A0.1 Common Romanian words and basic phrases
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| Bucharest National Theater |
- Essential Romanian words and phrases (Yes, No, Thank you, Please)
- Romanian greetings (Hello, How are you?, Good morning)
- Introductions in Romanian (My name is...)
- I come from
United States, and 20 other countries including 
- Finding your way in Romanian (Where is the metro station?)
- How to count (1 one, 2 two...)
- How to say the colors ( red, green...)
- Simple Romanian questions and answers (Where, When, tomorrow)
- Shopping in Romanian (How much is this?)..
- How to handle emergency situations in Romanian (Help, Ambulance, Police)
- Romanian love phrases (e.g. I love you, You look great)
- Romanian food (e.g. flat water,cheese, eggs. fork, I would like to book a table)
- Other words (e.g. I like, I'm hungry)
In this lesson you will be able to easily (one click) hear and learn very many free examples of:
The common Romanian words and essential phrases are the starting point for learning conversational Romanian.
Whether this is your very first contact with the Romanian language, or you've been living in Romania for many years(e.g. expat living in Bucharest), the following Romanian vocabulary is a must to recognize, understand and pronounce.
Most frequently used Romanian words: Yes, No, And, I, You
| English | Romanian translation |
Audio | Phonetic Transcription |
|---|---|---|---|
Yes | Da | ||
No | Nu | ||
And | Și | ||
I | Eu | ||
You | Tu |
How to say "Thank you" and "You're welcome" in Romanian
| English | Romanian translation |
Audio | Phonetic Transcription |
|---|---|---|---|
Thank you | Mulțumesc | ||
Thanks | Mersi | ||
Thank you very much | Mulțumesc frumos | ||
No, thank you | Nu, mulțumesc | ||
You're welcome You're literally saying "with pleasure" | Cu plăcere | ||
You're welcome You're literally saying For little | Pentru puțin |
How to say "Please" and "Excuse-me" in Romanian
| English | Romanian translation |
Audio | Phonetic Transcription |
|---|---|---|---|
Please (formally) | Vă rog | ||
Please (informally) | Te rog | ||
Excuse me (formally) | Scuzați-mă | ||
Excuse me (informally) | Scuză-mă | ||
Sorry! | Scuze! | ||
I'm sorry | Îmi pare rău |
Most common/easiest Romanian greetings
| English | Romanian translation |
Audio | Phonetic Transcription |
|---|---|---|---|
Hi Hello | Salut | ||
Good day This is the most common formal greeting. In English it has sometimes the nuance of dismissal, however in Romanian it is a mere greeting with no negative implications | Bună ziua |
How to say "How are you?", "I'm fine" in Romanian
| English | Romanian translation |
Audio | Phonetic Transcription |
|---|---|---|---|
How are you? informally (colloquial Romanian) | Ce faci? | ||
OK or fine or well | Bine | ||
very well or very good | Foarte bine | ||
Bad | Rău |
Holiday wishes (Easter, Christmas) in Romanian
| English | Romanian translation |
Audio | Phonetic Transcription |
|---|---|---|---|
Happy Easter! | Paște fericit | ||
Christ is Risen the literal translation is "Christ is resurrected" | Hristos a înviat | ||
Truly, He is Risen! | Adevărat a înviat! | ||
Merry Christmas! | Crăciun fericit! | ||
Season's greetings (lit translation: Happy celebrations) This is common during the end of the year period (Christmas and New Year) | Sărbători fericite | ||
Happy Birthday | La mulți ani |
How to Introduce Yourself in Romanian
| English | Romanian translation |
Audio | Phonetic Transcription |
|---|---|---|---|
My name is Daniela Popescu (you're literally saying: "I'm named...") This is more formal | Mă numesc Daniela Popescu | ||
My name is | Mă cheamă | ||
Nice to meet you | Încântat de cunoștință | ||
Nice to meet you | Încântată de cunoștință | ||
Nice to meet you (informally) You're literally saying "I seem/feel well/fine" | Îmi pare bine |
For a more in-depth look at the introductions please consult our dedicated lesson on this subject: A0.5Romanian introductions.
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How to say "I come from" + your country, in Romanian?
| English | Romanian translation |
Audio | Phonetic Transcription |
|---|---|---|---|
| I'm from the United States of America | Sunt din Statele Unite ale Americii | ||
| I'm American (man) | Sunt american | ||
| I'm American (woman) | Sunt americancă | ||
 I come from Great Britain | Sunt din Marea Britanie |
The above is an example, please check our dedicated lesson A0.4 where we present the wording for twenty one other countries including England, Scotland, Wales and 
Finding your way in Romanian
| 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? |
Do you want to learn more? You can check out our comprehensive lesson on asking directions in Romanian.
