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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"



Basic directions left, right, straight in Romanian

English Romanian
translation
Audio Phonetic
Transcription

cross (the street)

traversați

/tra.ver'saʦʲ/

cross the street

this is a second way, and a synonym of "traversați"

treceţi strada

/'tre.ʧeʦʲ 'stra.da/

left

stânga

/'stɨn.ga/

right

dreapta

/'dre̯ap.ta/

straight

înainte

/ɨ.na'in.te/

straight ahead

drept înainte

/drept ɨ.na'in.te/

2 Listening
3 Translate

How to say turn left, go straight in Romanian

English Romanian
translation
Audio Phonetic
Transcription

turn left

luați-o la stânga

/lu'aʦjo la 'stɨn.ga/

turn right

luați-o la dreapta

/lu'aʦjo la 'dre̯ap.ta/

go straight

mergeți înainte

/'mer.d͡ʒeʦʲ ɨ.na'in.te/

It's straight ahead

Este drept înainte

/'jes.te drept ɨ.na'in.te/

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"

2 Listening
3 Translate

First, second left, right in Romanian

English Romanian
translation
Audio Phonetic
Transcription

first on the left

prima la stânga

/'pri.ma la 'stɨn.ga/

second on the right

a doua la dreapta

/a 'do.wa la 'dre̯a.pta/

third on the left

a treia la stânga

/a 'tre.ja la 'stɨn.ga/

2 Listening
3 Translate

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

/a 'do.wa la 'stɨn.ga a'poj drept ɨ.na'in.te/

at the traffic lights turn right

Literally: at the traffic lights do right

la semafor faceți la dreapta

/la se.ma'for 'fa.ʧeʦʲ la 'dre̯ap.ta/

2 Listening
3 Translate

Prepositions of place in Romanian

English Romanian
translation
Audio Phonetic
Transcription

next to the post office

lângă poștă

/'lɨn'gə 'poʃ.tə/

in front of the city hall

în fața primăriei

/ɨn 'fa.ʦa pri.mə'ri.ej/

behind the city hall

în spatele primăriei

/ɨn 'spa.te.le pri.mə'ri.ej/

across the square

vizavi de piață

/vi.za'vi de 'pja.ʦə/

all the way to the store

până la magazin

/pɨ.nə la ma.ga'zin/

2 Listening
3 Translate

How to approximate time and distance in Romanian

English Romanian
translation
Audio Phonetic
Transcription

around fifty meters

aproximativ cincizeci de metri

/a.pro.ksi.ma'tiv ʧinʧʲ'zeʧʲ de 'me.tri/

about five minutes

cam cinci minute

/kam ʧinʧʲ mi'nu.te/

a few minutes walking

câteva minute de mers pe jos

/kɨ.te'va mi.nu'te de mers pe ʒos/

a few kilometers

câțiva kilometri

/kɨʦʲ'va ki.lo'me.tri/

two, three kilometers

doi, trei kilometri

/doj trej ki.lo'me.tri/

2 Listening
3 Translate

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

/'jes.te a'ko.lo/

It's a bit of a drive

Este ceva de mers cu mașina

/'jes.te ʧe'va de mers ku ma'ʃi.na/

No, it's very close

Nu, este foarte aproape

/nu | 'jes.te 'fo̯ar.te a'pro̯a.pe/

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

/'tre.bu.je sə lu'aʦʲ a.u.to'buz.ul o 'su.tə pa.tru'zeʧʲ ʃi ʧinʧʲ ʃi sə ko.bo'rɨʦʲ la a 'tre.ja 'sta.ʦi.e/

2 Listening
3 Translate

By means of Romanian public transport

English Romanian
translation
Audio Phonetic
Transcription

by bus

cu autobuzul

/ku a.u.to'bu.zul/
by RATB

cu RATBul

/ku re.a.te'be.ul/

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

/ku me'tro.ul/

by train

cu trenul

/ku 'tre.nul/

2 Listening
3 Translate

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



Other emblematic places of Bucharest

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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