Subject Pronouns

I You He/She We You (pl) They

Eu Tu, dumneavoastr (polite) El/Ea Noi Voi Ei(m) /Ele(f)

NOTES: 1. The subject pronoun is not normally used before the verb in spoken Romanian. However, it can be used to show emphasis. El merge la cinema. He is going to the cinema. (As opposed to someone else going) 2. If there is a group of masculine and feminine nouns, it is referred to by the subject pronoun ei. Nelu i Lidia sunt aici. Nelu and Lidia are here. Ei sunt aici. They are here. 3. If a person wishes to address someone in a formal tone, the speaker would use the subject pronoun dumneavoastr. This pronoun is conjugated the same as voi.

To speak= A vorbi I speak You speak eu vorbesc tu vorbeti

He/she speaks el/ea vorbete We speak You speak They speak noi vorbim voi vorbii ei/ele vorbesc

BASIC VERBS Two of the most basic verbs in Romanian are a fi (to be) and a avea (to have). Below is the present tense conjugation of these verbs. a fi sunt eti este I am you are he, she, it is suntem suntei sunt we are you are (pl.) they are

a avea am ai are I have you have he, she, it has avem avei au we have you have (pl.) they have

Example sentences: Unde sunt? Where am I? Nu avei o carte? You all don't have a book? Raul i eu suntem acas. Raul and I are at home. Unde este o carte? OR Unde e o carte? Where is a book? NOTES: 1. As you may have noticed, the conjugation este can be shortened to e, and is done so in spoken Romanian. 2. The negation of a verb is done by preceding it with nu. This can be abbreviated as n- before a word starting with a vowel. i.e. N-avei o carte? You all don't have a book? Other useful verbs: a vorbi vorbesc I speak, I am
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vorbim

we speak

speaking, I do speak vorbeti vorbete you speak he, she, it speaks vorbii vorbesc you speak they speak

a merge merg mergi merge a ti tiu tii tie I know you know he, she, it knows tim tii tiu we know you know they know I go, I am going, I do go you go he, she, it goes mergem mergei merg we go you go they go

NOTES: 1. As you can see, the present tense is slightly different in Romanian. The conjugation vorbesc can mean "I speak", "I am speaking", or "I do speak". It is this way for all Romanian verbs, so as other verbs are listed later on, it is understood that the 'am' and 'do' forms are also present, though only the first type will be listed. Sorry if that paragraph was confusing. Basically, the present tenses translate to English in the same way that French or Spanish does.

PLURALS Before we start into the plurals, let me first introduce the basic categories of Romanian words. They are as follows: Masculine singular Masculine plural Feminine singular Feminine plural Neuter singular Neuter plural

You will see nouns and adjectives grouped into these categories. As you see more and more words, you will pick up on certain patterns. (Example pattern that you probably wouldn't know yet: Neuter nouns are like the masculine in the singular, but like feminine in the plural.) That said, let's move into plurals. Masculine The plural for a masculine noun is made mostly by adding -i to the end of the word. romn romni locuitor locuitori Romanian Romanians inhabitant inhabitants

In some cases this will cause the final consonant to change. copil copii acrobat acrobai child children acrobat acrobats

And words that end in a vowel have that vowel replaced by -i. litru litri fiu
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liter liters son

fii Feminine

sons

Feminine nouns are a little more diverse in their forms. Those ending in - form the plural by substituting an -e or an -i. or ore gar gri Those ending in -e, replace it with an -i: carte cri Those ending in -ur, replace it with -uri : prjitur prjituri Those ending in -ie, replace it with -ii : staie staii Those ending in -ea, replace it with -ele : cafea cafele coffee cups of coffee bus/underground stop bus/underground stops pastry pastries book books hour hours station stations

Neuter Neuter nouns have two forms in the plural. Those ending in -ou , form the plural by adding -uri : birou birouri Those ending in -iu , replace with -ii : fotoliu fotolii armchair armchairs desk desks

ARTICLES In English, the indefinite articles (a, an, some) AND the definite article (the) precede the noun to which they refer. However, in Romanian, the indefinite articles come BEFORE the noun and definite articles come AFTER the noun, as a suffix. That is, unless the planets are aligned or all road construction is finished, but we all know how rare those are.

