learn romanina-English Pronouns

8/12/2019 learn romanina-English Pronouns

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Subject Pronouns

I Eu

You Tu, dumneavoastr(polite)

He/She El/Ea

We Noi

You (pl) Voi

They Ei(m) /Ele(f)

NOTES:

1. The subject pronoun is not normally used before the verb in spoken Romanian. However, it can be

used to show emphasis.

El merge la cinema. Heis going to the cinema. (As opposed to someone else going)

2. If there is a group of masculine and feminine nouns, it is referred to by the subject pronoun ei.

Nelu i Lidia sunt aici. Nelu and Lidia are here.

Ei sunt aici. They are here.

3. If a person wishes to address someone in a formal tone, the speaker would use the subject pronoun

dumneavoastr. This pronoun is conjugated the same as voi.

To speak= A vorbi

I speak eu vorbesc

You speak tu vorbeti

He/she speaks el/ea vorbete

We speak noi vorbim

You speak voi vorbii

They speak ei/ele vorbesc


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BASIC VERBS

Two of the most basic verbs in Romanian are a fi (to be) and a avea (to have).Below is thepresent tenseconjugation of these verbs.

a fi

sunt I am suntem we are

eti you are suntei you are (pl.)

este he, she, it is sunt they are

a avea

am I have avem we have

ai you have avei you have (pl.)

are he, she, it has au they have

Example sentences:

Unde sunt? Where am I?

Nu avei o carte? You all don't have a book?Raul i eu suntem acas. Raul and I are at home.

Unde este o carte? OR

Unde e o carte? Where is a book?

NOTES:

1. As you may have noticed, the conjugation este can be shortened to e, and is done so in spoken

Romanian.

2. The negation of a verb is done by preceding it with nu. This can be abbreviated as n- before a

word starting with a vowel.

i.e. N-avei o carte? You all don't have a book?

Other useful verbs:

a vorbi

vorbesc I speak, I am vorbim we speak


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speaking, I do speak

vorbeti you speak vorbii you speak

vorbete he, she, it speaks vorbesc they speak

a merge

merg I go, I am going, I do

go

mergem we go

mergi you go mergei you go

merge he, she, it goes merg they go

a ti

tiu I know tim we know

tii you know tii you know

tie he, she, it knows tiu they know

NOTES:1. As you can see, the present tense is slightly different in Romanian. The conjugation vorbesc

can mean "I speak", "I am speaking", or "I do speak". It is this way for all Romanian verbs, so asother verbs are listed later on, it is understood that the 'am' and 'do' forms are also present, thoughonly the first type will be listed. Sorry if that paragraph was confusing. Basically, the present

tenses translate to English in the same way that French or Spanish does.


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PLURALS

Before we start into the plurals, let me first introduce the basic categories of Romanian words.

They are as follows:

Masculine singular Feminine singular Neuter singular

Masculine plural Feminine plural Neuter plural

You will see nouns and adjectives grouped into these categories. As you see more and more

words, you will pick up on certain patterns.(Example pattern that you probably wouldn't know yet: Neuter nouns are like the masculinein

the singular, but likefemininein the plural.)

That said, let's move into plurals.

Masculine

The plural for a masculine noun is made mostly by adding -ito the end of the word.

romn Romanian

romni Romanians

locuitor inhabitant

locuitori inhabitants

In some cases this will cause the final consonant to change.

copil child

copii children

acrobat acrobat

acrobai acrobats

And words that end in a vowel have that vowel replaced by -i.

litru liter

litri liters

fiu son


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fii sons

Feminine

Feminine nouns are a little more diverse in their forms.

Those ending in -form the plural by substituting an -eor an -i.

or hour

ore hours

gar station

gri stations

Those ending in -e, replace it with an -i:

carte book

cri books

Those ending in -ur, replace it with -uri:

prjitur pastry

prjituri pastries

Those ending in -ie, replace it with -ii:

staie bus/underground stop

staii bus/underground stops

Those ending in -ea, replace it with -ele:

cafea coffee

cafele cups of coffee


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Neuter

Neuter nouns have two forms in the plural.

