Diglot Newbie Romania Joined 5034 days ago 2 posts - 3 votes Speaks: Romanian*, English Studies: German, Italian, Hungarian | Message 2 of 2 27 October 2011 at 7:40pm | IP Logged |
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Hi,
I'm not really into grammer, but here are some thoughts about those expressions in Romanian: (a) "a avea de gând să" is a common phrase of everyday speech and it means "to intend to", "to plan to", "to contemplate". Example: Am de gând să învăţ limba Germană. [Intenţionez să învăţ limba Germană]. I intend to learn German language. (b) "a avea + să" is much less used in casual speech and, as mentioned in the previous quote from the grammer textbook, is more appropriate for literary texts. 2 persons have voted this message useful |
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