How to count in Romanian?
| English | Romanian translation |
Audio | Phonetic Transcription |
|---|---|---|---|
one (1) | Unu | ||
two (2) | Doi | ||
three (3) | Trei |
Romanian colors
| English | Romanian translation |
Audio | Phonetic Transcription |
|---|---|---|---|
| red | roșu | ||
| green | verde | ||
| blue | albastru |
Simple Romanian questions and answers
| English | Romanian translation |
Audio | Phonetic Transcription |
|---|---|---|---|
When? | Când | ||
Now | Acum | ||
Yesterday | Ieri | ||
Tomorrow | Mâine | ||
What | Ce | ||
Who | Cine | ||
How | Cum | ||
How to ask why in Romanian? | De ce? | ||
Where | Unde | ||
How many or How much | Cât |
Shopping in Romanian
| English | Romanian translation |
Audio | Phonetic Transcription |
|---|---|---|---|
This one (referring to a feminine noun) | Aceasta | ||
That one (referring to a feminine noun) | Aceea | ||
How much is this? You are literally asking: How much does this cost? | Cât costă asta? | ||
Twenty lei | Douăzeci de lei |
Romanian love - Opening lines, Compliments, Feelings
| English | Romanian translation |
Audio | Phonetic Transcription |
|---|---|---|---|
Can I buy you something to drink? (you can address both a man and a woman like this) | Pot să-ți cumpăr ceva de băut? | ||
You look great | Arăți superb | ||
You have beautiful eyes | Ai ochi frumoși | ||
I love you in Romanian | Te iubesc | ||
I fell in love with you | M-am îndrăgostit de tine |
Romanian food and drinks (including Restaurant vocabulary)
| English | Romanian translation |
Audio | Phonetic Transcription |
|---|---|---|---|
Enjoy your meal Have a nice meal
strong>Bon appétit | Poftă bună | ||
cheers (as in English, "noroc" can be used for a toast, or for saying hi or goodbye) | noroc | ||
| Hello, I would like to make a reservation | Bună ziua, aș dori să fac o rezervare. | ||
plain water still water flat water | apă plată | ||
I would like "sarmale" with "mămăliguţă". Sarmale is a cabbage (sometimes grape) leaves rolled around a minced meat and rice filling. "Mămăliguţă" which is the same as "Mămăligă" is a yellow maize flour porridge. | Aș dori sarmale cu mămăliguță | ||
fork | furculiță | ||
spoon | lingură | ||
knife | cuțit |
Difficulties with Romanian pronunciation?
Check out our Romanian pronunciation lessons where we explain how to pronounce each Romanian sound.
Do you have any questions? comments?
Just fill in the form at the bottom of this page to post your questions/comments/requests for further clarifications, or let us know if you find mistakes, we'll be happy to correct them.
117 comments
Grammatical analysis of a Romanian sentence
Hi Kay,
First of all, this is a strange sentence. If you have the link to the blog I'd be happy to look at it, maybe the author is not paying that much attention to the Romanian language.
Grammatically speaking, the sentence "și vine aid să ia ceva de aici de acasă din cameră" is correct.
First of all, the verb "să ia" can only be translated by "to take". There is no other translation possible.
Second "acasă" is translated by "home", thus not house. It's true that most homes are houses, but that's something else.
Next, "cameră" is translated as "room" thus you do not know which room the author is referring to. It can be any room, living room, bedroom. But you do not know, you cannot translate it by "livingroom" because that would be in Romanian "sufragerie", neither by bedroom "dormitor". It could be that the author referred to "the room" before and then he/she is just mentioning it again.
The precise word-by-word translation of this sentence would be "and aid comes/is coming to take something from here from home from the room".
Last, the addition of "de aici" (from here) is uncommon in the logic of this sentence. Since "de acasă" (from home) is present, this is more precise than "de aici" (from here). The only context in which this would make sense is when the author would have more than one home, one further away and another one closer, or if he/she is next to/nearby his/her home.
Interestingly, there is no possessive pronoun in the sentence you have provided. Maybe it's in other ones.
If you can post the blog link, or more sentences before and after, I'll be able to help more. I provided my analysis based only on the sentence you provided.
Happy to help
Thanks so much for your help
Thanks a lot for your help, but it is not all that important. It was just an awkward sentence I noticed, because it was kind of weird. I know other languages cannot be translated literally word by word, so I try to understand the meaning, rather than a word by word translation. Word by word it is a strange sentence, but you have indicated that even in Romanian it is a strange sentence. Prior to this, the home or room was not mentioned, the only only thing mentioned was "Tre sa trec pe la masina..la shop", which is pretty clear, and seems the person is writing informally. The full sentence is actually "Tre sa trec pe la masina..la shop si vine aid sa ia ceva de aici de acasă d8n camera", as it was written, and I noticed it because of the 8 in din, and was first wondering if 8 is used to represent any letters in the Romanian language, but it isn't, the 8 is just above the i on the keyboard. In the ancient Greek alphabet, there is a Y8 which represents 'u', but dun is not a word in Romanian. I was trying different translations to discover what d8n was initially, and found the whole sentence is awkward, and then that the word aid is a name, not a word, etc... LOL, all of this from a typo. (But it was interesting and I did not just stop at the typo.)