Those ending in -ou, form the plural by adding -uri:

birou desk

birouri desks

Those ending in -iu, replace with -ii:

fotoliu armchair

fotolii armchairs


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ARTICLES

In English, the indefinite articles (a, an, some) AND the definite article (the) precede the noun towhich they refer. However, in Romanian, the indefinite articles come BEFORE the noun and

definite articles come AFTER the noun, as a suffix.

That is, unless the planets are aligned or all road construction is finished, but we all know howrare those are.

Indefinite Articles

un "a, an" for masculine and neuter singular

nouns

o "a, an" for feminine singular nouns

nite some

Este un om acolo.There is a man over there.Ai un prieten n Romnia?Do you have a friend in Romania?

Cumpr o carte bun.I am buying a good book.

Cunosc o fat n Frana. I know a girl in France.Nite copii sunt n faa colii. Some kids are in front of the school.

Definite Articles

If the word ends in a consonant, add -ul:

om man

omul the man

oameni men

oamenii the men

If ending in -, substitute -a:

fat girl

fata the girl

fete girls

fetele the girls

If ending in -ea, add -ua:


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cafea coffee

cafeaua the coffee

cafele cups of coffee

cafelele the cups of coffee

If ending in -ie, substitute -ia

cltorie voyage

cltoria the voyage

cltorii voyages

cltoriile the voyages

If ending in -u, add -l:

metrou metro

metroul the metro

metrouri metros

metrourile the metros

If a MASCULINE word ends in -e, add -le:

cine dog

cinele the dog

cini dogs

cinii the dogs

If a FEMININE word ends in -e, add -a:

minge ball

mingea the ball

mingi balls


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mingile the balls

Examples:

Brnza e foarte veche.The cheese is very old.D-i mingea! Give him the ball!

Steaua albastr e frumoas. The blue star is beautiful.

NOTES:

There are some instances where the definite article would not be used in English but MUST be

used in Romanian.

1. When speaking about something in a general sense:

Mncarea romneasc este foarte delicioas.Romanian food is very delicious. (Speaking

about Romanian food in general)

Nu-mi place berea.I don't like beer. (Speaking of beer in general)

2. When showing possession:

Prietenul meu vine mine diminea.My friend is coming tomorrow morning.

Dani are ceasul tu.Danny has your watch.


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SUBJUNCTIVE

In other languages if one wanted to say "I want to go" or "He needs to buy", the infinitive formof the second verb would be used (i.e. "to go" or "to buy"). To say these phrases in Romanian the

speaker must use a form called thesubjunctive. Speakers caught not using the subjunctive are

usually dragged into the street and beaten with clubs (ciomege).

Examples of the subjunctive:Trebuie s mergemla Bucureti. We have to go to Bucharest.Nu pot s vorbescungurete. I cannot speak Hungarian.

As you can see, the subjunctive is "s + present tense". Just as with the normal present tense, the

subjunctive is conjugated so personal pronouns are unnecessary.

Trebuie s merg Ihave to go

Trebuie s mergi Youhave to go

Trebuie s mearg He/Shehas to go

Trebuie s mergem Wehave to go

Trebuie s mergei You(pl) have to go

Trebuie s mearg Theyhave to go

("Trebuie" is like the French "il faut", meaning "it is necessary").

You may notice that the 3rd person form (mearg) is a bit different than the normal 3rd person

present tense (merge). This change in the 3rd person form will be common when forming the

subjunctive, but everything else stays the same.

The rules for this change in the 3rd person are fairly simple. Here are the rules and some

examples using "merge", "ntreba", and "vorbi"; meaning "to go", "to ask", and "to speak",

respectively.