Indefinite Articles
un o nite "a, an" for masculine and neuter singular nouns "a, an" for feminine singular nouns some

Este un om acolo. There is a man over there. Ai un prieten n Romnia? Do you have a friend in Romania? Cumpr o carte bun. I am buying a good book. Cunosc o fat n Frana. I know a girl in France. Nite copii sunt n faa colii. Some kids are in front of the school.

Definite Articles
If the word ends in a consonant, add -ul: om omul oameni oamenii If ending in -, substitute -a: fat fata fete fetele If ending in -ea, add -ua:
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man the man men the men

girl the girl girls the girls

cafea cafeaua cafele cafelele If ending in -ie, substitute -ia cltorie cltoria cltorii cltoriile If ending in -u, add -l: metrou metroul metrouri metrourile If a MASCULINE word ends in -e, add -le: cine cinele cini cinii If a FEMININE word ends in -e, add -a: minge mingea mingi

coffee the coffee cups of coffee the cups of coffee

voyage the voyage voyages the voyages

metro the metro metros the metros

dog the dog dogs the dogs

ball the ball balls

mingile Examples:

the balls

Brnza e foarte veche. The cheese is very old. D-i mingea! Give him the ball! Steaua albastr e frumoas. The blue star is beautiful. NOTES: There are some instances where the definite article would not be used in English but MUST be used in Romanian. 1. When speaking about something in a general sense: Mncarea romneasc este foarte delicioas. Romanian food is very delicious. (Speaking about Romanian food in general) Nu-mi place berea. I don't like beer. (Speaking of beer in general) 2. When showing possession: Prietenul meu vine mine diminea. My friend is coming tomorrow morning. Dani are ceasul tu. Danny has your watch.

SUBJUNCTIVE In other languages if one wanted to say "I want to go" or "He needs to buy", the infinitive form of the second verb would be used (i.e. "to go" or "to buy"). To say these phrases in Romanian the speaker must use a form called the subjunctive. Speakers caught not using the subjunctive are usually dragged into the street and beaten with clubs (ciomege). Examples of the subjunctive: Trebuie s mergem la Bucureti. We have to go to Bucharest. Nu pot s vorbesc ungurete. I cannot speak Hungarian. As you can see, the subjunctive is "s + present tense". Just as with the normal present tense, the subjunctive is conjugated so personal pronouns are unnecessary. Trebuie s merg Trebuie s mergi Trebuie s mearg Trebuie s mergem Trebuie s mergei Trebuie s mearg I have to go You have to go He/She has to go We have to go You (pl) have to go They have to go

("Trebuie" is like the French "il faut", meaning "it is necessary").

You may notice that the 3rd person form (mearg) is a bit different than the normal 3rd person present tense (merge). This change in the 3rd person form will be common when forming the subjunctive, but everything else stays the same. The rules for this change in the 3rd person are fairly simple. Here are the rules and some examples using "merge", "ntreba", and "vorbi"; meaning "to go", "to ask", and "to speak", respectively. Change e -> ea e -> -> e ea -> e ete -> easc Condition middle of word end of word end of word middle of word end of word Example merge -> mearg merge -> mearg ntreab -> ntrebe ntreab -> ntrebe vorbete -> vorbeasc

Constructions using the subjunctive are usually started with "putea", "vrea", and "trebui". Here are some example sentences containing the subjunctive.