You have pretty much answered my questions, that there are no possessive pronouns, so it does not indicate who the home belongs to. I think it is just strange to use the word home in this context as well. It would be more normal to say that someone is coming 'to take something from my house'. It is kind of weird to say someone is coming 'to take something from home'. I think it is clear that the person is simply saying, what it means, he is going to get his car at the shop and the person mentioned is coming to his house to take something from his house. I don't know about a literal translation word for word, but this is what the person is saying, and it seems not like a good example. It is awkwardly phrased, even by Romanian as you have indicated.
Thanks a lot for your help. I will check back later for any last comments. You are so helpful. I thank you so much.
Additional translation
I did find now one reasonable translation by parsing according to your breakdown. It always helps to parse languages in a translation program, or break it into smaller parts. (I receive emails at work by many different languages. I speak English Arabic and French, but receive emails at work in many languages, so I always have to translate them. We started to get some Romanian customers, so I am trying to learn a little bit for better communication. I have done this also with German and Dutch, which I do not speak, but can read the languages pretty well when I receive emails.)
But the most reasonable is the following "I'm going to go to the car at the shop, and Aid comes to take something out of here from home in the room." It is still an awkward sentence, as nothing preceded this. (It is a blog where people are buying and selling things locally, and the preceding parts were about something for sale and a time to meet to look at it, then the next sentence was this about what the person was doing so they could arrange the time later to meet. Nothing exciting or spectacular, just ordinary simple conversations about stuff for sale.)
The most strange thing is the use of the words home and room. It is very awkward, as it would make more sense to just say someone is coming to pick something up at the house. The word home is kind of personal, as if if belongs to the person coming to take something, i.e. they are coming home to get something. But according to your comments it does not indicate anything like that, there are no possessive pronouns. Can you point me to the place on this site where it covers possessive pronouns? I will have a look. That is what I am trying to learn right now.
Possessive pronouns in Romanian
Hi,
Here is the lesson on Romanian possessive pronouns
Happy to help
Thank you
Thanks so much, I looked through just about every lesson and all the site, and did not find this one.
New Romanian Lesson
You are right the lesson did not exist before.
I created it last night (for you), this is why it might need still a polishing touch, if you find any mistakes just let me know. Like this you have the most important information.
Happy to help
Thanks a million
WOW! That is very incredible! You created it just for me in one night! You are so very helpful! An angel! It is just what I was looking for!
Thanks a million
WOW! That is very incredible! You created it just for me in one night! You are so very helpful! An angel! It is just what I was looking for!
Romanian-to-English translation of "the spider"
What is the correct word to use for "the spider?" If I understand correctly, "păianjen" is "spider" and "păianjenul" is "the spider."
English Romanian translation
Your understanding is correct:
"Păianjenul a prins o muscă în pânza lui" - The spider caught a fly in his web.
"Un păianjen nu poate să omoare un om." - A spider cannot kill a man.
Happy to help
Wonderful—thank you!
Wonderful—thank you!
Awesome website
Hi, just wanted to say I think your website is awesome! I've been trying to learn Some basic Romanian for work where we have quite a lot of Romanian customers and I've been on several websites and your website is definitely the best I've seen. It's very easy to use, navigate and learn and being able to hear how something is pronounced is so helpful rather than just have it written phonetically. I'm looking forward to learning more on your website and surprising my Romanian customers when I meet them
Best Romanian language learning online
Hi,
Thank you very much for your kind words. I'm working now on adding more content (to the A1.6.1 Time lesson https://www.romanianlesson.com/romanian-weekdays) as well as a very new functionality that should help in practicing and remembering easier what you have learned. As soon as they will be ready I'll post it on facebook.
I'm happy to help and reactions like yours reassure me and give me more confidence that I'm doing the right thing.
Hi raluca
Hi raluca
Excuse me. This is going to sound very strange but my friend is visiting and I wanted to give him a letter in romanian. Can u read in romanian?
I have some mistakes and I wondered if you could help me and tell me the mistakes?
Please please help me and if you don't want to it's fine.
And if your busy I am soooo sorry.
The letter says:
Dragul frate meu,
Am fost prieteni de aproape trei ani și nu pot descrie cât de dragi sunteți pentru mine. Mulțumesc din inima mea că mă purtați întotdeauna respectuos și amabil. Veți fi întotdeauna fratele meu și mi-ați spus atât de multe lucruri importante pe care nu le-am învățat niciodată la școală. m-ai învățat despre viață și prietenie și nu renunț, niciodată.
