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| delia | Thursday 09th of June 2005 11:38:36 PM |
| Prima lecţie de limba română - Well,i saw that noone took initiative of posting some lessons for the students in this forum,so I took the liberty of starting some short lessons of Romanian,containing different aspects of vocabulary,grammar and other stuff(for beginners)... You should know that I am not really a teacher,so please excuse the lack of method... I hope it will be useful.Feel free to ask or suggest anything. ok,here goes first lesson(prima lecţie): --First, some usual expressions-salute: hi,hello-bună,salut,ceau good day,afternoon-bună ziua good morning-bună dimineaţa good evening-bună seara good night-noapte bună good bye-la revedere so long,see you(soon)-pe curând welcome!-bine ai venit!(sg),bine aţi venit(pl)! cheers!-noroc! how are you?-ce (mai) faci?(sg),ce (mai) faceţi?(pl) fine,thank you-bine,mulţumesc thank you-mulţumesc thanks-mersi excuse me-scuze,mă scuzaţi i am sorry-îmi pare rău --main pronouns: I-eu you(sg)-tu he-el,she-ea we-noi you(pl)-voi they(m)-ei they(f)-ele --the most important verb to know is to be--a fi: I am-eu sunt you are-tu eşti he,she is-el,ea este we are-noi suntem you are(pl)-voi sunteţi they are-ei,ele sunt --main colours: white-alb(m),albă(f)-in Romanian,we have genders.Usually,feminine gender is marked by -a or -ă (articulated or not)in the end,both for nouns and adjectives. black-negru(m),neagră(f) blue-albastru(m),albastră(f) red-roşu(m),roşie(f) yellow-galben(m),galbenă(f) green-verde(m,f) grey-gri(m,f) orange-portocaliu(m),portocalie(f) --seasons: spring-primăvara summer-vara autumn-toamna winter-iarna I think that is enough for now:) la revedere-good bye!! | |
| La_Pluie | Sunday 12th of June 2005 12:02:19 AM |
| - Hehe... Mulţumesc. Those feminine colors are helpful to me. :) Apropo, I don't know what happened to Serg's site. I can't even sign in... =/ | |
| delia | Sunday 12th of June 2005 01:08:34 AM |
| - cu plăcere... don't know about the site,if I see him,I'll ask him... Take care | |
| Monday 13th of June 2005 01:31:45 AM | |
| Romanian Lessons??? - Some people are too active! What on earth is "ceau"? Students should take their first Romanian lesson elsewhere. http://groups.yahoo.com/group/Learn-Romanian-Online/ | |
| patchouli1216 | Wednesday 15th of June 2005 04:53:18 AM |
| extra letters - i know what the noises the other letters mean, but i dont know how to make them on my computer. like the special a or the t with the loop? multumesc for the lesson, by the way | |
| delia | Wednesday 15th of June 2005 02:10:53 PM |
| - patchouli,you have to set Romanian language for the keyboard and then you'll find them all where these ;'[]\ are, near Enter key.good luck | |
| me_eraser | Thursday 16th of June 2005 12:45:02 AM |
| - Here is a list of phrases. Hope it will help you. Could you speak more slowly? - Ai putea să vorbeşti mai lent? What did you say? - Ce ai spus? I understand - Înţeleg I don't understand - Nu inţeleg What does "..." mean? - Ce înseamnă "..."? I don't speak romanian. - Nu vorbesc română. What do you mean? - Ce vrei să spui? It is beautiful here. - Este frumos aici. It's cold here - Este frig aici. It's hot here - Este cald aici. Do you speak english? - Vorbeşti limba engleză? My name is "..." - Numele meu este "..." or Mă cheamă "..." How do you say in romanian "..."? - Cum spui în română "..." ? I'll add some more later.. | |
| me_eraser | Thursday 16th of June 2005 01:00:43 AM |
| - -cardinal points(puncte cardinale)- north - nord south - sud east - est west - vest -relational(grade de rudenie)- father=tată mother=mamă son=fiu daughter=fiică brother=frate sister=soră uncle=unchi aunt=mătuşă cousin(masculine)=văr cousin(feminine)=verişoară husband=soţ wife=soţie -other colours- brown=maro pink=roz marine blue=bleumarin -months(luni) January - Ianuarie February - Februarie March - Martie April - Aprilie May - Mai June - Iunie July - Iulie August - August September - Semptembrie October - Octombrie November - Noiembrie December - Decembrie -Days of the week(zilele săptămânii)- Monday - Luni Tuesday - Marţi Wednesday - Miercuri Thursday - Joi Friday - Vineri Saturday - Sâmbătă Sunday - Duminică | |
