Basic Romanian Lesson

Pronunciation
Romanian is a romance language with around 25 million speakers. It is in some ways closer to Latin than
the other romance languages, as evidenced by the case distinction in relation to nouns.

The Romanians derive their name from the Romans who conquered their ancestors the Dacians in
105AD, as can be seen:

Even though Romanian spelling is very phonetic, a lot of foreigners find the language difficult. The
accent and sounds are very similar to Italian (with slight Slavic influences), so remember to sound every
letter clearly. Also, sounds very rarely differ between words (i.e. the letter s is always pronounced the
same, everytime, unlike in English).

Romnia 'Romania', Romnii 'Romanians' and limba romn 'Romanian language'.

ROMANIAN ALPHABET

like 'a' in "about,"

,
- no English
equivalent - it's
best to hear it
being spoken.
- and are the
same sound in
Romanian.
- is used at the
beginning and
end of words,
and in
compound
words where one of the words begins with the sound (i.e. nendemnatic),
- and in all other cases. The best way to approximate this sound is to attempt to make the
vowel in "ski," then retract your tongue toward the center of your mouth

c (ce)
- when followed by i or e, like the 'ch' in "cheese" , otherwise like the 'k' in "sky,"
ch
- only occurs before i or e, forming the groups of letters Che and chi and is pronounced
like the 'ke' - as in cat or Ki," like in Killer

- like 'sh' in "lush

- like 'ts' in "bits

COMBINATIONS:

Ci, ci - chi as in chief

Ce, ce - che as in chess
Chi, chi - chi as in Chianti
Ghe,ghe - ghe as in ghetto
Ghi, ghi - gee as in geese
Ge, ge - ge as in genesis
Gi, gi - gi as in giraff

Greetings

English Romanian Pronunciation

Bun BOO-nuh dee-mee-NYAH-
Good morning!
dimineaa tsah
Good afternoon! Bun ziua BOO-nuh ZEE-wah
Good evening! Bun seara BOO-nuh SYAH-rah
Good night! Noapte bun NWAHP-teh BOO-nuh
Goodbye! La revedere! Lah reh-ve-deh-reh

Conversational Basics

English Romanian Pronunciation

Nice to meet you Imi pare bine um PAH-reh BEE-neh
How are you? (informal) Ce mai faci? cheh my fahch?
Fine. Bine. BEE-neh
Thank you Mulumesc mool-tsoo-mesk
 You're welcome Cu plcere coo pluh-cheh-reh
Yes Da dah
No Nu noo
I'm sorry Imi pare rau um PAH-reh row
I am... Sunt... sunt
...fericit (men) feh-ree-cheet
...happy
...fericit (women) feh-ree-cheet-uh
...suprat (men) SOO-puh-RAHT
...angry
...suprat (women) SOO-puh-RAHT-uh
I am lost. M-am rtcit. mahm ruh-tuh-cheet
Where is the... Unde este... OOHN-deh YES-teh
...the bathroom? ...toaleta? twah-LET-ah
...the hotel? ...hotelul? hoh-TEL-ool

eu
I

you tu

he, it (m.& n.) el (informal)

she, it (f.& n.) ea (informal)

we noi

you (pl.) voi

they (m.) ei

they (f. & n.) ele

 Eu sunt
I am

You are Tu eti

He/ She/It is El(m.)/ Ea(f.) este

We are Noi suntem

You are Voi suntei

they are Ei(m)/Ele(f) sunt

1 - UNU
2- DOI
3- TREI
4 - PATRU
5 - CINCI (chinchi)
6 - ASE (sha se)
7 - APTE (shap te)
8 - OPT
9 - NOU (no uah)
10 - ZECE (ze che)