Ești atât de special și sper să te întâlnesc și să îți îmbrățișezi! Eu vă trimit o mie de sărutări dragul meu! Faceți pe toată lumea să vă simțiți fericită și îți sunt recunoscătoare. Ești un prieten minunat și un tânăr frumos. te iubim cu toții și vă urez succes și fericire!
Cu toată dragostea mea,
Proofreading Romanian text
Hi,
Very important you are mixing singular with plural, and formal with informal. The text below is addressed to one man (that you call your brother) and uses the less formal style, since I would assume that this is how you want to address someone that you call your brother.
If you need it in a more formal style, just let me know and I'll redraft it for you, no problem.
Here is the correction:
Dragul meu frate,
Suntem prieteni de aproape trei ani și nu pot descrie cât de dragi îmi ești. Îti mulțumesc din toată inima că te porți întotdeauna respectuos și amabil. Vei fi întotdeauna fratele meu. Mi-ai spus atât de multe lucruri importante pe care nu le-am învățat niciodată la școală. M-ai învățat despre viață și prietenie și să nu renunț niciodată.
Ești atât de special și sper să te întâlnesc și să te îmbrățișez! Îți trimit o mie de sărutări dragul meu! Tu faci pe toată lumea să se simtă fericită și îți sunt recunoscătoare. Ești un prieten minunat și un tânăr frumos. Te iubim cu toții și îți urez succes și fericire!
Cu toată dragostea,
Happy to help
Thankyou so much. Multumesc!
Thankyou so much. Multumesc! Yes I would like it informal and he's a good friend that I call my brother. Ur the best:)) thanks so much again
Can you please tell me the
Can you please tell me the difference between Tu faci (pe) toată lumea să se simtă fericită and just saying Tu faci toată lumea să se simtă fericită? Without the pe and can u just say both. Thanks
Complicated Romanian question
Hi,
This is a very difficult question :( I spent one hour on it, and I still need to research it even better for my own full understanding.
What is clear is that when you are referring to a being as a complement you need to use the preposition "pe" in front of it for transitive verbs.
"Tu faci pe cineva bucuros. " You cannot say "Tu faci cineva bucuros".
"Tu o faci pe ea bucuroasă" - this again contains the preposition "pe". You cannot say "Tu o faci ea bucuroasă"
"Tu faci toată lumea fericită" is actually not fully correct. "Tu faci pe toată lumea fericită" as I translated it initially is correct. However since you have the undecided adjective "toată" it kind of hides the need of "pe".
If you are writing to the Romanian Academy they might spot the error if you do not use "pe" in that particular sentence, otherwise the average Romanian language teacher would have difficulties in answering this question.
I'm reading now a research paper that presents an analysis of the situation, as well as searching in my Romanian grammar books, and I have a few, but only in paper format so searching takes some time.
I hope this helps.
Darling don't worry! U helped
Darling don't worry! U helped me enough with the letter so much and ur great.
I can't tell u how grateful I am. Multumes foarte multttt :)))(
Mulțumesc
Hi,
I really appreciate all the work you had in creating this website and providing all of this information for free. Besides making me able to learn a new language in a simple way it also helps me making my girlfriend more at home even with simple sentences. Thank you so much for this.
Mulțumesc frumos :)
Many thanks Dino for your
Many thanks Dino for your kind words.
I'm happy that you found the site useful. I'm trying to further improve the site, with more content and functionalities, quite a challenge but I like it and seeing replies like yours gives me more courage to keep on delivering. The site will always remain freely available, it's my core principle.
All the best with your girlfriend.
CHANGE FROM UK TOROMANA
HI CAN YOU SEND A ADDRESS AND SEND IT IN ROMANIA.
CASA NICHOLAS STRADA TOAMNEI 24 900635 CONSTATA ROMANIA.
AIRORT SHUTTLE THANK YOU
Hi,
Hi,
What do you mean? Do you wan to send a letter to a Romanian address? and you need help with that?
Can you better explain what you are trying to do.
Happy to help
What is your name (formal)?
How do you ask what is your name, but with the formal you and not the informal you?
How to say What is your name in Romanian?
Hi,
There are two ways of asking that, both are formal:
1) Care e numele dumneavoastră? (Which is your name)
2) Cum vă numiți? (How are you named?)
Happy to help!
Translation
Hello,
I need someone who speaks romanian who can help me to translate a medical rapport written in romanian.
Regards,
Bouchra
Translation Romanian medical report
Hi,
If it's a short one, I'd be happy to help you, if it's more then I can try to help you find with specialized translators.
If it can wait until next week it would be better, as tomorrow it's the Romanian orthodox Easter day.
Happy to help!
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