| delia | Thursday 16th of June 2005 02:30:05 PM |
| - I have to thank eraser for continuing my lesson:) Mulţumesc.You can post them separately,if you want! | |
| sandman | Thursday 16th of June 2005 03:01:32 PM |
| - i'd love to see comments on alternate month names such as gerar, sărindar, faur, făurar, prier, florar, cireşar, cuptor, gustar, răpciune, brumar, brumărel, îndrea whether those are used, or are old or smth and are there more and what those names mean (except for the trivial ones %) can brumer mean both october and novermber ? thanks in advance %) | |
| delia | Thursday 16th of June 2005 03:22:10 PM |
| - Sandman,these names are old and not used in day-to-day life at all,I think not even in the countryside. They are the following in the Orthodox Calendar: January-Gerar--from the word "ger"-great cold February-Făurar--from the verb "a făuri"-to make,but I don t know why this name March-Mărţişor--it is that thing we celebrate on 1st of March April-Prier-I don t know why May-Florar--from "floare",florar means flower salesman or it is used as adjective here,the one with flowers,the month of flowers Iunie-Cireşar--from "cireaşă" Iulie-Cuptor--it means Oven,meaning it is very hot this month August-Gustar--I think from "a gusta",but don t really know why September-Răpciune--no idea October-Brumărel--from "brumă",its the diminutive form beginning of cold season November-Brumar--even colder:) December-Undrea--no idea Sorry if I don t know the meanings for all,cause they are so old and not used... hope it is useful for u:) | |
| sandman | Thursday 16th of June 2005 03:32:30 PM |
| - yes, very useful thanks a lot %) pity they're not used, i like them more than the regular ones... especially cireşar %) there's not too much of imagination in naming most of the months by numbers in ukraine they still use their own month names e.g. 'listopad' (fall of the leaves) for november 'liutîi' for february (fierce) 'traveni' for may (from 'grass') etc. | |
| bigsarge26 | Tuesday 13th of September 2005 05:30:47 PM |
| Romanian Alphabet - Hiya, is there anyway that you can post the letters with the pronunciation by it? My fiance taught me some of the pronunciation, but I don't remember a lot of it. Or was that in an earlier session? mersi :) | |
| Dawnlorraine | Thursday 15th of September 2005 07:02:36 AM |
| - Thanks for posting these amazing informations Delia. I learned a lot. | |
| stjerne | Thursday 15th of September 2005 07:18:14 AM |
| - Mulţumesc foarte mult delia! Eu studiez si învăţ :) pe curând | |
| Deavai | Thursday 15th of September 2005 08:26:50 AM |
| - Scuzi, I am new here, but was wondering how to change your keyboard to Romanian letters. If you could give me a step by step process it'd be great, but a vague path to do it will also be of help. Thank you for your time, Deavai Never mind, I have figured it out, though with some time spent on messing around with my computer, but I wish to thank you anyway. Mersi Şş Ţţ Ăă Îî Ââ | |
| delia | Friday 16th of September 2005 01:48:18 AM |
| - deavai,i just meant to help u with that,but i saw u figured it out for yourself.Good luck with using those! Dawn and stjerne,im glad that it was useful for u!i want to post the sequence,but dont know how to continue...maybe u can give me some hints?it would be great... | |
| Deavai | Friday 16th of September 2005 05:59:09 AM |
| - Maybe foods and beverages? That is what I did in my Spanish class, after the stuff you have covered already. Also, what does Sângo rece mean? I heard it somewhere but have forgotten exactly where. | |
| delia | Friday 16th of September 2005 02:11:22 PM |
| - its Sânge rece and it means cold blood. sânge=blood; rece=cold ok,thanks for your suggestion! | |
