A1.3 How to ask the way in Romanian
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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.
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
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: Not you upset | Nu vă supăraţi | | |
Do you happen to know? Literally: You know somehow? | Știți cumva? | |
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? | | |
Where is the metro station "Eroilor"? | Unde este stația de metrou "Eroilor"? | | |
Where is the "Intercontinental" hotel? | Unde este hotelul Intercontinental? | | |
Where is an ATM around here? | Unde este un bancomat prin apropiere? | | |
Where is a drugstore around here? | Unde este o farmacie prin apropiere? | | |
Where is the Magheru Boulevard? this is a well known central Bucharest boulevard | Unde este Bulevardul Magheru? | | |
I'm looking for the number twenty nine. | Caut numărul douăzeci și nouă | |
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? | | |
How can I get to the Victory square? | Cum pot să ajung în Piaţa Victoriei? | | |
How can I get to the Arch of Triumph? | Cum pot să ajung la Arcul de Triumf? | |
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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 | | |
Cişmigiu park | Parcul Cișmigiu | | |
the bus stop one hundred thirty seven | stația de autobuz o sută treizeci și șapte | | |
the train station | gara | | |
the nearest hospital | cel mai apropiat spital | | |
the nearest police station | secția de poliție cea mai apropiată | |
Other questions in Romanian
English | Romanian translation |
Audio | Phonetic Transcription |
---|---|---|---|
Is it far? | Este departe? | | |
How long does it take by foot? Literally: How much time I do on down | Cât timp fac pe jos? | | |
How far is the Unirii square? Piața Unirii is one of the main squares of Bucharest. | Cât de departe este Piața Unirii? | | |
Where can I park? | Unde pot să parchez? | |
Are you traveling to Romania?
Check out our Practical guide on traveling in Romanian.
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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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