Contents

The following Help Topics are available:

Overview of Romanian

Alphabet and Pronunciation

Nouns

Gender and Agreement

Number and Agreement

Pronouns

Articles

Adjectives

Adverbs

Verb Conjugations:  Tense and Mood

Prepositions

Conjunctions

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Overview of
 Overview of Romanian

Romanian is spoken by approximately 26 million people around the world.  In addition to being the primary language of Romania, it is widely spoken in a number of other countries, including Moldova, Kazakhstan, Kyrghyzstan and Russia.  It is a Latin, or Romance language, and for this reason is similar in many ways to French, Spanish, Portuguese and Italian.  Romanian, however, is much closer to the original Latin than the other Romance languages.  It has borrowed many words from other Romance languages, and has also been influenced by eastern European languages over time.

Romanian was written in Cyrillic until the mid-nineteenth century, when the Roman alphabet was adopted.  Many of the letters bear diacritical marks, or accents.  It is a very phonetic language, in that the letters generally have a corresponding pronunciation.


Alphabet
 Alphabet and Pronunciation

A	a	uh as in but
¦	­	er as in dirt
Â	â	e as in happen (similar to unstressed vowel in English)
B	b	b as in boy
C	c	k as in kite (or, when followed by e or i, ch as in church)
D	d	d as in dog
E	e	e as in ten (at beginning of words, y as in yet)
F	f	f as in fox
G	g	g as in go (or, when followed by e or i, j as in jump)
H	h	h as in hand
I	I	ee as in bee
Î	î	same pronunciation as â
J	j	s as in vision
K	k	k as in kite
L	l	l as in live
M	m	m as in make
N	n	n as in no
O	o	au as in caught
P	p	p as in pay
Q	q	q as in quasar
R	r	tapped r, as in Spanish pero
S	s	s as in some
¥	µ	sh as in show
T	t	t as in top
ª	º	ts as in hits
U	u	oo as in book
V	v	v as in vote
W	w	w as in win
X	x	x as in extra
Y	y	y as in yes
Z	z	z as in zoo


Nouns

A noun is a word that names a person, place or thing.

Magda (Magda - woman's name)

Bucureµti (Bucharest)

ziua (day)

See Also:

Gender and Agreement

Number and Agreement

Articles


Gender and Agreement

Romanian nouns may be masculine, feminine, or neuter.  Generally, masculine or neuter nouns end in a consonant, while feminine nouns end in a vowel.

Examples:

chelner m. (waiter)

vin n. (wine)

ziua f. (day)

See also:

Adjectives

Articles

Pronouns


Number
Number and Agreement

There are two numbers in Romanian: singular and plural.

Masculine plural nouns usually end in -i, feminine plural nouns end in -e, -le or -i, and neuter plural nouns end in -e or -uri.

Examples:

Masculine:

lei (lei - Romanian currency)

b­rbaºi (men)

Feminine:

case (houses)

zile (days)

femei (women)

Neuter:

paturi n. (beds)

bilete n. (tickets)

See Also

Noun

Pronoun

Adjectives

Articles


Pronouns

A pronoun is a word that stands for a previously mentioned (or understood) noun.  That noun is called the antecedent of the pronoun.

In the sentence:

The house was badly damaged before it was repaired.

the pronoun it refers back to the noun house (the antecedent).

In Romanian, the subject pronouns are often omitted in speech, because the verb endings indicate the subject.

Vorbiºi englezeµte? (Do you speak English?)

Here are some other examples of ways pronouns can be used.

They can be the subject of a verb.

Noi dorim dou­ paturi.  (We would like two beds.)

They can be the object of a verb.

Atunci o iau. (I'll take it (feminine) then.)

They can be the indirect object of a verb.

Îmi face pl­cere s­ v­ întâlnesc. (It's a pleasure for me to meet you.)

An emphatic form is used after certain prepositions:

Cred c­ aveºi o camer­ pentru mine.

(I believe you have a room for me.)

The forms of pronouns will vary depending on case and tense.

Here is a chart of some of the personal pronouns of Romanian:

	Subject	Direct Object	Indirect Object	Reflexive
I	eu	m­	îmi	m­
you (singular informal) you (singular formal)	tu  dumneata	te	îºi	te
he, it	el	îl	îi	se
she	ea	o	îi	se
we	noi	ne	ne	ne
you (plural informal) you (plural formal)	voi  dumneavoastr­	v­	v­	v­
they (masculine)	ei	îi	le	se
they (feminine)	ele	le	le	se


Articles

Definite Articles

There is no separate word in Romanian for the definite article, expressed in English by the word the.  Instead, Romanian has an ending which is added to nouns to express the definite article. This ending changes depending on gender and number. Sometimes u is added as an intermediary vowel to connect the noun and the definite article.

Singular:

Masculine :-l or -le

prietenul (the friend)

peµtele (the fish)

Feminine: -a

baia (the bathroom)

berea (the beer)

Neuter: -l or -le

tariful (the rate)

numele (the name)

Plural:

Masculine: -i

prietenii (the friends)

dolari (the dollars)

Feminine: -le

baile (the bathrooms)

reºinerile (the reservations)

Neuter: -le

biletele (the tickets)

cecurile (the checks)

Indefinite Articles

The indefinite article in Romanian (expressed as a or an in English) is un for masculine and neuter nouns, and o for feminine nouns.

