avea habar

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Romanian

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Etymology

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Partial calque of Ottoman Turkish خبری اولمق (haberi olmak).

Pronunciation

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  • Audio:(file)

Verb

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a avea habar (third-person singular present are habar, past participle avut habar) 2nd conj.

  1. (informal, chiefly in the negative) to have a clue

Usage notes

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The expression can be negated in two ways:

  • The grammatically expected way is for the object habar to follow the verb: nu are/n-are habar (has no clue), nu a/n-a avut habar (had no clue).
  • As part of a fixed expression, habar can directly precede the negated verb: habar nu are/n-are (has no clue), habar nu a/n-a avut (had no clue).

The latter is the most common choice, but such word order is not usual otherwise.