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ceva

something /tʃeˈva/

other#46 most common

Also: some, a bit (of), anything (in questions/negatives)

Example sentences

Vreau ceva de mâncare.
I want something to eat.
Mai ai ceva bani la tine?
Do you still have some money on you?
Parcă s-a întâmplat ceva neplăcut.
It seems something unpleasant happened.
Spune-mi ceva despre familia ta.
Tell me something about your family.
A fost ceva cu totul ieșit din comun.
It was something completely out of the ordinary.
Aveam impresia că mai e ceva nespus între noi.
I had the feeling something still went unsaid between us.

Word family

cinevasomeoneundevasomewhere
carevasome, any (one of a group)
câtvasome, a certain amount ofoarecaresome, a certain

Etymology

Ceva is built from ce, the Romanian word for "what", and the suffix -va, an old marker of indefiniteness found across a whole family of Romanian pronouns. That -va comes from the Latin verb form volet/vult ("it will" or "it wants", from velle, "to want"), so the word once meant something close to "whatever it may be". This same pattern gives Romanian cineva ("someone", from cine, "who") and undeva ("somewhere", from unde, "where").

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More Romanian words

tăuyour (informal, masculine singular)bungoodvedeato seecumhowacumnowașăso, thus, like this/that (archaic/dialectal form of standard Romanian "așa")cândwhendoaronly