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chemă

called /ˈke.mə/

verb#5154 most common

Also: summoned, invited

Example sentences

Fata chemă pisica.
The girl called the cat.
Bunica chemă copiii la masă.
Grandma called the children to the table.
Împăratul chemă pe cel mai bătrân sfetnic al său.
The emperor called his oldest advisor.
Auzind zgomotul, vânătorul chemă în ajutor pe tovarășii săi.
Hearing the noise, the hunter called his companions for help.
Din pragul colibei, moșneagul chemă câinele să păzească oile peste noapte.
From the doorway of the hut, the old man called the dog to guard the sheep overnight.
Cronicarul povestește cum domnitorul chemă la sfat boierii țării, hotărând soarta bătăliei ce avea să urmeze.
The chronicler recounts how the ruler summoned the country's boyars to council, deciding the fate of the coming battle.

Conjugation

Present ActiveSimple Past ActiveSimple Future Active
1sgchemchemaivoi chema
2sgchemichemașivei chema
3sgcheamăchemăva chema
1plchemămchemarămvom chema
2plchemațichemarățiveți chema
3plcheamăchemarăvor chema

Word family

chemarea call, a calling, a vocation
chematcalled, summoned
chemătorbeckoning, inviting
rechemato call again, to recall

Etymology

Romanian "chema" descends from Latin "clamare", meaning to shout or call out. The initial cluster "cl-" palatalized to "ch-" (pronounced /k/) as the language developed, a regular sound change in Romanian. "Chemă" itself is the third-person singular form of the simple past tense, built by adding the bare past-tense ending "-ă" to the verb stem. This tense survives mainly in literary narration and in the everyday speech of Oltenia, a region in southwestern Romania.

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