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Romanian
Etymology 1
Univerbation of pare (“seems”) + că (“like”).
Pronunciation
Adverb
parcă
- (informal or literary) 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.
- (informal or literary) Denotes uncertainty.
Da, acum parcă am înțeles.- Yeah, I guess I understood now.
―Auzi ceva? ―Parcă.- “Can you hear anything?” “Kinda.”
Vântul parcă s-a liniștit.- It seems the wind has quieted down.
El e acum într-un alt oraș, Iași parcă.- He’s in a different city now—Iași, I think.
- (chiefly informal) as though[usage note 1]
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.
1960, Ion D. Vicol, “Săniuța”, in Cîntăm pe note, Bucharest: Editura Muzicală, page 90:Săniuța fuge,
Nimeni n-o ajunge;
Are dor de ducă,
Parc-ar fi nălucă.Toată iarna prin zăpadă,
Vine lumea ca s-o vadă.
Săniuța e ușoară,
Fuge parcă zboară.- The little sled runs,
No one can catch up to it;
It feels like going off,
As though it were a phantom.All winter long through the snow,
People come to see it.
The little sled is light,
It runs as though it flies.
- (colloquial) 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 (in 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. Both are most fittingly followed by a clause in the conditional mood, but this is often forgone colloquially.
Derived terms
Etymology 2
Learned borrowing from Latin Parca.
Noun
parcă f (plural parce)
- (Roman mythology) one of the Fates
Declension
Etymology 3
Pronunciation
- IPA(key): /parˈkə/
- Rhymes: -ə
- Hyphenation: par‧că
Verb
parcă
- third-person singular simple past indicative of parca (“to park”)
Further reading