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Pot s scriu foarte bine. I can write very well. Nu poi s citeti prea bine. You cannot read too well. Trebuie s vorbim cu el. We need to speak with him. Trebuie s vorbeasc cu noi. He/She must speak with us. Nu trebuie s plecm mine. We don't need to leave tomorrow. El trebuie s plece n seara asta. He needs to leave tonight.* Ea trebuie s plece mine sear. She needs to leave tomorrow night.*
* The personal pronoun is used here to avoid ambiguity, as " s plece" can imply "he", "she" or "they".

Vreau s merg la Oradea. I want to go to Oradea. Vreau s mergi la Oradea. I want you to go to Oradea. Vrem s mergei la Oradea. We want you all to go to Oradea.

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FUTURE The future tense in Romanian can be constructed in three different ways, or avoided like the plague/potholes/Al Gore for those of us with lesser linguistic abilities. If you would still like to use it, the constructions are: 1. present tense + time expression 2. 'o' + subjunctive 3. conjugation of "voi" + verb infinitive Confused? Don't worry, we don't expect you to understand yet! Just keep reading....

1. Present Tense + Time Expression

Here is an example of what we're talking about. Mergem la Salonta mine diminea. We're going to Salonta tomorrow morning. Prietenul meu vine din muni poimine. My friend is coming from the mountains the day after tomorrow. You can see that the verbs (in bold face) are conjugated in the present tense, but the time expressions that follow imply the future tense. Here are some more time expressions that can be used: mine poimine rspoimine mine diminea acuma seara sptmna viitoare luna viitoare anul viitor mine sear seara asta tomorrow day after tomorrow 3 days after today tomorrow morning tonight next week next month next year tomorrow evening tonight, this evening

2. 'O' + Subjunctive
Another way to form the future is by combining 'o' and the subjunctive. For example: O s bem ap mineral la casa lui Victor. We will drink mineral water at Victor's house. O s vezi tu nsui cnd vine. You will see for yourself when he comes. Nu tim dac o s vin i ea. We don't know if she's coming too.

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3. Conjugation of "Voi" plus verb infinitive

The third way to form the future is by using "voi", a form of the verb meaning "to want"(much like english "I will do this"). Below you will find the conjugation of "voi" needed for the future tense: eu tu el, ea noi voi ei voi vei va vom vei vor

The verb infinitive for "to see" is "a vedea". The 'a' before the word is like the 'to' in english verb infinitves ("to see"). The 'a' may be ignored for now, all we need is voi + vedea. See the examples below. Voi vedea filmul poimine. I will see the movie the day after tomorrow. Nelu va vedea luna plin. Nelu will see the full moon. Va veni i Marta. Marta will come too. Nelu i Lidia vor fi la biseric astzi. Nelu and Lidia will be at church today.

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PAST TENSE There are about four different ways of forming the past tense in Romanian. In this lesson we will cover two kinds of past tenses called the "compound past" and the "simple past". We will also review some time expression often used in conjunction with the past. The compound past is usually used to describe an action that happened only once: I ate dinner at Raul's house last night. We went to a movie. The compound past is formed by a conjugated form of "to have" plus the past participle of the verb. The shortened form of "to have" as used for past tenses follows: eu am tu ai el / ea a noi am voi ai I've you've he's / she's we've you've

ei / ele au they've

The past participle is formed from the infinitive of the verb following a few fairly simple rules. It might be easier at first to simply memorize the past participles of the more commonly used verbs (note: past participles can also be used as adjectives! -more on that later). For starters, let's look at the past tense of a face meaning "to do" or "to make": The past participle of face is fcut. You would use this in conjunction with the shortened form of a avea to form the past. Confused? Just look at the examples! am fcut = I made ai fcut = you made a fcut = he/she made am fcut = we made ai fcut = you made au fcut = they made You may notice the past tense for eu and noi is exactly the same: am fcut. You can use the personal pronouns to stress who is the doer of the action. Eu am fcut. I did. Noi am fcut. We did. Here are some examples of basic verbs and their past participles:
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Infinitive Past Participle Definition face vorbi merge da mnca primi bea veni spune avea fi fcut vorbit mers dat mncat primit but venit spus avut fost make / do speak go give eat receive drink come say have be

Here are some simple rules to follow to divine the past participle. There are a number of exceptions to the rules however, so a list of common irregular verbs will follow.

