Question for Romanian speakers.?

Question

Hi, I'm from the US and I'm trying to understand the logic of your language. I know very, very little but can't grasp some things and I was hoping for some help. The tutorial I'm using may be inaccurate, but they say this phrase, "Unde sunt?",

which as they say translates to "Where am I?". How is this possible? This sentence contains no subject than the conjugation of "to be" is the same as the conjugation for the "they" subject. So what makes this sentence "Where am I?" not "Where are they?"

Can someone explain how a sentence can be formed without an explicit subject?

That's all well and good, I understand that. The question is, however... how do you deceifer who the subject is? In the case of "you" or "we" it's easy because of the verb conjugation. However "I" and "they" are conjugated the same. So did someone decide it doesn't matter who you're talking about?

Answer 1

In colloquial speech , hearing just "Unde sunt ?" as a native speaker I'd understand "Where are they?". However if some words are added , for instance: "Unde sunt aici?" I'd say it means "Where am I (here)?" (~What place is this ?) . (aici = here).

Answer 2

It is common in Slavic languages that the subject is omited (left out) Russian, Ukrainian, Byelorussian, Polish, Czech, Slovak.
I am Polish and we seldom use the subject in sentences. for example: Do you understand?
Czy (ty) rozumiesz? ty-means you and is often left out.


That's right. The subject is left out because of the verb conjugation. The conjugated verb shows the person and you don't have to use the subject. take a looka at this. Conjugation of the verb : understand

I rozumiem I understand
ty rozumiesz you understand
on, ona, on rozumie he, she, it understands
my rozumiemy we understand
wy rozumiecie you understand
oni, one rozumią they understand

Answer 3

Romanian is not a slavic but a romance language, whose origins are a subject for debate. It contains a great deal of slavic, but english, a germanic language, contains a great deal of latin/french words.

I don't know Romanian, but, absent context, I would interpret your two words as "where are they?" None of the romance languages, except French, requires a subject where that is explicit, and what you cite is classical Latin. Granted that Romanian has been very careful to eliminate contamination from its slavic neighbors, here are some close equivalents:

It: Dove sono?, Sp: Donde estan?; Fr: Ou est-qui'l sont?, Cat: On son?

The where am I equivalents are very close. It: Dove sono?, Sp Donde estoy?, Fr: Ou est-que je suis? Cat: On soc?