Change Condition Example

e -> ea middle of word merge -> mearg

e -> end of word merge -> mearg

-> e end of word ntreab-> ntrebe

ea -> e middle of word ntreab -> ntrebe

ete -> easc end of word vorbete-> vorbeasc

Constructions using the subjunctive are usually started with "putea", "vrea", and "trebui". Here

are some example sentences containing the subjunctive.


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Pot s scriu foarte bine.I can write very well.

Nu poi s citeti prea bine. You cannot read too well.

Trebuie s vorbim cu el. We need to speak with him.

Trebuie s vorbeasc cu noi.He/She must speak with us.

Nu trebuie s plecm mine. We don't need to leave tomorrow.El trebuie s plece n seara asta.He needs to leave tonight.*

Ea trebuie s plece mine sear.She needs to leave tomorrow night.** The personal pronoun is used here to avoid ambiguity, as "s plece" can imply "he", "she" or "they".

Vreau s merg la Oradea.I want to go to Oradea.

Vreau s mergi la Oradea. I want you to go to Oradea.Vrem s mergei la Oradea. We want you all to go to Oradea.


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FUTURE

The future tense in Romanian can be constructed in three different ways, or avoided like theplague/potholes/Al Gore for those of us with lesser linguistic abilities. If you would still like to

use it, the constructions are:

1. present tense + time expression2. 'o' + subjunctive

3. conjugation of "voi" + verb infinitive

Confused? Don't worry, we don't expect you to understand yet! Just keep reading....

1. Present Tense + Time Expression

Here is an example of what we're talking about.Mergemla Salonta mine diminea. We're goingto Salonta tomorrow morning.

Prietenul meu vinedin muni poimine. My friend is comingfrom the mountains the day aftertomorrow.

You can see that the verbs (in bold face) are conjugated in the present tense, but the time

expressions that follow imply the future tense. Here are some more time expressions that can be

used:

mine tomorrow

poimine day after tomorrow

rspoimine 3 days after today

mine diminea tomorrow morningacuma seara tonight

sptmna viitoare next week

luna viitoare next month

anul viitor next year

mine sear tomorrow evening

seara asta tonight, this evening

2. 'O' + Subjunctive

Another way to form the future is by combining 'o' and the subjunctive. For example:O s bem ap mineral la casa lui Victor. We will drink mineral water at Victor's house.O s vezi tu nsui cnd vine. You will see for yourself when he comes.

Nu tim dac o s vin i ea. We don't know if she's coming too.


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3. Conjugation of "Voi" plus verb infinitive

The third way to form the future is by using "voi", a form of the verb meaning "to want"(muchlike english "I willdo this").

Below you will find the conjugation of "voi" needed for the future tense:

eu voi

tu vei

el, ea va

noi vom

voi vei

ei vor

The verb infinitive for "to see" is "a vedea". The'a'before the word is like the 'to' in englishverb infinitves ("tosee"). The 'a' may be ignored for now, all we need is voi +vedea. See theexamples below.

Voi vedea filmul poimine. I will see the movie the day after tomorrow.Nelu va vedea luna plin.Nelu will see the full moon.

Va veni i Marta. Marta will come too.

Nelu i Lidia vor fi la biseric astzi. Nelu and Lidia will be at church today.


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PAST TENSE

There are about four different ways of forming the past tense in Romanian. In this lesson we willcover two kinds of past tenses called the "compound past" and the "simple past". We will also

review some time expression often used in conjunction with the past.

The compound past is usually used to describe an action that happened only once:

I atedinner at Raul's house last night.

We wentto a movie.

The compound past is formed by a conjugated form of "to have" plus the past participle of the

verb. The shortened form of "to have" as used for past tenses follows:

eu am I've

tu ai you've

el / ea a he's / she's

noi am we've

voi ai you've

ei / ele au they've

The past participle is formed from the infinitive of the verb following a few fairly simple rules. Itmight be easier at first to simply memorize the past participles of the more commonly used verbs

(note: past participles can also be used as adjectives! -more on that later).

