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A1.3 How to ask the way in Romanian

At the end of this lesson you will know how to ask:

  • where is a place(e.g.address,square,shop) that you cannot find
  • how to get to certain emblematic Bucharest places
  • other useful questions such as: "how far is" and "how long does it take by foot"

In the next lesson we'll teach you how to understand the answer to the above questions, and then we'll wrap it up with the conjugations of the verb "to go" in Romanian.

Watch the following video in which one person is searching for a metro/subway/tube station in Bucharest. In our example the girl wants to find the subway station called: "Eroilor"(translated as "Heroes").
Let's see how one would ask in Romanian: "Excuse-me, do you happen to know where is the subway station "Eroilor"?"

Let's start with the structure of a Romanian question asking for directions
structure of a typical question in Romanian a language from free audio video resources is much better than learning only from books
Unlike English, the auxiliaries "do" and "does" are not used in a Romanian question. See more details in the lesson How to ask questions in Romanian.

1. How to start a question in Romanian

The first part of your Romanian language question: Excuse-me, do you happen to know is always the same regardless of your question.
It is considered to be a polite formal manner of starting a question addressed to somebody that you do not know either a woman or a man.
You can ask any question in Romanian, in a polite or formal manner, by starting it like that.

English Romanian
translation
Audio Phonetic
Transcription

If you don't mind

Literally: Don't get upset

Nu vă supăraţi

/nu və su.pə.'raʦʲ/

Do you happen to know?

Literally: You know somehow?

Știți cumva?

/ʃtiʦʲ kum.'va/

2 Listening
3 Translate

2a. How to ask where is a particular place in Romanian

In our above example the last part of the question was: Where is the subway station "Eroilor?.
Other common places that one can ask for directions include:a hotel, restaurant, ATM, bank, bus stop, square or hospital.

English Romanian
translation
Audio Phonetic
Transcription

Where is the toilet?

Unde este toaleta?

/↗'un↘de 'jes.te to.a'le.ta/

Where is the metro station "Eroilor"?

Unde este stația de metrou "Eroilor"?

/↗'un↘de ↘'jes.te 'sta.t͡si.a de me.'trow e.'roi.lor/

Where is the "Intercontinental" hotel?

Unde este hotelul Intercontinental?

/↗'un↘de ↘'jes.te ho.'te.lul in.ter.kon.ti.nen.'tal/

Where is an ATM around here?

Unde este un bancomat prin apropiere?

/↗'un↘de ↘'jes.te un ban.ko'mat 'prin a.pro.pi'e.re/

Where is a drugstore around here?

Unde este o farmacie prin apropiere?

/'↗'un.de ↘'jes.te o far.ma'ʧi.e prin a.pro.pi'e.re/

Where is the Magheru Boulevard?

this is a well known central Bucharest boulevard

Unde este Bulevardul Magheru?

/'un.de 'es.te bu.le'var.dul ma'ge.ru/

I'm looking for the number twenty nine.

Caut numărul douăzeci și no

/'ka.ut 'nu.mə,rul do.wə'zeʧʲ ʃi no'wə/

2 Listening
3 Translate


2b. How to ask how to get to a place in Romanian

If you are too far away from the place that you want to reach, it is better to ask how to get there.

English Romanian
translation
Audio Phonetic
Transcription

How can I get to the Intercontinental hotel?

Cum pot să ajung la hotelul Intercontinental?

/↗kum ↘pot sə a'jung la ho.'te.lul in.ter.kon.ti.nen.'tal/

How can I get to the Victory square?

Cum pot să ajung în Piaţa Victoriei?

/↗kum ↘pot sə a'ʒung ɨn 'pja.ʦa vik'to.ri.ej/

How can I get to the Arch of Triumph?

Cum pot să ajung la Arcul de Triumf?

