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Introduction to Romanian:
Lesson 1

By Linas

Romanian for I is eu.

Just like Portuguese so far.

Romanian for have in I have is am.

Yup, eu am means I have... Here is another word that is written in almost the same way in English except it has a p instead of an e:

Romanian for time is timp.

How would you say:

I have time.

Answer: Eu am timp.
Not correct. Please try again.

Right. You should probably know that:

The Romanian word for the is ul.

The only difference is that you put the word for the not in the beginning of the word but at the end of it (and connect it with the word). How would you say:

the time

Answer: timpul
Not correct. Please try again.

I have the time.

Answer: Eu am timpul.
Not correct. Please try again.

Do you see that ending ul? This letter l is important because it is also in the word for it:

Romanian for it is îl.

Try to refer to time and say:

I have it.

Answer: Eu îl am.
Not correct. Please try again.

Romanian for not is nu.

The nu word comes before so you say I not have time or I not it have in Romanian. How would you say:

I don’t have it.

Answer: Eu nu îl am.
Not correct. Please try again.

What about:

I don’t have time.

Answer: Eu nu am timpul.
Not correct. Please try again.

You could also connect the vowels and say eu n-am tempul instead. Both are possible.

The fact to note is that îl is in fact the word for him as well. The word temp is masculine (male) and that’s why if you want to say I have it referring to time you are also saying I have him because time is masculine.

Well, fine, what other thing can it be if not masculine? Feminine, of course!

Romanian for day is zi.

Romanian the for feminine words is ua.

Well, actually, there are a few masculine and feminine words for the and ua for the feminine one is not particularly frequent. However, it works for the words used in this course and it is still important to learn this one.

Thus we have ul (masculine) and ua (feminine). How would you say:

the day

Answer: ziua
Not correct. Please try again.

I don’t have the day.

Answer: Eu nu am ziua.
Not correct. Please try again.

Just like the masculine word for it or him was îl, the feminine word for it or her is o.

The masculine word can get contracted to l but there is nowhere to go for a simple letter like o so you don’t contract it to anything.

How would you say referring to the day - zi:

I have it.

Answer: Eu o am
Not correct. Please try again.

We have the ul (the masculine the) and ua (the feminine the) so it will be extremely easy for us to remember that:

The Romanian words for he and she are el and ea.

It wouldn’t be fun if we couldn’t say anything, though, so let’s also learn that:

Romanian for has is are.

Now isn’t that a coincidence? The word for have as in I have is am and the word for has is are. The first one is correct, the other one not so much (should be is, huh?) but it is still interesting. How would you say:

She has time.

Answer: Ea are timpul.
Not correct. Please try again.

Talk about time and say:

He has it.

Answer: El îl are.
Not correct. Please try again.

Since we know that words for it are the same as the words for him and her, how would you say:

She has him.

Answer: Ea îl are.
Not correct. Please try again.

Good. Finally, I want to bring this to your attention that all the pronouns we have learned (eu, el, ea) and the ones we will learn (you), can be and are usually skipped in speech, especially in questions. We will not always do that in this course since we want to learn them.