For starters, let's look at the past tense of a facemeaning "to do" or "to make":

The past participle of faceis fcut. You would use this in conjunction with the shortened form ofa aveato form the past. Confused? Just look at the examples!

am fcut= I madeai fcut= you madea fcut= he/she made

am fcut= we made

ai fcut= you made

au fcut= they made

You may notice the past tense for euand noiis exactly the same: am fcut. You can use thepersonal pronouns to stress who is the doerof the action.

Euam fcut.Idid.

Noiam fcut.Wedid.

Here are some examples of basic verbs and their past participles:


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Infinitive Past Participle Definition

face fcut make / do

vorbi vorbit speak

merge mers go

da dat give

mnca mncat eat

primi primit receive

bea but drink

veni venit come

spune spus say

avea avut have

fi fost be

Here are some simple rules to follow to divine the past participle. There are a number of

exceptions to the rules however, so a list of common irregular verbs will follow.

Rules for Past Participles

add a 't' to verbs ending in 'i' or 'a' subtract last two letters of verbs ending in 'e', then add an 's'

Examples:

"a alege" = "to choose"alege -> ales ->ales

"a zice" = "to say"

zice -> zis -> zis

"a alerga" = "to run"

alergat -> alergat


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"a opti" = "to whisper"

optit -> optit

To negate a past tense you add a 'nu' in front of the 'avea' helping verb. This often gets shortenedto 'n-'.

Nu am but-> N-am butI did not drink

Nu ai venit-> N-ai venitYou did not come

One more thing you should know about Romanian negation is that they love double-negatives!

We only say that in dialect in English so I have fun doing it in Romanian. Words you will needto form double negatives are:

nimeninobody

nicierinowhere

niciodatnevernimicnothing

I do not expect this to make a whole lot of sense without a small sea of example sentences, sobelow you will find exactly that...

Ai venit ieri?Did you all come yesterday?Pisicile au mncat oarecii.The cats ate the mice.Noi n-am vzut nimic!We didn't see anything!

Ea niciodat n-a auzit nimic.She never heard anything.

Ieri am primit o scrisoare de la el.I got a letter from him yesterdayAu mers pn la vam.They went up to the border.

Am vorbit toata ziua.We talked the whole day.

N-au spus nimic despre iganii.They didn't say anything about the gypsies.Maina n-a fost nicieri.The car wasn't anywhere.

AND now for the simple past!

The simple past is used to denote an action that happened more than once or over a period of

time. Examples in English would be "We were writing each other everyday" or "I went to thelibrary on Sundays". It is constructed by adding asuffix* to the end of the verb infinitive. The

suffixes used are as follows:

Person Suffix

eu -am


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tu -ai

el / ea -a

noi -am

voi -ai

ei / ele -au

*If the infinitive ends in an i, change the ito an ewhen adding the suffixes.Example using a vorbi(to speak): Ea vorbea cu noi.She was speaking with us.

These suffixes look familiar? They should! They are the same as the forms of 'to have' used in

the compound past. Below you will see examples of some verbs with this suffix added:

merge"go"

singular plural

eu mergeam noi mergeam

tu mergeai voi mergeai

el mergea ei mergeau

avea"have"

singular plural

eu aveam noi aveam

tu aveai voi aveai

el avea ei aveau

fi (irregular)"be"

singular plural

eu eram noi eram

tu erai voi erai

el era ei erau

You may have noticed that with aveathe letter 'a' is not doubled: avea+ am= aveam. This is

true for all verbs ending in a.


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To negate just put a nubefore the verb and shorten to n-if the verb begins with an 'a'. Below are

some examples.

N-aveam cri.We didn't have books.

Nu mergeau la biserc.They did not go to church.

Diminea mncam salata de ardei.I used to eat pepper salad in the morning.Primeai scrisori de la ea?Were you getting letters from her?Nimeni nu vorbea cu mine.Nobody would talk with me.


