Learn Romanian › cată
cată
to seek, to look for /ˈka.tə/
verb#1999 most common
Also: to look at, to gaze, to search
Example sentences
Câinele cată osul îngropat în curte.
The dog looks for the bone buried in the yard.
Mama cată cheile pe masă în fiecare dimineață.
Mom looks for the keys on the table every morning.
Bătrânul cată liniște departe de zgomotul orașului.
The old man seeks peace far from the noise of the city.
În baladă, voinicul cată dreptatea cu sabia în mână.
In the ballad, the young hero seeks justice, sword in hand.
Ciobanii cată pășune nouă când iarba de pe deal se usucă.
The shepherds seek new pasture when the grass on the hill dries up.
Poetul cată, în stihurile sale arhaice, un înțeles pe care limba de azi l-a uitat.
The poet seeks, in his archaic verses, a meaning that today's language has forgotten.
Conjugation
| Present Active | Simple Past Active | Simple Future Active | |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1sg | cat | cătai | voi cata |
| 2sg | cați | cătași | vei cata |
| 3sg | cată | cătă | va cata |
| 1pl | cătăm | cătarăm | vom cata |
| 2pl | cătați | cătarăți | veți cata |
| 3pl | cată | cătară | vor cata |
Word family
căutato search, to look for (standard modern form)căutaresearch, quest
căutătorsearcher, seeking
cătaregun sight; the act of aiming
Etymology
Cată is the third-person present form of a căta, a regional and archaic Romanian verb meaning to look for or to seek. It survives alongside the standard verb a căuta, which comes from the same source. Both descend from Latin captare, the frequentative of capere, to seize or take, so the literal sense is to try repeatedly to grasp. Today a căta lives on mainly in folk poetry, older literary Romanian, and regional speech from Moldova and Transylvania.
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