Rules for Past Participles

add a 't' to verbs ending in 'i' or 'a' subtract last two letters of verbs ending in 'e', then add an 's'

Examples: "a alege" = "to choose" alege -> ales -> ales "a zice" = "to say" zice -> zis -> zis "a alerga" = "to run" alergat -> alergat

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"a opti" = "to whisper" optit -> optit

To negate a past tense you add a 'nu' in front of the 'avea' helping verb. This often gets shortened to 'n-'. Nu am but -> N-am but I did not drink Nu ai venit -> N-ai venit You did not come One more thing you should know about Romanian negation is that they love double-negatives! We only say that in dialect in English so I have fun doing it in Romanian. Words you will need to form double negatives are: nimeni nobody nicieri nowhere niciodat never nimic nothing I do not expect this to make a whole lot of sense without a small sea of example sentences, so below you will find exactly that... Ai venit ieri? Did you all come yesterday? Pisicile au mncat oarecii. The cats ate the mice. Noi n-am vzut nimic! We didn't see anything! Ea niciodat n-a auzit nimic. She never heard anything. Ieri am primit o scrisoare de la el. I got a letter from him yesterday Au mers pn la vam. They went up to the border. Am vorbit toata ziua. We talked the whole day. N-au spus nimic despre iganii. They didn't say anything about the gypsies. Maina n-a fost nicieri. The car wasn't anywhere.

AND now for the simple past!

The simple past is used to denote an action that happened more than once or over a period of time. Examples in English would be "We were writing each other everyday" or "I went to the library on Sundays". It is constructed by adding a suffix* to the end of the verb infinitive. The suffixes used are as follows: Person Suffix eu -am

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tu el / ea noi voi ei / ele

-ai -a -am -ai -au

*If the infinitive ends in an i, change the i to an e when adding the suffixes. Example using a vorbi (to speak): Ea vorbea cu noi. She was speaking with us. These suffixes look familiar? They should! They are the same as the forms of 'to have' used in the compound past. Below you will see examples of some verbs with this suffix added: merge "go" singular plural

eu mergeam noi mergeam tu mergeai el mergea voi mergeai ei mergeau

avea "have" singular plural

eu aveam noi aveam tu aveai el avea voi aveai ei aveau

fi (irregular) "be" singular plural

eu eram noi eram tu erai el era voi erai ei erau

You may have noticed that with avea the letter 'a' is not doubled: avea + am = aveam. This is true for all verbs ending in a.
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To negate just put a nu before the verb and shorten to n- if the verb begins with an 'a'. Below are some examples. N-aveam cri. We didn't have books. Nu mergeau la biserc.They did not go to church. Diminea mncam salata de ardei. I used to eat pepper salad in the morning. Primeai scrisori de la ea? Were you getting letters from her? Nimeni nu vorbea cu mine. Nobody would talk with me.

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REFLEXIVE VERBS As in probably all european languages, Romanian has reflexive verbs. In this lesson, you will learn how reflexive verbs are constructed in Romanian and we'll start you off with some of the most important ones you'll need to know. Following is a list of the forms for the personal pronouns as used in reflexive verbs.

