Learn Romanian › preferă

preferă

prefers /preˈferə/

verb#1874 most common

Also: likes better, would rather

Example sentences

Ea preferă ceaiul.
She prefers tea.
El preferă să meargă pe jos.
He prefers to walk.
Copiii preferă desenele animate în locul temelor.
The children prefer cartoons over homework.
Mulți studenți preferă să învețe noaptea, când e liniște.
Many students prefer to study at night, when it is quiet.
Deși prețul e mai mare, ea preferă calitatea în detrimentul economiei.
Although the price is higher, she prefers quality over saving money.
Guvernul preferă adesea soluții temporare unor reforme structurale, chiar dacă acestea din urmă ar fi mai eficiente pe termen lung.
The government often prefers temporary fixes to structural reforms, even though the latter would be more effective in the long run.

Conjugation

Present ActiveSimple Past ActiveSimple Future Active
1sgpreferam preferatvoi prefera
2sgpreferiai preferatvei prefera
3sgpreferăa preferatva prefera
1plpreferămam preferatvom prefera
2plpreferațiați preferatveți prefera
3plpreferăau preferatvor prefera

Word family

a preferato prefer
preferințăpreference
preferatfavorite, preferred
preferabilpreferable
preferențialpreferential

Etymology

Preferă is the third-person present form of a prefera, a verb Romanian borrowed from French préférer during the nineteenth-century push to re-Latinize the language. Préférer itself descends from Latin praeferre, built from prae, meaning before, and ferre, meaning to carry. So the original sense was to carry or place one thing ahead of another.

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