| Deavai | Saturday 17th of September 2005 02:52:52 AM |
| - I see....well I wonder where I heard [i]that[/i]. Ah well, probably a vampire book. Oh! Also if you'd like to know something for your lesson I suggest, though I do not know if they have such things for Romanian, verb charts. Charts that show the congegated(spelling?) forms of verbs ending with a certain suffix that change depending on what pronouns they are used with. We do it in Spanish (I'm sorry if I tend to drone or something) with the suffixes of -ar, -ir, and -er. Doing that may be of better help to those learning Romanian, like me, so that they can get a better grasp on verbs and pronouns. You may also want to introduce the improper verbs that do not follow such rules. I am truly sorry if I sound commanding in some way, I just want to help... | |
| film. | Monday 07th of November 2005 05:15:42 AM |
| - Here are is my example of the verb endings in a 'chart' like way: -a verbs: eu: -, ez. tu: i, ezi. el: ă, eăz. ea: ă, eăz. noi: ăm. voi: aţi. ei: ă,ează -e verbs: Eu: -, (-u) Tu: -i. El/Ea: -e. Noi: -em. Voi: -eţi. Ei/Ele: -. -i verbs: Eu: -esc. Tu: -eşti. El/Ea: -eşte. Noi: -im. Voi: -iţi. Ei/Ele: -esc. î verbs: Eu: -ăsc. Tu: -ăşti. El/Ea: -ăşte. Noi: -âm. Voi: -âţi. Ei/Ele: -ăsc. thats all the endings to the regular verbs. hope it helped! | |
| WillBailey | Friday 25th of November 2005 06:54:23 AM |
| - Mersi for this! Sorry, I am a complete beginner so I will have to learn all those words and expressions a few times. I am new here and the woman I love is Romanian, she's teaching me some stuff too but I would like to avoid asking her translation stuff all the time and learn on my own too. But thanks so much for posting this, it will help me a lot, as it is my first lesson really. Imi pare rau, but I'd have a few questions: is it really important to use the special characters? (a, t, etc. with the small signs) If I don't use them, will my Romanian friends not understand me? And what is their signification really, is it the pronunciation? How can I say mersi a lot? And "Do you want to..."? A last thing, why "I'm sorry" is Imi pare rau, but "I am" is Eu sunt? Multumesc in advance and hopefully there will be more of those lectie. Edit: wow, I didn't realize this thread was so old, I hope there will be some replies! :) | |
| jvz8a | Friday 25th of November 2005 07:21:26 AM |
| - Bună ziua, Will :) There'll be replies. Lore or Delia are around, and they are.. mm.. how to say it?... Great! :) I'm a beginer too, so I can't answer your questions. But.. now that you mention it... I'd like to know the difference between mersi and mulţumesc... are they used in the same way? About the "I'm sorry" and "I am a doctor" question... [the word doctor added by me... and I could even add "I'm going to London" and "I am bored"], I guess it's simply that Romanian deals with it in a different way. Spanish (and Romanian and Spanish are closer than English to any of them) does it too. In the examples with "I am..." none will be translated in the same way [only a wild guess though...] Servus! | |
| nebraskanspy | Friday 25th of November 2005 08:56:25 AM |
| - Mersi for all of this... I have a feeling that a lot of us are beginners! :P | |
| lorelai | Friday 25th of November 2005 12:33:34 PM |
| - Salut Will, Welcome to Phrasebase and to the Romanian forum! :) Your motivation for wanting to learn Romanian is really nice. I hope you'll be able to find here the support you need. I'm not sorry you have questions! :p They will only help you (and others) learn more. Here we go: -I'd say it's pretty important to use "diacritics" (this is how the speacial characters are called). In all honesty, native speakers would not have any problems understanding you, it would just make things more complicated for yourself. I assume you mean not using them in writing because when it comes to speaking (pronunciation), there's a whole different question. These diacritics are standalone, full letters in Romanian (not like accents in French, for example) and the pronunciation of "â", let's say, it's completely different from the one of "a". It really wouldn't make sense to exclude 5 letters from the alphabet of a language that you're learning, right? :) - "Mersi a lot" = Mulţumesc/mersi mult or Mulţumesc/mersi foarte mult (Thank you very much.) "Do you want to?" - Vrei să .