Pronoun eu tu el ea noi voi ei ele

Reflexive m te se se ne v se se

The following are 5 of the most commonly used reflexive verbs:

a se uita (la) m uit te uii se uit

to look (at) ne uitm v uitai se uit

a se spla m spl

to wash oneself ne splm

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te speli se spal

v splai se spal

a se trezi m trezesc te trezeti se trezete

to get up / wake up ne trezim v trezii se trezesc

a se ntoarce m ntorc te ntorci se ntoarce

to go back / return ne ntoarcem v ntoarcei se ntorc

a se duce m duc te duci se duce

to go ne ducem v ducei se duc

M spl pe dini. I'm brushing my teeth. El se duce la piscin. He's going to the pool. Ne trezim la opt diminea. We're getting up at eight in the morning. Ea se ntoarce n Ungaria. She's returning to Hungary. La ce v uitai? What are you looking at? M duc la biserc. I'm going to church. Te speli? Do you wash?
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Se duc la coal s se uit la noua cldire. They're going to the school to see the new building. V ntoarcei rspoimine? Are you coming back three days from now? O s te uii la televizor? Are you going to watch television? Te vei duce la cri acuma sear? Are you going to the river tonight? O s se trezeasc dup mine. He will get up after me. Trebuie s se duc i Daniel. Daniel has to go too.

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POSSESSIVE And now for something that should have appeared several lessons ago, we present THE POSSESSIVE! If you are using your Romanian, I'm sure you have needed to say "my car" or "my house" by now. There are three ways to denote possession. You will like two of them. The third...well, let's not talk about that till we have to. Overview:* 1. Possessive Adjective 2. The "AL" Construction 3. Dative Genitive
*These terms were mostly created by us just to make us sound like real linguists. Don't be confused!

1. Possessive Adjectives
The easiest and perhaps the most familiar form of possession corresponds to 'my', 'your', 'his', etc. English my your his/her his her our y'all's your (formal) Masculine Singular meu tu su lui ei nostru vostru dumneavoastr Masculine Plural mei ti si lui ei notri votri dumneavoastr Feminine Singular mea ta sa lui ei noastr voastr dumneavoastr Feminine Plural mele tale sale lui ei noastre voastre dumneavoastr

Remember that words of neutral gender behave like masculine nouns in the singular and like feminine nouns in the plural. Note also that the thing that is owned MUST be in the definite form: The nominative of "dog" is "cine". The definite for masculine nouns ending in e is "-le" thus
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"the dog" would be "cinele". The word is masculine so you use the masculine singular from the chart above: "meu". The possessive adjective follows the noun: "my dog" = "cinele meu". For the definite form of "main" (car) you would change the into an a: "the car" = "maina". Then just add the corresponding possessive adjective from the chart above: "maina mea"(my car). The neuter word Hotel would take the masculine possessive adjective in the singular: "Hotelul meu"(my hotel) and the feminine plural in the plural: "Hotelurile mele". This is of course much simpler for "his", "her", or "their" because "lui", "ei" and "lor" do not change for plural or gender. Example Sentences: My watch is broken. Ceasul meu e stricat. Where is your car? Unde e maina ta? These are not my pants. Acetia nu snt pantalonii mei. D-mi banii ti, cheile tale, i portofelul tu! Give me your money, keys and wallet! Casa noastr e mai mare dect casa voastr. Our house is bigger than your house.

2. The "AL" Construction

If you want to say 'mine', 'yours', or 'his' you must use the AL construction: Male Female Neutral singular al plural ai a ale al ale

GRAMMAR NOTE: Notice that words of neutral gender in the singular behave like masculine words, but they behave like feminine words when in the plural. You will see this pattern often. Now let me try and make sense of that graph for you! If the object owned is masculine and singular, for example, you would use al instead of the object, followed by the corresponding meu form. For example: prietenul meu (my friend) becomes al meu (mine) This is why you need it: If you don't use it, you will sound like a robot, as has been avoided in the following example sentences: "My friend isn't here yet" "Mine isn't either." "Neither mine nor yours is here." "Thank you captain obvious!"
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In Romanian that would be: "Prietenul meu nc nu este aici." "Nici al meu." "Nici al meu nici al tu nu este aici." ('nici' means 'nor' and is repeated before each noun) HINT: try to think of al meu as just being the English word 'mine' although it is two words and feels kind of strange. "A Friend of Mine" Sometimes, just for the heck of it, you might want to say something like: "A friend of mine". This especially comes in handy since the word prieten (friend) could mean 'girlfriend' in the right (or wrong!) context. But saying 'a friend of mine' always means "just a friend". The same, of course, is true for prieten meaning 'boyfriend'. To say this in Romanian, you can say de for 'of' : A O friend prieten of de mine. a mea