Masculine: un

un dolar (a dollar)

Feminine: o

o camer­ (a room)

Neuter: un

un bilet (a ticket)

See Also:

Nouns

Gender and Agreement

Number and Agreement


Adjectives

In Romanian, the adjective agrees in number and gender with the noun it modifies.  Adjectives usually follow the noun, but certain common adjectives precede the noun.

Examples:

calul balan m. sing. (the white horse)

bun­ seara  f. sing. (good evening)

un restaurant bun  n. sing. (a good restaurant)

cecurile mele n. pl. (my checks)

Demonstrative Adjectives

Below is a table of demonstrative adjectives in Romanian.  They can be placed either before or after the noun.  When they are placed after a noun, they use the definite article form, thus ending in -a (acest becomes acesta).

	masculine	feminine	neuter
this these	acest aceµti	aceast­ aceste	acest aceste
that those	acel acei	acea  acele	acel acele

Pot s­ întrebuinºez aceast­ carte de credit?

(May I use this credit card?)

See Also:

Gender and Agreement

Number and Agreement

Articles


Adverbs

The negative adverb is formed by putting nu in front of the verb:

Nu înºeleg. (I don't understand.)

There are also adverbs of place, time, and manner:

Examples:

vizavi (across, opposite)

ieri (yesterday)

drept (straight)

The following questions words are also considered adverbs:

cum (how)

Cum este g­tit?  (How is it cooked?)

unde (where)

Unde este?  (Where is it?)

cât (how much)

Cât cost­ pe noapte? (How much is it per night?)

când (when)

Când este urm­torul tren pentru Craiova?

(When is the next train to Craiova?)

Some adverbs in Romanian are formed by adding an ending to adjectives or verbs:

Example:

englezeµte (in English)

from the adjective, englez (English)

See Also:

Adjectives


Verb Conjugations:  Tense and Mood

Romanian verbs belong to one of four CONJUGATIONS which can be identified by the endings of the infinitive forms.

First Conjugation	-a: a ajuta (to help)
Second Conjugation	-ea: a vedea (to see)
Third Conjugation	-e: a înºelege (to understand)
Fourth Conjugation	-i: a vorbi (to speak)
The infinitive is written with a before the verb, corresponding to to in the English infinitive.

PRESENT INDICATIVE

The following tables give the conjugations for the simple present tense:

First Conjugation:

a ajuta (to help)

eu ajut	I help
tu ajuºi	you help
el/ea ajut­	he/she helps
noi ajut­m	we help
voi ajutaºi	you help
ei/ele ajut­	they help

Second Conjugation:

a vedea (to see)

eu v­d	I see
tu vezi	you see
el/ea vede	he/she sees
noi vedem	we see
voi vedeºi	you  (pl) see
ei/ele v­d	they see

Third Conjugation:

a înºelege (to  understand)

eu înºeleg	I understand
tu înºelegi	you understand
el/ea înºelege	he/she understands
noi înºelegem	we understand
voi înºelegeºi	you (pl) understand
ei/ele înºeleg	they understand

Fourth Conjugation:

a vorbi (to speak)

eu vorbesc	I speak
tu vorbeµti	you speak
el/ea vorbeµte	he/she speaks
noi vorbim	we speak
voi vorbiºi	you (pl) speak
ei/ele vorbesc	they speak

There are also two irregular verbs which are common:

a fi (to be)

eu sunt	I am
tu eµti	you are
el/ea este	he/she is
noi suntem	we are
voi sunteºi	you (pl) are
ei/ele sunt	they are

a avea (to have)

eu am	I have
tu ai	you have
el/ea are	he/she has
noi avem	we have
voi aveºi	you (pl) have
ei/ele au	they have
In Romanian, the subject pronouns are often omitted, because verb endings indictate the subject.

FUTURE

In informal speech, the future tense can be formed by adding o s­ before the verb.  (For the third person, the verb will be in the subjunctive form.)

O s­-l vedeºi pe stânga.  (You'll see it on your left.)

In formal Romanian, the future tense is formed by putting voi, vei, va, vom veºi or vor, from the auxiliary verb a vrea before the infinitive form of the verb.

PAST

The past is formed with the verb a avrea (to have) and the past participle:

Am reºinut camera ieri, prin telefon.

(I reserved the room yesterday, by telephone.)


Prepositions

PREPOSITIONS are connecting words that show the relationships between words in the sentence.

Some prepositions in Romanian include the following:

din, de la	from
în	in
la	at, to
pe	on, for, upon
pîn­	as far as
spre	toward
Examples:

Trenul pleac­ din staºia asta la cinci exact.

(The train leaves from the station at exactly 5:00.)

la hotel

(at the hotel)

Continuaºi pe strada asta.

(Continue on this street.)


Conjunctions

CONJUNCTIONS  join words, phrases and clauses together.

Here are some commonly used conjunctions:

µi (and)

ori, sau (or)

nici (nor)

dar, ci, îns­, iar (but)

Examples:

întâlniri µi salut­ri (meetings and greetings)

fript sau la gr­tar (fried or grilled)