/↗kum ↘pot sə a'ʒung la 'ar.kul de tri'umf/

2 Listening
3 Translate

The Triumphal Arch in Bucharest picture
The Triumphal Arch in Bucharest

3. How to ask for other places in Romanian?

Now that you've learned how to introduce your question and say "where is" and "how to get to" let's see how you should pronounce other places that might interest you. To formulate the whole question, you would need to build it up, by saying: "Nu vă supăraţi, unde este...." and add to it the following words:

English Romanian
translation
Audio Phonetic
Transcription

Romanian Peasant Museum

Muzeul Țăranului Român

/mu'ze.ul ʦə'ra.nu.luj ro'mɨn/

Cişmigiu park

Parcul Cișmigiu

/'par.kul 'ʧiʃ.mi.ʤiw/

the bus stop one hundred thirty seven

stația de autobuz o sută treizeci și șapte

/'sta.ʦi.a de a.u.to'buz o 'su.tə trej'zeʧʲ ʃi ʃap.te/

the train station

gara

/'ga.ra/

the nearest hospital

cel mai apropiat spital

/ʧel maj a.pro.pri'at spi'tal/

the nearest police station

secția de poliție cea mai apropia

/'sek.ʦi.a de po'li.ʦi.e ʧe̯a maj a.pro.pri'atə/

2 Listening
3 Translate



Other questions in Romanian

English Romanian
translation
Audio Phonetic
Transcription

Is it far?

Este departe?

/'jes.te de↗'par.te/

How long does it take by foot?

Literally: How much time I do on down

Cât timp fac pe jos?

/↗kɨt ↘timp fak pe ʒos/

How far is the Unirii square?

Piața Unirii is one of the main squares of Bucharest.

Cât de departe este Piața Unirii?

/↗'kɨt ↘'de de'par.te 'es.te 'pja.ʦa u'ni.rij/

Where can I park?

Unde pot să parchez?

/↗'un↘de 'pot 'sə par'kez/

2 Listening
3 Translate

Are you traveling to Romania?

Check out our Practical guide on traveling in Romanian.

Romanian train ticket
Typical train ticket in Romania

12 comments

Which is the cheapest way to

Which is the cheapest way to go from the airport to Bucharest city center?
By cheapest I do not mean getting myself into trouble!

Most economically advantageous airport Bucharest ride

Hi,
In your case the best way would be to take the bus 780 or 783 depending on where you want to go in Bucharest. City center is quite a broad term.
The price of a two rides (magnetic) card is 7 lei (less than 2$ and less than 2€).

The bus 780 takes you from the Henry Coanda airport to the main train station of Bucharest: Gara de Nord, whereas 783 will take you through more central areas (Piața Romana, Piața Victoriei, with the last stop Piața Unirii).

The bus schedules can be found here:
For bus 780 this is the schedule at the airport's station http://www.ratb.ro/pdf_statii/780/780_50.pdf
The same for bus 783 http://www.ratb.ro/pdf_statii/783/783_50.pdf

I'm sure you will manage
All the best

By foot

How do you say "by foot" in Romanian?

English - Romanian Translation "By foot"

Hi,The translation is "pe jos".

Thanks

Thanks for the quick answer

Some help please in planning our time in Romania

We will be travelling some of the time in in Romania on our own by bus and train. And so I need to be able to ask:

Which platform is the train for Tulcea (I assume I must put the standard introduction to questions first)
Is this the bus to Bucuresti? Is this the train for Sibiu.
Where do I catch the bus to Bucuresti?

Do tickets for Romanian trains need to be validated as in Italy? Would this also apply to prebooked tickets/reservations?

Some of the journeys I have planned involve changing trains or changing from bus to train. What is a reasonable time to allow for connections?

I hope you can help me!

Thanks

Roger

Travelling in Romania - Romanian language questions

Hi,
Which platform is the train for Tulcea (I assume I must put the standard introduction to questions first) - yes, you must first add the "Scuzați-mă..." or "Nu vă supărați..." before the question. The pronunciation is in the above lesson.
"Which platform is the train for Tulcea?" is translated into Romanian as: "La ce linie trage trenul spre Tulcea?" . This is the most common way to ask it. It's quite unlikely that one might use the word "peron" in his/her answer, if they do it has the same meaning as "linie" which means "platform".

