G1.1 How to ask questions in Romanian - Interrogatives
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Are you an inquisitive person? Then it is very likely that you will need to ask questions in Romanian such as: Where is the bus stop? What do you recommend for lunch? Which one should I take?
This lesson helps you ask questions and lists many useful interrogative Romanian words. At the end of this lesson you will be able to build your own questions in several ways.
Exercises are included!
This lesson will teach you:
- A first and very easy way of asking questions in Romanian: Intonation
- A second way of constructing an interrogative sentence in Romanian: Inversion
- All the Romanian question words: what, where, when...
- Tag questions in Romanian
- To practice what you've learned with the help of many Romanian language exercises
In Romanian you can simply change the tone of a normal affirmative sentence and turn it into an interrogative sentence. It is important to note that the two sentences (declarative and interrogative) are identical from a grammatical point of view, the only difference is made by the intonation. The pitch rises towards the end of such a question. These are yes or no questions.
Another way of asking a question in Romanian is to place the verb at the beginning of the sentence.
Unlike English, Romanian does not need the helper words: "do", "does", "did" to ask a question. As seen above you just need to take an declarative sentence and place the verb at the beginning followed by the subject and the rest.The subject can be omitted
A variation of the inversion type of question that we've seen above is the inversion (verb placed first) but leaving out the subject. Especially in spoken Romanian the subject is omitted not only in questions but also in affirmative sentences. This is perfectly fine because the conjugation of the verb already implies the subject (I,you,he)...
For example let's assume that two friends are speaking on the phone. It is normal to hear this type of question: "Eşti acasă acum?" which is translated "Are [you] at home now?". In English the subject must be present, however Romanian grammar allows the subject to be omitted because the form of the verb "Eşti" can only be used to refer to "you" (singular). So the one receiving this question would immediately understand that the the question is actually about him/her being at home at the time of the conversation.
One could leave out the subject in Romanian once it has been mentioned once or several times. For example if a boyfriend tells his girlfriend that George will come later on to visit them, he could simply ask: "Bea vin?" ("Is [he] drinking wine?").
Here is the list of all questions with the subject being left out:
A very simple way to build a question in Romanian is to use a question word such as "the five wh" also known as 5W1H: who, what, why, how, where, when, with what.
In the table below you will find the most frequently used question words in Romanian:
Question words: Who, What, Where... (interrogative words)
| English | Romanian translation |
Audio | Phonetic Transcription |
|---|---|---|---|
Who | Cine | ||
What | Ce | ||
Where | Unde | ||
When | Când | ||
To whom or Whom ... to or Who... to | Cui | ||
How | Cum | ||
Which | Care | ||
Why | De ce? | ||
How much | Cât |
While asking a question the usage of “Care” vs “Ce” is the same as “Which” vs “What”. So guide yourself based on your native instinct and you will be fine. As in English “Care” (which) involves the notion of selection out of a set of possible choices.
Let's look at a few examples on how an actual question would sound like in Romanian?
Romanian questions using the "wh" words
To form a tag question one needs to say a normal affirmative sentence and add at the end a few words (always the same): ",nu-i așa?" (isn't it).
The declarative sentence is pronounced normally, while the tag "nu-i așa" follows a raising intonation.
Tag Questions in Romanian ... right?
Another form of tag questions is the one where only "... ,yes?" is added at the end of the declarative sentence. "Yes" added at the end of the sentence to denote a question is unnatural in English, that uses instead the ending "... right?".
| English | Romanian translation |
Audio | Phonetic Transcription |
|---|---|---|---|
I have money, right? | Eu am bani, da? | ||
You are at home, right? | Tu eşti acasă, da? |
Do you think you know how to build a Romanian question?
Just try out more exercises on the next pages. This will help you remember the new Romanian terms.
After you would have done the exercises we recommend that you start the Advanced Level lesson on the same topic: Asking questions in Romanian.
5 comments
Very helpfully
Very helpfully
Qeustions words
Brilliant exercise
I'm happy you like our
I'm happy you like our Romanian exercise on question words.
Thank you for your feedback!
Much appreciated.
PARECE QUE NA TRADUÇÃO ROMENA
PARECE QUE NA TRADUÇÃO ROMENA APARECE ALGUMAS PALAVRAS EM PORTUGUÊS QUE NÃO TÊM RELAÇÃO COM A VERSÃO PARA O ROMENO.
Obrigado, quais palavras?
Obrigado, quais palavras?
Você pode me dar alguns exemplos?
Estou feliz em corrigi-lo.
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