(verb in the conjunctive mood).? (when addressing one person) and Vreţi să...? (when using a polite tone or addressing 2 or more persons). - About the difference between "Îmi pare rău" and "(Eu) sunt" - The personal pronoun for the first person singular in Romanian is indeed "eu"; However, in the expression "îmi pare rău" the verb (a îi părea) is a reflexive verb (meaning the action of such a verb is reflected back on the subject itself). There are 2 types of reflexive verbs in Romanian and this kind is conjugated like this: (mie) îmi pare rău (ţie) îţi pare rău (lui/ei) îi pare rău (nouă) ne pare rău (vouă) vă pare rău (lor/lor) le pare rău The pronouns I placed between parantheses are usually dropped. - Javi, no, there's absolutely no difference between "mulţumesc" and "mersi"; the latter was just adopted form the French "merci". By the way, I loved the "Servus" thing :); I don't get to hear it often here in Bucharest but it's widely used in central and western Romania, as Delia can probably tell you and I kind of missed it. OK, that should be about it for now. I hope it will be of some use to you. Should you have any others, you're always welcome to ask. We even have a dedicated thread here: [url=http://www.phrasebase.com/forum/read.php?TID=10261]Întrebări şi răspunsuri (Questions and answers)[/url]. Nebraskanspy, could I kindly ask you to downsize your lovely avatar a little. Thank you! :) Once again, Will, we're happy that you've decided to join us! Please let us know when we can help! | |
| WillBailey | Friday 25th of November 2005 05:39:42 PM |
| - Kinda hard to read with nebraskanspy's avatar but mersi mult for your answer lorelai. It's funny because I have found some related words between French and Romanian. "Mersi mult" makes me think of "Moult merci", even though it's not really used anymore it actually means thanks a lot too! ;) About the diacritics, I checked the alphabet thread AFTER writing my post so I had no idea they were different letters. Who said French was the hardest language to learn? Just kidding. ;) I'm gonna have to force myself to use these special letters, I've got the Romanian keyboard thing installed on my computer so I'll give it a try. Mulţumesc. Nice. After Vrei să, can I just use the infinitive form of the verb, as in "Do you want to go out?". Also, how can I say "my"? I don't think I've seen a thread with the possessive pronouns. I did bookmark some sites though. If I want to say "my pen", I should say "-pen- meu", but if I want to say "my car", I should say "-car- mea" (sorry I don't have vocabulary yet) because it's feminine right? I think I understood for Îmi pare rău. Even though it means I'm sorry, it's kinda like Je m'excuse in French, which is a reflexive verb too. I thought we could use the "I am" form and just add and adjective ("sorry"). So if I wanna say, "I'm happy", "Eu sunt -happy-" would work right, since it's not a reflexive verb? You're putting the pronouns in parenthesis, does it mean when you talk you don't actually pronounce them (when you conjugate a verb I suppose)? Very interesting. Btw, sorry for all the questions here, I will post my next questions in the dedicated thread. Mersi. :) | |
| delia | Friday 25th of November 2005 06:47:06 PM |
