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The following notes will aid you in case you're having trouble with the
lesson, but feel free to skip them and continue with the lesson. Once you
have a broader context, they will help you put everything together.
ROMANIAN ALPHABET
Romanian uses an extended Latin alphabet. Compared to the English
alphabet, it has the following five extra letters.
A-breve
A-circumflex
I-circumflex
PRONUNCIATION
Apart from a few exceptions, Romanian consonants sound virtually
identical to their English counterparts. Vowels, on the other hand, have
slightly different pronunciations using a more relaxed/open mouth.
The following tables will aid you in pronouncing what are most probably
the most unfamiliar sounds to English speakers, yet they are by no means
complete. See Romanian pronunciation for a more exhaustive explanation.
Vowels
Sound IPA phoneme English example
A
father
above
roses
creed
door
loom
Consonants
C and G followed by either E or I change their sounds.
car
Ce
/
Ci
chalk
Ge
/
Gi
general
exposure
sharp
ts
pizza
OR
Although and sound precisely the same, Romanian use of both letters
stems from etymology. So, by using a simple rule to swap between the
two, Romanian has been able to retain some similarity with Latin, where
most etymons use A instead of and I instead of .
The rule between them is that is only used at the start and end of a word.
In the middle, you would use .
PERSONAL PRONOUNS
Compared to English, Romanian's personal pronouns lack a precise
translation for it. When having a subject that you would normally use it for,
you can either use demonstrative pronouns (acesta (this masc.), aceea
(that fem.) etc.), or simply refrain from using a pronoun.
English
Romanian
eu
you
tu
English
Romanian
he / she / it
el /
ea /N/A
we
noi
you (pl.)
voi
they (masc. /
fem.)
ei / ele
TO BE
In Romanian, the subject of any setence has to be in agreement with the
verb representing the action it is performing. This agreement is called
conjugation and comes with its own set of rules and exceptions. Below you
will find the conjugation table for a fi(to be).
English
Romanian
I am
Eu sunt
you are
Tu eti
he / she is
El / Ea este
we are
Noi suntem
Voi suntei
Ei / Ele sunt
INFLECTION
Compared to English, Romanian is an inflected language. This means that
the words of the language are comprised of roots, which rarely change,
and inflections, or endings. Although not all words change form, most of
them (nouns, adjectives, pronouns, verbs) do.
CASES
Even though Romanian has five cases, namely nominative, accusative,
dative, genitive, and vocative, nominative and accusative, respectively
dative and genitive have the same form.
Below is an example of how a noun forms differ in Romanian but remain
the same in English.
Case
English
Romanian
nominative
man
brbat
accusative
man
brbat
Case
English
Romanian
dative
man
brbatului
genitive
man's
brbatului
vocative
man
brbatule/
brbate
TO HAVE
Conjugation table for a avea (to have).
English
Romanian
I have
Eu am
you have
Tu ai
he / she has
el / ea are
we have
Noi avem
Voi avei
ei / ele au
SALUT!
Romanian culture puts a great emphasis on politeness. Thus, knowing how
to greet is an essential skill for anyone learning the basics.
Formal greetings
English
Romanian
Good day
Bun ziua
Good
morning
Bun dimineaa
Good evening
Bun seara
Good night
Noapte bun
Good bye
La revedere
English Romanian
Hi
Salut
Hi
Bun
Hi
Ciao
Hi
Servus
Bye
Pa
Bye
Salut
Bye
Ciao
POLITE PRONOUNS
Much like in the case of the French language, Romanian has a special
politeness pronoun. If you want to be explicitly polite, you use the
following forms.
tu/v
oi
dumneavoast
r
he
el
dumnealui
she
ea
dumneaei
they
ei/el
e
dumnealor
English
Usual
Polite
please
te rog
v rog
thank
you
[i]
mulumesc/mersi
[v]
mulumesc
UNCOUNTABLES
In Romanian, the equivalent of uncountable nouns are the nouns lacking a
plural form. Some exmples would be lapte, miere, zahr etc. Like in
English, these nouns usually denote substances or concepts that cannot be
separated into individual elements.
When talking about food, for example, you should use the singular of
nouns lacking plural form and the plural for all others, as long as the
quantity is not known.