"Is this the bus to Bucuresti?" - "Ăsta e autobuzul spre București?" - this is informal, but it's the natural way of asking a question on the street in Romania.
"Is this the train for Sibiu?" - "Ăsta e trenul spre Sibiu?"
"Where do I catch the bus to Bucuresti?" - "I suppose you mean where is the bus stop for the bus that goes to Bucharest. Can you please confirm that this is what you mean? There is another word that you will hear most probably: "microbuz" which means mini-bus. For the bus tickets, if it's a privately owned company you buy the ticket in the bus. If it's a public bus you must buy it most of the times before you get on the bus.

Do tickets for Romanian trains need to be validated as in Italy? Would this also apply to prebooked tickets/reservations? - The tickets are validated in the train by the train controller. You just need to have it with you while being in the train. There is no need to validate the ticket before you get on the train. The train tickets are for a specific train for a specific hour and for a specific seat number. I have added above in the lesson a typical train ticket.

The validation is just punching a whole in the paper ticket. It applies as well to the prebooked tickets/reservations. As long as you have a particular date and time for the train, which as far as I know is always the case for Romanian trains (I'll double check to see if no new tickets have been release since I last traveled), you do not need to validate the train ticket before you get on the train.

Some of the journeys I have planned involve changing trains or changing from bus to train. What is a reasonable time to allow for connections?
- It depends. As expected trains usually arrive on time, while buses depend on the traffic. The best would be to take some contingency. It also depends on the distance you have to walk between the train stop and the bus stop. In 99% of the cases I would expect a bus stop next to the train station.
- The best would be to check your particular case. You gave the example of Tulcea, here is the website of the Tulcea public transport where you see all the routes and if you click on any stop along the route you will see the schedule for that bus stop. I believe that more and more transportation services have their timetables online. If you have a particular need just let me know and I'll look it up for you.

Generally speaking, there are quite a few other advises for traveling to Romania. I'll do my best to write a few of those on a dedicated page. I hope it helps

Thank you so much

Thank you so much for the translations and for the very helpful advice about public transport. We are looking forward to our trip very much. We arrive in Bucharest take a train to Tulcea for 3 days/2 nights in the Danube delta. Then it's bus and train to get to Sibiu and after two nights we are taken on a two week nature trek in the mountains of Transylvania and further north. We come back to Sighisoara for two nights before we return to Bucharest.

Your web site is a wonderful resource made incredible by your willingness to give additional language and travel assistance.

Travel (continued!)

Yes I I do mean: Where is the bus stop for Bucharest? Is this: Unde este stația de autobuz spre București?

Now when I go to buy tickets I need to say: I would like two one-way tickets from Bucharest to Sibiu.

I hope you don't mind helping me again.

Thanks again

Roger

Romanian translation - How to ask for a train ticket

You are right, that's the correct translation.

"one way" is translated as "dus"
"return" is "dus-întors"

"I would like two one-way tickets from Bucharest to Sibiu" is translated in Romanian as:
"Aș vrea două bilete dus de la București la Sibiu".

I'm really happy to help, and I mean it. I'd like to help you much more, as I have many lessons recorded but no real time to implement it. I'll do my best over the weekend, to come up with a bit more to help you.

I see that you did your homework and you are going to visit many of the lovely parts of Romania. I hope you'll have a good experience. Romania is a beautiful country.
Prince Charles of Wales is coming frequently to Transylvania.

If you have more questions do not hesitate to ask, I'm happy to reply and help you more. I may not be able to reply very fast, but if you are a bit patient I'll reply for sure.

Thanks again

THanks so much for your help and encouragement. I have my flashcards completed and I look forward to learning from them during our long flight to Europe.

Kind regards

Roger

Advises on traveling to Romania

Hi, I managed to finalize an practical guide on traveling to Romania.
I collected some tips and tricks and would be useful to know before coming to Romania or while being in Romania. Here is the article: Romania travel guide Happy to help!

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