Romanian is a fascinating and complex language and not one of the easiest to learn on your own.
Steps
Step 1. Find a Romanian teacher with a fluent level of English or your own language
The other solution (someone who speaks your native language as a native speaker and knows Romanian well) is quite unlikely (unless, perhaps, you are Hungarian), because Romanian is not spoken all over the world. Moreover, a teacher is a necessity, because Romanian grammar is very difficult to understand, even for native speakers.
Step 2. Familiarize yourself with the Romanian alphabet found on the Wikipedia page Romanian alphabet or other sites, but also with the pronunciation
In Romanian the words are spelled as they are written. Check the table on Wikipedia for more information.
Pay attention to how the accent is placed on the syllables. It is quite difficult, so it would be very useful to get a Romanian dictionary and search for words just to see how the accent falls on the syllables
Step 3. Get to know some specific graphic signs of the Romanian language:
"to"; "î" or "â" (both have the same sound), "ş", and "ţ". Practice reading them correctly in the text.
- "Ă" is pronounced / ə /, as in the ending of flower, pronounced with a British accent;
- "î" or "â" both correspond to the sound / ɨ / which is intermediate between / i / and / u /. There is no sound equivalent to this in Italian or English phonetics;
- "Ş" is pronounced "sc", as in the Italian word "science" or in the English word "sheep" (sound / ʃ /);
- "Ţ" is pronounced / ʦ / corresponding to the sound / z / in the word "grace".
Step 4. Buy a Romanian language course, which provides you with some texts and word lists with their translation
Also buy an Italian-Romanian and Romanian-Italian dictionary, as there will be several words that you will not know.
Step 5. Learn some Romanian words and phrases
Even if you don't want to study the language, they are useful for simply taking a trip to Romania.
- "From" = "Yes"
- "Nu" = "No"
- "Bună!" = "Hello!"
- "Bună ziua!" = "Good afternoon!"
- "Bună seara!" = "Good evening!"
- "La revedere!" = "Goodbye!"
- "Mulţumesc!" = "Thank you!"
- "Vă rog / Te rog" = "Please"; note that "Vă rog" is the plural, more polite and formal form, while "Te rog" is informal.
- "Îmi pare rău!" = "I'm sorry"
Step 6. Move on to simple phrases, such as saying your name, age and nationality
Learn some basic verbs, like "a fi" ("to be"), "a avea" ("to have"), "a merge" ("to go"), "a face" ("to do"), etc. Also learn the numbers from 0 to 100 to tell your age. Here are some examples:
- "Mă numesc Giovanni" = "My name is Giovanni"
- "Am douăzeci de ani" = "I'm twenty years old" - The Romanian verb used to say age is "a avea" ("to have") as in Italian, not "a fi" ("to be") as in English.
- "Sunt american" = "I'm American".
Step 7. Using the dictionary, learn 20 new Romanian words per week
Write them in a list in a notebook and say them aloud until you memorize them. This will help you grow your vocabulary.
Step 8. Learn Romanian grammar
This is the hardest part. It is very difficult even for native speakers to learn all the rules (and the hundreds of exceptions), but not impossible. Here are some basic rules:
- The indefinite articles are "a" (masculine, singular), "o" (feminine, singular) and "nişte" (both sexes, plural); definite articles are formed by adding some endings to words (for example - (u) l, - a, - ua, - le), according to certain rules.
- There are 3 genders in Romanian grammar: masculine, feminine and neuter. Neutral nouns are those that behave like masculine nouns in the singular and like feminine nouns in the plural.
- There are 5 cases in Romanian: the nominative, the genitive, the dative, the accusative and the vocative. Nouns have different forms for each case (they decline), according to the gender and number of the noun. The genitive and the dative are identical, and the nominative and the accusative are also identical. The vocative is used when calling someone or addressing someone directly (for example, calling someone by name to get their attention).
- There are 3 verbal forms in Romanian: the active, passive and reflexive forms. The reflexive form is used when the subject and the direct object of the verb are identical, for example: "Mă îmbrac" = "I'm getting dressed". The passive voice is used only when the subject becomes the object of the action and the subject of the verb is someone else. Example: "Hoţul a fost arestat de către poliţie" = "The thief was arrested" by the police.
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There are 9 verbal modes in Romanian: infinitive, indicative, subjunctive, conditional, presumptive, imperative, supine, participle and gerund. The indicative, the subjunctive, the conditional, the presumptive and the imperative are "personal" or definite, in the sense that they can be conjugated (based on the subject of the action expressed by the verb) and act as a predicative verb in a sentence, while the other four ways, called non-personal or indefinite (infinitive, supine, participle and gerund), are used as adjectives or adverbs.
- The indicative has 8 tenses: present, imperfect, distant past, present past, past perfect, future, future future and future in the past. The present corresponds to both the simple present and the progressive present; the imperfect corresponds to the progressive past; the remote past, corresponding to the simple past, is antiquated and used only in some regions of Romania, as it has largely been replaced with the present perfect, which also corresponds to the simple past and the perfect present; the piuccheperfetto corresponds to the perfect neighbor.
- The subjunctive has 2 tenses: past and present. It corresponds to a certain use of the infinitive in English (for example, "Vreau să plec" which means "I want to leave").
- The conditional has 2 tenses: past and present. It is used in the same circumstances as in English or Italian.
- The presumptive mode has 3 tenses: past, present and progressive present (corresponding to the progressive tense in English); is used to express a possible action (use of the form "might" in English).
- The imperative has only 1 tense - the present - and is used in the same circumstances as in English or Italian.
Advice
- Some people who have successfully learned Romanian have found listening to Romanian music very useful. Listening to it can help you grasp the inflection and cadence, while reading its lyrics helps you learn pronunciation and broaden your vocabulary. In addition, it is very useful to try to translate words.
- It will be easier to learn Romanian if you already know other Romance languages, such as Spanish, French, Portuguese or Italian. However, since Romanian is the only Romance language spoken in Eastern Europe, it has evolved independently of the aforementioned languages, so those who know the language superficially may not notice the similarities between it and other Romance languages, due to the influence Slavic on Romania shortly after its formation.
- Try to make yourself an online friend who speaks Romanian who could help you study it. Someone who is studying it can also help you. And whether they help you or not, they can still help motivate you and become true friends.
- Although this article is mainly about learning the grammar rules of Romanian and not colloquial formulas, it seems to me the right place to underline one of the most confusing things about this language: the words "e" and "este" actually they mean the same thing. However, "este" is more formal.
- In the end, Romanian is a beautiful language to learn, because not only is it useful for understanding other languages such as Spanish and French (in fact, it is a Romance language), but it is another language that can be quite useful.