English
Romanian
English
Romanian
MEALS
English
Romanian
breakfast
mic dejun
lunch
prnz
supper
cin
COURSES
English
Romanian
entre/first
course
antreu/felul nti
main course
felul principal/felul
doi
dessert
desert
English
Romanian
cocoa butter
Unt de cacao
seawater fish
Pete de mare
There are some exceptions when one language may have a specialized
word, whereas the other will use a compound noun, like carne de
vit (beef), or even miss the preposition de entirely, like lun plin (full
moon).
This will come in handy later, as it applies to most English compound nouns
that are also translated to compound nouns in Romanian.
English
Male
Female
Baby
Plural
horse
cal
iap
mnz
cai
chicken
coco
gin
pui
gini/pui
sheep
berbec
oaie
miel
oi
goat
ap
capr
ied
capre
cattle
taur
vac
viel
vaci
ANIMAL GROUPS
Like in English, some groups of animals have specialized names.
Herbivores, for example, will get the name turm which is similar to the
word herd.
turm de oi (flock of sheep)
turm de elefani (elephant herd)
turm de vaci (cattle herd)
For birds one would usually use the word stol.
stol de ciori (murder of crows)
stol de porumbei (flock of pigeons)
Some groups, though, have custom names.
English
Romanian
pack of wolves/dogs
hait de lupi
beaver colony
colonie de castori
bee hive/swarm
stup/roi de albine
locust swarm
nor de lcuste
Masculine
English
Singular
Plural
Rule
carrot
morcov
morcovi
cons. + i
bear
urs
uri
cons. + i
lion
leu
lei
ui
dog
cine
cini
ei
horse
cal
cai
vowel + l
i
Feminine
English
Singular
Plural
Rule
salad
salat
salate
cabbage
varz
verze
evening
sear
seri
beer
bere
beri
ei
book
carte
cri
ei
coffee
cafea
cafele
ea
ele
kitchen
buctrie
buctrii
ie ii
Neuter
Note: Although Romanian has three genders, the neuter gender usually
acts like a masculine noun when being singular and feminine one when
being plural. If you see rules or tables where neuter is missing (which is
probably most of them), treat neuter nouns as either masculine or
feminine depending on their count.
English
Singular Plural
Rule
dessert
desert
deserturi
cons. + uri
message
mesaj
mesaje
cons. + e
menu
meniu
meniuri
u + ri
English
tea
Singular Plural
Rule
ceai
i + uri
ceaiuri
EXCEPTIONS
Some examples like ou -ou don't fit in any of the rules above and should
simply be remembered. In a similar fashion to English, some uncountable
nouns form plural with the use of compound nouns:
English
Singular
Plural
garlic clove
cel de usturoi
cei de usturoi
pair of glasses
pereche de ochelari
perechi de
ochelari
I/II/III
As mentioned in a previous lesson, Romanian is an inflected language.
Each word has its own stem that is inflected in order to convey meaning,
and one such examples is the plural.
Because some nouns' stems end with an i, you can have plurals that end
with iior with iiiif articulated.
leu
lei
leii
son
fiu
fii
fiii
VERB MOODS
In Romanian, verbs have moods that help a speaker express attitude
towards something. (command, wish, etc.) Two important moods that you
will use and should probably remember are indicative and infinitive.
Indicative is the default mood use for factual statements and is the most
common one. Compared to English, infinitive is less used in Romanian (it
has more specialized moods instead), but it's very useful in recognizing
conjugation groups.
CONJUGATION GROUPS
All Romanian verbs fall into four conjugation groups which help when
conjugating. Unfortunately, these groups are divided into further groups,
but they still help form four rough conjugation sets of rules that work for
all regular verbs with very minor exceptions.
The four groups are identified by the way verbs end when in the infinitive
mood.
Group Ending
I
II
ea
III
IV
i or
Irregular verbs
Irregular verbs have different conjugations that don't fall in the
aforementioned rules, but they are usually learned on the fly as they are
not many.
A few examples are a fi (to be),a avea (to have),a vrea (to want),a da(to
give),a lua(to take),a ti(to know),a mnca(to eat),a face(to do), and a few
more.
Masculine
Masculine nouns fall into the following rules.
No article
Definite
article
Rule
carrot
morcov
morcovul
cons. +
ul
dad
tat
tatl
+l
lion
leu
leul
u+l
claw
clete
cletele
e + le
English
Feminine
While feminine ones fall into these other rules.
English
No
article
Defininte
article
Rule
cheese
brnz
brnza
salt
sare
sarea
cons. + e +
a
tomato
roie
roia
ie ia
coffee
cafea
cafeaua
ea + ua