| - [quote][i]Originally posted by lorelai[/i] - Javi, no, there's absolutely no difference between "mulţumesc" and "mersi"; the latter was just adopted form the French "merci". By the way, I loved the "Servus" thing :); I don't get to hear it often here in Bucharest but it's widely used in central and western Romania, as Delia can probably tell you and I kind of missed it. [/quote] I don't mean to make corrections or anything, but in my opinion,there is a slight difference between "Mersi" and "mulţumesc".I would say the latter -which is the literary one- is used mostly in formal situations and it's more polite, while "mersi" is more informal, friendlier. About "servus": I like it too and I use it, but not very often, as I am not originally from Cluj.It's the influence of the Hungarians who live in this region. welcome to the newcomers!!! | |
| spilka | Friday 25th of November 2005 07:02:47 PM |
| - As far as I know, Germans "servus" use too, and it originates from Latin. Hungarians therefore have learnt it in from Romanians. | |
| delia | Friday 25th of November 2005 07:18:40 PM |
| - As far as I know,the Hungarians gave it to us.It may originate from Latin,but we didnt normally use it. As for the Germans, i really dont know,but i doubt it. | |
| spilka | Friday 25th of November 2005 07:29:04 PM |
| - And I think that Romanians liked more "salut" and forgot to use "servus". But Hungarians felt in love with "servus" and started to use it and forgot their original ugro-finnish greeting. And later gave it to Romanians like a lost child. | |
| delia | Friday 25th of November 2005 07:53:59 PM |
| - Too bad its being used only in Transilvania region... | |
| spilka | Friday 25th of November 2005 07:58:08 PM |
| - Not only there. It's used also in Banat :p | |
| delia | Friday 25th of November 2005 08:00:14 PM |
| - Ai dreptate. Sunt o ignorantă:) | |
| spilka | Friday 25th of November 2005 08:04:38 PM |
| - Cu Spilka nu este indicat să se bată :D | |
| delia | Friday 25th of November 2005 08:08:21 PM |
| - [quote][i]Originally posted by spilka[/i] Cu Spilka nu este indicat să [b]te baţi[/b] :D[/quote] I know!!! | |
| lorelai | Saturday 26th of November 2005 02:13:12 AM |
| - [quote][i]Originally posted by WillBailey[/i] It's funny because I have found some related words between French and Romanian. "Mersi mult" makes me think of "Moult merci", even though it's not really used anymore it actually means thanks a lot too! About the diacritics, I checked the alphabet thread AFTER writing my post so I had no idea they were different letters. Who said French was the hardest language to learn? Just kidding. I'm gonna have to force myself to use these special letters, I've got the Romanian keyboard thing installed on my computer so I'll give it a try. Mulţumesc. Nice. After Vrei să, can I just use the infinitive form of the verb, as in "Do you want to go out?". Also, how can I say "my"? I don't think I've seen a thread with the possessive pronouns. I did bookmark some sites though. If I want to say "my pen", I should say "-pen- meu", but if I want to say "my car", I should say "-car- mea" (sorry I don't have vocabulary yet) because it's feminine right? I think I understood for Îmi pare rău. Even though it means I'm sorry, it's kinda like Je m'excuse in French, which is a reflexive verb too. I thought we could use the "I am" form and just add and adjective ("sorry"). So if I wanna say, "I'm happy", "Eu sunt -happy-" would work right, since it's not a reflexive verb? You're putting the pronouns in parenthesis, does it mean when you talk you don't actually pronounce them (when you conjugate a verb I suppose)? Very interesting. Btw, sorry for all the questions here, I will post my next questions in the dedicated thread. Mersi.[/quote] Hello again Will, But of course you've found similiarities between French and Romanian. As you learn more about the latter you'll uncover many more. Trust me, knowing French represents an important downpayment for acquiring Romanian. :) I'm glad you're trying to befriend our diacritics. It really only takes some getting used to; and since you already can produce them on your computer...piece of cake. :) About the "Do you want to..." phrase, we don't use the infinite in this situation, but the conjunctive. You can always recognise this mood by the "să" particle placed before the verb. The good news is that the present