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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-circumflex
Î I-circumflex
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 a father
Ă ə above
Â/
ɨ roses
Î
I i creed
O o door
U u loom
Consonants
C and G followed by either E or I change their sounds.
Sound IPA phoneme English example
C k car
Ce
/ tʃ chalk
Ci
Ge
/ dʒ general
Gi
J ʒ exposure
Ș ʃ sharp
Ț ts pizza
 OR Î
Although  and Πsound 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 Î.
The rule between them is that Î is only used at the start and end of a word.
In the middle, you would use Â.
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
I eu
you tu
English Romanian
el /
he / she / it
ea /N/A
we noi
they (masc. /
ei / ele
fem.)
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
he / she is El / Ea este
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.
bărbatule/
vocative man
bărbate
TO HAVE
Conjugation table for a avea (to have).
English Romanian
I have Eu am
you have Tu ai
Formal greetings
English Romanian
Good day Bună ziua
Good
Bună dimineața
morning
Also, some ways of greeting can be use when meeting and departing.
English Romanian
Hi Salut
Hi Bună
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.
he el dumnealui
she ea dumneaei
ei/el
they dumnealor
e
This difference also adds more polite forms of some phrases.
UNCOUNTABLES
In Romanian, the equivalent of uncountable nouns are the nouns lacking a
plural form. Some exmples would be lapte, miere, zahăr 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
I never eat sugar. Eu nu mănânc zahăr niciodată.
English Romanian
We are eating two
Noi mâncăm doi castraveți.
cucumbers.
English Romanian
breakfast mic dejun
lunch prânz
supper cină
COURSES
English Romanian
entrée/first
antreu/felul întâi
course
felul principal/felul
main course
doi
dessert desert
English Romanian
cocoa butter Unt de cacao
This will come in handy later, as it applies to most English compound nouns
that are also translated to compound nouns in Romanian.
Romanian has specialized names for common animal types. The plural is
formed from either the male or the female form.
English Romanian
pack of wolves/dogs haită de lupi
Masculine
English Singular Plural Rule
carrot morcov morcovi cons. + i
vowel + l
horse cal cai
→i
Feminine
English Singular Plural Rule
salad salată salate ă→e
ea →
coffee cafea cafele
ele
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.
perechi de
pair of glasses pereche de ochelari
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.
ADJECTIVE INFLECTION
Adjectives change their form in order to be in agreement with the noun
they are modifying. This is called inflection, and, in the case of Romanian,
it affects gender and number.
Varible form
Some adjectives like greoi (heavy), vioi (lively), bălai (blond) change form
only in the case of gender.
Plura
greoi greoaie
l
Others like mare (big), dulce (sweet) change form only in the case of
number.
Number Masculine Feminine
Sing
mare mare
ular
Plura
mari mari
l
Most of them, though, change have a different form in each case,
like bun (good).
Plura
buni bune
l
With some exceptions where the plural is the same
like roșu (red), drag (dear).
Plura
dragi dragi
l
Plura
roșii roșii
l
While learning the language, you will notice that most adjectives roughly
follow the above endings with e a few exceptions, e.g. -oaie ending for
feminines in the first group, -e ending being used instead of -ă in the last
group, u turning into i in the case of roșu whenever a vowel comes after it,
etc.
These rules and exceptions will come natural after a while, and, based of
the form of the adjective, you will be able to know all the forms only by
recognizing the pattern. But, for starters, you can look up any adjective in
the dictionary, and expand the section labeled declinări (declinations) to
see all forms.
Invariable form
Some adjective have the same form in all possible use cases, but they few
and some of them are rarely used,
like gata (ready), cumsecade (kind), vivace (vivacious).
DEFINITE ARTICLE - NOMINATIVE-ACCUSATIVE, SINGULAR
One particularity of Romanian is the definite article. Along with a few other
languages like Bulgarian, Macedonian, Norwegian, the definite article gets
attached to the end of the noun. In other words, instead of having it in the
beginning like in the cat, Romanian has a specific ending.
The definite article is used to tell that its noun is particular and identifiable
by person listening. (It's not just a game, it's the game.)
