Introduction to Romanian: Lesson 3

A quick recap of what we have learned so far: we learned the words eu, tu, el and ea, their other forms mă, te, îl and o and their stressed forms mine, tine, el, ea. We also know the words for the which are ul if it’s masculine and ua if it’s feminine and we also now know the words for a (as in a year) which is un masculine and o feminine. We will start learning how to deal with Romanian verbs now. In case you didn’t know, verbs are words that describe action (anything you can put ing after and it makes sense then it’s a verb... being, understanding, going, etc.) Let’s start by learning some verbs.

Romanian for understands is înțelege.

This word is coming from Latin. Think of using your intellect to understand. Pretty simple. To use it, however, it is useful that we learn some other useful words first. Here’s a useful word for you:

Romanian for Romania is România.

Then if you want to say Romanian you just get rid of that ia ending. You will get a word that you can recognize if think of it:

?Romanian|român

Right. If you think of how it’s spelled, it’s just like a word for Roman (e.g. a Roman soldier). So Romanian for Romanian is Roman if that makes sense. The final thing that you need to know for now is:

Romanian ending for ly is eşte.

So if you want to say in Romanian you say Romanianly. How would you say that:

?in Romanian|româneşte

Yeah. So let’s get back to that word înțelege which means understands. How would you say he understands Romanian and you are literally saying he understands Romanianly or he understand in Romanian:

?He understands Romanian.|El înțelege româneşte.

Romanian word for speaks is vorbește.

How would you say:

?She speaks Romanian.|Ea vorbeşte româneşte.

You want to say more than just Romanian, right? Here’s one more:

Romanian for English is englez.

How would you say Englishly or in English:

?in English|englezeşte

Now try:

?She doesn’t speak English.|Ea nu vorbește englezeşte.

We have two words so far, one for speaks which is vorbește and another one for understands which is înțelege.

Romanian for does or makes is face.

This root has obviously Latin origins and still exists in English in words such as factory. We still don’t know many words we could be using make with so let’s learn another one:

Romanian for language is limbă.

I like limbistics... what? Not limbs, languages! Okay, this phrase doesn’t make sense. Nevermind.

There is no way to say is making so you say makes instead. How would you say:

?She is making a language.|Ea face o limbă.

Anyway, we know how to use these words for the he/she form. Here’s the trick for using them for tu:

To say tu instead of he/she for these words you simply change the last letter to i.

How would you go about saying:

?You speak Roman.|Tu vorbești româneşte.

Ask (just write as a statement with a questioning intonation):

?Do you speak English?|Vorbești englezeşte?

Good. This change of the el/ea from of last letter to e is pretty consistent in Romanian. Since we’re into it, let’s find out how to get the eu form:

To get the eu form you just remove the last letter altogether.

Let’s get back to making languages shall we. Say:

?I am making a language.|Eu fac o limba.

Talking about the words we have learned, there’s a small caveat:

When going to the eu form the letter t in the beginning of the newly-formed word turns into a c.

The difference in speech is not so noticeable but it is in writing. How would you write:

?I speak English.|Eu vorbesc englezeşte.

Romanian for yes is da.

This looks like it’s Russian influence because the Russian word for yes is the same. How would you answer:

?Yes, I understand Romanian.|Da, înțeleg româneşte.

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