conjunctiveis formed exactly as the present simple tense (indicative mood) in 98% of cases (there are a few irregular ones in the third person, singular, but you'll have plenty of time to worry about these :D). So, once you've learned how to conjugate verbs in the first tense anyone ever learns, you know the subjunctive also. :) So, "Do you want to go out?" would be "Vrei să ieşim în oraş?" or "Vreţi să ieşim în oraş?" I see you've already got the hang of gender of nouns in Romanian. :) You're exactly right, we say "pixul meu" - my pen but "maşina mea" - my car, because "pix" is a masculine noun and "maşină" a feminine one (What did I tell you about those similarities with French :p). There's also a third gender in Romanian: neuter. With neuter nouns we use the masculine form for singular and feminine form for plural, because this type of nouns look like masculine ones when singular and like feminine ones when in plural. (E.g: we'll say "paharul meu" - my glass but "paharele mele" - my glasses.) I knew you'd be able to relate to reflexive verbs. :) And yes, you can say "(Eu) sunt fericit" - I am happy. I put the pronoun between paranthesis because, indeed, it would not normally be used (in spoken but also in written language most of the times), unless you really want to emphasize who the subject of the sentence is. You realy don't need the pronouns, as the inflected forms of the verbs will tell you what it is all about. Oh, and I did not mean to criticise you for asking your questions in this thread, I just wanted to let you know there was such a thread. Wherever you chose to, please ask any further questions, I hope we'll be able to help you more! [quote][i]Originally posted by Spilka [/i] And I think that Romanians liked more "salut" and forgot to use "servus". But Hungarians felt in love with "servus" and started to use it and forgot their original ugro-finnish greeting. And later gave it to Romanians like a lost child. [/quote] Loool. But I do belive you were right in your first explanation. We did inherit "servus" form Latin...via Deutsch, where it is still used. Ceau! (another word for "Hello", "Goodbye" used in the absolute best region of Romania, Banat :D) God, how I hate that ****** smiley limit right now!!!!! | |
| delia | Monday 28th of November 2005 12:08:18 AM |
| - I'll post here just cause I want to reach the next page faster and avoid the huge avatar:) | |
| Bogdan_HC | Sunday 04th of December 2005 07:21:21 AM |
| - [quote][i]Originally posted by spilka[/i] Not only there. It's used also in Banat :p[/quote] Lol, but Banat is in Transylvania.... http://www.mythinglinks.org/Hungary~Transylvania~R95~harta.jpg | |
| lorelai | Sunday 04th of December 2005 08:39:45 AM |
| - True, if you want to consider the three major historical regions of Romania, Transyvania, Wallachia and Moldova. But I think we can agree that the Banat region enjoys a stand-alone status, even inside Transylvania, in most clasiffications. Frankly, where would you usually say Timişoara is, in Transylvania or...in Banat? :) | |
| delia | Tuesday 13th of December 2005 04:10:02 AM |
| - post(still trying to get to the next page...) | |
| Oboesapien | Friday 10th of February 2006 06:21:52 AM |
| Newbie - I'm new to Romanian, and I don't know anyone who speaks it...English is my native language. Would it be possible for anyone to write out a pronunciation guide (like 'v' being pronounced 'w' in Latin). If this has already been done somewhere in the forum that you know of, could you post a link. Thanks in advance... As always, Sincere, Oboesapien | |
| etarkoo | Friday 10th of February 2006 08:40:37 AM |
| - http://www.omniglot.com/writing/romanian.htm and for others wondering on how its pronounced.. http://www.geocities.com/romanianlessons/Lesson1.htm | |
| delia | Friday 10th of February 2006 03:13:03 PM |
| - Hi Oboesapien and Etarkoo! Here's a link with the Romanian Alphabet here on the Romanian forum: http://www.phrasebase.com/forum/read.php?TID=9411#101358 | |
