parcă

See also: parca, parça, and Parca

Romanian

Alternative forms

• паркэ (parcă) — post-1930s Cyrillic spelling

Etymology 1

From pare (“seems”) +‎ că (“like”).

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /ˈpar.kə/
• Rhymes: -arkə
• Hyphenation: par‧că

Adverb

parcă (informal or literary)

1. it’s like, one could say, it’s as if…

   Synonym: zici că

   Parcă s-a întors iarna.

   It’s like winter’s come back.

   Când începe, parcă nu se mai termină niciodată.

   When it begins, it’s like it never ends.

   Mâncarea din avion parcă nu are niciun gust.

   It’s like airplane food has no taste whatsoever.

2. Denotes uncertainty.

   Da, acum parcă am înțeles.

   Yeah, I guess I understood now.

   ―Auzi ceva? ―Parcă.

   “Can you hear anything?” “Kinda.”

   Furtuna parcă s-a liniștit.

   It seems the storm has quieted down.

   El e acum într-un alt oraș, Pitești parcă.

   He’s in a different city now—Pitești, I think.

3. as though

   Parcă îi pasă cuiva.

   As though anyone cares.

   Deschizi geamul, parcă nu se simte că ai fumat.

   You open the window, as though one couldn’t tell that you smoked.

4. Remarks upon a discrepancy between previous arrangements and what is now presented: I thought…

   Să mergem la muncă? Parcă azi aveam zi liberă.

   Go to work? I thought we had today off.

Usage notes

For the meaning of “as though”, the difference between parcă and de parcă is mainly grammatical: parcă is an adverb connected to the previous sentence without any conjunction (asyndeton), whereas de parcă is a conjunctional phrase in itself. Additionally, the use of the former in contemporary non-poetic language is more unchiseled and informal than the latter.

Derived terms

• de parcă

Etymology 2

Borrowed from Latin Parca.

Noun

parcă f (plural parce)

1. (Roman mythology) one of the Fates

Declension

Declension of parcă

	singular		plural
	indefinite articulation	definite articulation	indefinite articulation	definite articulation
nominative/accusative	(o) parcă	parca	(niște) parce	parcele
genitive/dative	(unei) parce	parcei	(unor) parce	parcelor
vocative	parcă, parco		parcelor

Etymology 3

Pronunciation

• IPA^(key): /parˈkə/
• Rhymes: -ə
• Hyphenation: par‧că

Verb

parcă

1. third-person singular simple past indicative of parca (“to park”)

References

• parcă in DEX online—Dicționare ale limbii române (Dictionaries of the Romanian language)