02.01 Indefinite article
 

The English ‘a’ or ‘an’ is rendered in Romansh as follows:

Masculine: in
Feminine singular: ina (often shortened to in’ before a vowel)
 
 

in giuven	a boy, young man
ina guivna	a girl, young woman
in ami	a male friend
in’amia	a female friend

The word for “a”/”an” and “one” is the same in Romansh.

As in English, the indefinite plural simply leaves out the article:
 

giuvens	boys, young men
guivnas	girls, young women
amis	male friends or a mixture of male and female friends
amias	female friends

 

02.02 Forming questions in Romansh

In English, one of the commonest ways of forming questions is to use the auxiliary verb ‘do’.
One exception is the verb ‘to be’, where we simply invert the order.
Romansh does this with all verbs in all tenses. It does not have any equivalent to the English use of ‘do’.
 

Els chantan.	They sing; they are singing.
Chantan els?	Do they sing?  Are they singing?
Ti vas cun skis.	You ski; you are skiing.
Vas ti cun skis?	Do you ski? Are you skiing?

 

02.03 Questions with ‘who?’, ‘whom?’ or ‘what?’

Tgi? is the Romansh from ‘who?’ (or ‘whom’).
Tge? is the Romansh for ‘what?’.
They are used as in English:
 

Tgi è quai?	Who is this?
Tgi fa il curs?	Who’s doing the course? Who does the course?
Tgi enconuschais vus?	Who do you know?  Whom do you know?
Tge è quai?	What is this?
Tge fa el qua?	What’s he doing here?

 
 

02.04 The preposition ‘tar’

The very common Romansh preposition tar has no one-for-one equivalent in English.
If you know French, then you would generally use tar where you would use chez.
Roughly it means being with someone or an institution or doing something with them in the sense or being at a person’s home, working for a person or organisation, buying something from them, attending their course, etc.
Here are some examples:
 
 

Ella studegia Rumantsch tar signur Durisch.	She is studying Romansh with Mr Durisch.
El lavura tar il medi.	He works for the doctor (at the doctor’s place).
Els stattan tar lur geniturs.	They live with their parents (at their parents’ place).
Nus cumprain paunins tar il pasterner.	We buy bread rolls from the baker’s.

 
 

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