During this lesson we only deal with the nominative-accusative form., with
the dative-genitive form coming in a later lesson.
During this lesson we only deal with the nominative-accusative form., with
the dative-genitive form coming in a later lesson.
Masculine
Masculine plural nouns' definite article is a simple i to the end of the plural
form.
Feminine
Feminine plural nouns are just as easy. One only needs to add le at the end
of the plural form.
VERB MOODS
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 a
II ea
III e
IV i or î
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 ști(to know),a mânca(to eat),a face(to do), and a few
more.
POSSESSIVE PRONOUNS
Relative possessive pronouns are used when only wanting to replace the
owner.
Plura
ai ale
l
RELATIVE POSSESSIVE PRONOUNS
Relative possessive pronouns change form according to the owner's person
and number, and to the owned object or person's gender and number.
Owned masc. Owned fem. Owned masc.
Owner English Owned fem. pl.
sg. sg. pl.
1st person, sg. my meu mea mei mele
3rd person,
his său/lui sa/lui săi/lui sale/lui
masc. sg.
3rd person,
his al său/lui a sa/lui ai săi/lui ale sale/lui
masc. sg.
3rd person,
hers al său/ei a sa/ei ai săi/ei ale sale/ei
fem. sg.
NUMERALS UP TO TEN
The parts of speech that refer to numbers directly are called numerals.
English Romanian
zero zero
one unu
two doi
thre
trei
e
four patru
five cinci
six șase
seve
șapte
n
eigh
opt
t
nine nouă
ten zece
NUMERALS UP TO NINETEEN
Numerals between eleven and nineteen are formed from the numbers
euqivalent to their last digit and the ending sprezece (spre
zece means towards ten) with a few small exceptions.
English Romanian
eleve
unsprezece
n
twelv
doisprezece
e
English Romanian
thirte
treisprezece
en
fourte
paisprezece
en
fiftee cincisprezec
n e
sixtee
șaisprezece
n
seven șaptesprezec
teen e
eighte
optsprezece
en
ninete nouăsprezec
en e
TENS
Numerals of tens are formed by adding zeci (tens) to the numbers
equivalent to their first digit.
English Romanian
twe
douăzeci
nty
thirt
treizeci
y
fort patruzec
y i
fifty cincizeci
sixt
șaizeci
y
seve
șaptezeci
nty
eigh
optzeci
ty
nine
nouăzeci
ty
IN-BETWEEN TENS
To form numerals that are between tens, you need to start with the lower
boundary (23's lower boundary is 20) and add și (and) followed by the last
digit.
thous
mie mii
and
milli milioa
milion
on ne
billio miliard
miliard
n e
Here are a few examples. It's also common in Romanian to use the
prepositon de between multiples (apar from sută) in order to form larger
numerals but it is not necessary.
•șaizecișitrei (de) milioane două sute optzecișiuna (de) mii trei sute
paisprezece (63,281,314)
•un milion șapte (1,000,007)
1, 2 AND 12
You may have noticed until now that the numerals for 1, 2 and 12 change
form. The reason why this happens is because they have different forms
when agreeing with masculine and feminine nouns in case it is used where
you would normally use an adjective.
For example:
•a purta/to wear
English Romanian
I wear eu port
el /
he / she wears
ea poartă
English Romanian
I dress eu îmbrac
el /
he / she dresses
ea îmbracă
Tu teare
You trezești
waking up
Comparative
Comparative type English Romanian
more
of superiority mai pronunțat
pronounced
la fel de
of equality as pronounced
pronunțat
Superlative
Relative superlative requires the use of the demostrative
pronoun cel which has 4 forms that differ by gender and number. The
pronoun has to agree with noun that the adjective describes.
plura
cei cele
l
Adverb or adjective?
•roșu/red
Mărul roșu este al meu.The red apple is mine.
Different forms
Colors can have different forms when acting like an adjective, according to
number/person:
Definite
English No article Rule
article
cons. +
carrot morcov morcovul
ul
Feminine
While feminine ones fall into these other rules.
No Defininte
English Rule
article article
cheese brânză brânza ă→a
cons. + e +
salt sare sarea
a