A1.4 Romanian class - How to understand directions in Romanian
Now that you know how to ask questions in Romanian about how to find your way(e.g. "Unde este hotelul Intercontinental?", you need to learn how to understand the answer to these questions.
If you need to remind yourself the direction questions in Romanian, or this is your first stop on our website, please check our previous lesson before continuing with this one.
Watch the following video in which one person is searching for a metro/subway/tube station in Bucharest called "Eroilor"(Heroes).
The lady in the video answers in Romanian: "Traversați, o luați drept înainte, si pe dreapta este stația"
The lady in the video answers in Romanian: "Traversați, o luați drept înainte, si pe dreapta este stația"
Basic directions left, right, straight in Romanian
| English | Romanian translation |
Audio | Phonetic Transcription |
|---|---|---|---|
cross (the street) | traversați | | |
cross the street this is a second way, and a synonym of "traversați" | treceţi strada | | |
left | stânga | | |
right | dreapta | | |
straight | înainte | | |
straight ahead | drept înainte | |
How to say turn left, go straight in Romanian
| English | Romanian translation |
Audio | Phonetic Transcription |
|---|---|---|---|
turn left | luați-o la stânga | | |
turn right | luați-o la dreapta | | |
go straight | mergeți înainte | | |
It's straight ahead | Este drept înainte | | |
Turn right can be translated in Romanian both by Luați-o la dreapta and Faceți la dreapta. In this context, there is no difference between "Luați-o" and "Faceți" they both mean "Turn" | |||
First, second left, right in Romanian
| English | Romanian translation |
Audio | Phonetic Transcription |
|---|---|---|---|
first on the left | prima la stânga | | |
second on the right | a doua la dreapta | | |
third on the left | a treia la stânga | |
How to give complex directions in Romanian
| English | Romanian translation |
Audio | Phonetic Transcription |
|---|---|---|---|
first on the right and then the third on the left | prima la dreapta și apoi a treia la stânga | | |
second on the left then straight ahead | a doua la stânga apoi drept înainte | | |
at the traffic lights turn right Literally: at the traffic lights do right | la semafor faceți la dreapta | |
Prepositions of place in Romanian
| English | Romanian translation |
Audio | Phonetic Transcription |
|---|---|---|---|
next to the post office | lângă poștă | | |
in front of the city hall | în fața primăriei | | |
behind the city hall | în spatele primăriei | | |
across the square | vizavi de piață | | |
all the way to the store | până la magazin | |
How to approximate time and distance in Romanian
| English | Romanian translation |
Audio | Phonetic Transcription |
|---|---|---|---|
around fifty meters | aproximativ cincizeci de metri | | |
about five minutes | cam cinci minute | | |
a few minutes walking | câteva minute de mers pe jos | | |
a few kilometers | câțiva kilometri | | |
two, three kilometers | doi, trei kilometri | |
The Romanian word kilometri has a special pronunciation of the final i. You can find out more details at our dedicated lesson on the Romanian i letter pronunciation.
Directions in Romanian
| English | Romanian translation |
Audio | Phonetic Transcription |
|---|---|---|---|
It's there | este acolo | | |
It's a bit of a drive | Este ceva de mers cu mașina | | |
No, it's very close | Nu, este foarte aproape | | |
You must take the bus one hundred and forty five and get off at the third stop | Trebuie să luați autobuzul o sută patruzeci și cinci și să coborâți la a treia stație | |
By means of Romanian public transport
| English | Romanian translation |
Audio | Phonetic Transcription |
|---|---|---|---|
by bus | cu autobuzul | | |
| by RATB | cu RATBul | | |
RATB stands for "Regia Autonomă de Transport Bucureşti" which is the Bucharest bus transport company. You can also find how to get from one place to another by bus in Bucharest by using their route planner (available only in Romanian). Recently the company was renamed to STB Societatea de transport Bucureşti. | |||
by metro Literally: with metro | cu metroul | | |
by train | cu trenul | | |
If you plan to drive in Romania, you need to know that it is not allowed to drink alcohol and then drive. This is common in many other countries, however Romanian law imposes a very law alcohol percentage in your blood while driving, which means in practice that you should not drink any alcoholic drink before sitting behind the steering wheel in Romania
8 comments
defective link
This page can be reached from the bottom of lesson a.2.2 but the link from the main lessons list is wrong
Fixed
Thank you Andrea for letting us know, I've just fixed it.
Stress
I believe for "drept" in "drept înainte" the Romanian Translation and Romanian Stress sections may be switched.
You are right
Thank you for your comment Parker, it was a wrong copy/paste that I have just corrected.
If you spot other errors we'll be grateful if you could let us know.
Questions and answers for you lessons on Directions
Although I'm finding your lessons very helpful, I think you need to provide more words and phrases in this lesson. It's relatively easy to learn questions in a new language, but understanding the answers can be very difficult. In the previous lesson we learned how to ask 'where is…?', 'how can I get to…?', 'how long does it take to walk?' and 'how far is…?'. In this lesson you should provide possible answers to these questions that a visitor in Romania might hear, such as: 'it's over there', 'take the first/second/third turn on the left, then the first/second/third turn on the right', 'it's straight ahead', 'you need to take bus number 145 and get off at the third stop', 'about five minutes', 'a few minutes', 'about 50 metres', 'about 2 kilometres' and so forth. Another useful question to learn is, 'Is it far from here?' and possible answers, such as, 'No, it's quite near'. Try to imagine yourself lost in one of your cities and in need of directions!
More questions/expressions on how to find your way in Romanian
Thank you for your feedback Charles,
I have started adding the missing Romanian expressions you mentioned. I'll post here once I'm done.
If you have other ideas just let me know. I would do a more through research and see if there are any other useful expressions, but I'd like to finish the current work on the pronunciation exercises.
Happy to help
Other ideas
I do have some other ideas that I think might be helpful for your website. Can I give them to you by email? You have my email address - perhaps you could send me yours.
All done
Hi Charles,
I have just finished adding all the phrases you requested above. All of them are in this lesson, except for the question "Is it far?" which I've added in the previous lesson on asking for directions in Romanian.
Thank you as well for the ideas over email.
Happy to help!
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