An alternate usage is to leave out the "de": Niste prieteni ai mei Some friends(masculine or mixed) of mine. Niste prietene ale mele Some friends(feminine) of mine. Niste scrisori ale lor Some letters of theirs. You can add the de without change of meaning: Nite prieteni de ai mei Some friends(masculine or mixed) of mine. Nite prietene de ale mele Some friends(feminine) of mine. Nite scrisori de ale lor Some letters of theirs.

3. Dative/Genetive Case
The third method of expressing ownership is to use the Dative/Genetive case. This case, like the definite article, is a suffix. Gender Singular Plural

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masculine feminine

- ui - ei*

-lor -lor

*Often this ending is "-ii". We'll cover the important words that take this special ending. The masculine dative/genetive suffix is added to the singular definite form of any masculine or neuter word in the singular, and the feminine suffix is added to the plural indefinite of feminine words. The following chart shows three typical feminine words in the singular Dative/Genetive: Nominative/Accusative fat decleraie cas Plural fete decleraii case Dative/Genetive fetei decleraiei casei

The following chart shows three masculine words and one neuter word in the singular Dative/Genetive: Nominative/Accusative brtbat cine om hotel* Definite brbatul cinele omul hotelul Dative/Genetive brbatului cinelui omului hotelului

*"Hotel" is neuter but remember that neuter words act masculine in the singular. For any word in the plural regardless of gender you add "-lor" to the plural indefinite form. Singular biat om familie Plural biei oameni familii Dative/Genetive bieilor oamenilor familiilor

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fat hotel

fete hoteluri

fetelor hotelurilor

And now to cover those pesky "-ii" words. Unfortunately there is no solid rule, you'll just have to learn which words take it. One great help is that ALL words ending in "-tate" change to "-tii", and words ending in "-are" change to "-rii". Examples: stare -> strii (state of being) facultate -> facultii (university) omenire -> omenirii (humanity) Other important words that take the -ii suffix: main -> mainii (car) biseric -> bisericii (church) limb -> limbii (tongue, language) ar -> rii

IMPORTANT GRAMMAR NOTE: Adjectives can also take the dative/genitive endings! Don't forget that objects owned must be definite! And now for some example sentences! (yey!) Maina bunului meu prieten. The car of my good friend. Prinul pcii. The prince of peace. Cauciucul mainii albastre*. The blue car's tire. Pstorul bisericii noastre*. The pastor of our church. Casa tatlui meu. My father's house. Toate cuvintele ale limbi Romne*. All the words of the Romanian language. A fost rucsacul soului meu. That was my husband's backpack. *REMEMBER that to get the Dative/genetive form of feminine words you must build off of the plural form, even when the word is in the singular. Keeping that in mind, adjectives following singular feminine nouns take plural endings: Fata frumoas = The beautiful girl Fete frumoase = Beautiful girls Fetei frumoase = of/to the beautiful girl Fetelor frumoase = of/to the beautiful girls

One last note: When using the Dative/Genetive form of people's names you use the word "lui" (i.e. not the suffix) for men's names and the regular suffix for feminine names:
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Casa lui Florin. Florin's house. Fiul lui Emil. Emil's son. Casa Magdalenei. Magdalena's house. Fiul Mariei. Maria's son. For simplicity's sake, in the spoken language it is very common to hear people use "lui" with female names as well as men's names. This is especially true for foriegn women's names that don't end in an "a" anyways: Casa lui Ingrid. Fiul lui Maria.

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