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REFLEXIVE VERBS

As in probably all european languages, Romanian has reflexive verbs. In this lesson, you willlearn how reflexive verbs are constructed in Romanian and we'll start you off with some of the

most important ones you'll need to know.

Following is a list of the forms for the personal pronouns as used in reflexive verbs.

Pronoun Reflexive

eu m

tu te

el se

ea se

noi ne

voi v

ei se

ele se

The following are 5 of the most commonly used reflexive verbs:

a se uita (la) to look (at)

m uit ne uitm

te uii v uitai

se uit se uit

a se spla to wash oneself

m spl ne splm


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te speli v splai

se spal se spal

a se trezi to get up / wake up

m trezesc ne trezim

te trezeti v trezii

se trezete se trezesc

a se ntoarce to go back / return

m ntorc ne ntoarcem

te ntorci v ntoarcei

se ntoarce se ntorc

a se duce to go

m duc ne ducem

te duci v ducei

se duce se duc

M spl pe dini.I'm brushing my teeth.El se duce la piscin. He's going to the pool.

Ne trezim la opt diminea. We're getting up at eight in the morning.

Ea se ntoarce n Ungaria. She's returning to Hungary.

La ce v uitai? What are you looking at?

M duc la biserc. I'm going to church.

Te speli? Do you wash?


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Se duc la coal s se uit la noua cldire. They're going to the school to see the new building.

V ntoarcei rspoimine? Are you coming back three days from now?

O s te uii la televizor? Are you going to watch television?

Te vei duce la cri acuma sear? Are you going to the river tonight?

O s se trezeasc dup mine. He will get up after me.

Trebuie s se duc i Daniel. Daniel has to go too.


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POSSESSIVE

And now for something that should have appeared several lessons ago, we present THEPOSSESSIVE! If you are using your Romanian, I'm sure you have needed to say "my car" or

"my house" by now.

There are three ways to denote possession. You will like twoof them. The third...well, let's not

talk about that till we have to.

Overview:*

1. Possessive Adjective

2. The "AL" Construction

3. Dative Genitive

*These terms were mostly created by us just to make us sound like real linguists. Don't be confused!

1. Possessive Adjectives

The easiest and perhaps the most familiar form of possession corresponds to 'my', 'your', 'his',

etc.

English Masculine Singular Masculine Plural Feminine Singular Feminine Plural

my meu mei mea mele

your tu ti ta tale

his/her su si sa sale

his lui lui lui lui

her ei ei ei ei

our nostru notri noastr noastre

y'all's vostru votri voastr voastre

your (formal) dumneavoastr dumneavoastr dumneavoastr dumneavoastr

Remember that words of neutral gender behave like masculine nouns in the singular and like

feminine nouns in the plural. Note also that the thing that is owned MUSTbe in the definiteform:

The nominative of "dog" is "cine". The definite for masculine nouns ending in e is "-le" thus


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"the dog" would be "cinele". The word is masculine so you use the masculine singular from the

chart above: "meu". The possessive adjective follows the noun: "my dog" = "cinele meu".

For the definite form of "main" (car) you would change the into an a: "the car" = "maina".

Then just add the corresponding possessive adjective from the chart above: "maina mea"(my

car). The neuter word Hotelwould take the masculine possessive adjective in the singular:"Hotelul meu"(my hotel) and the feminine plural in the plural: "Hotelurile mele". This is ofcourse much simpler for "his", "her", or "their" because "lui", "ei" and "lor" do not change for

plural or gender.

Example Sentences:

Ceasul meu e stricat. My watch is broken.

Unde e maina ta? Where is your car?

Acetia nu snt pantalonii mei. These are not my pants.

D-mi banii ti, cheile tale, i portofelul tu!Give me your money, keys and wallet!

Casa noastr e mai mare dect casa voastr. Our house is bigger than your house.

2. The "AL" Construction

If you want to say 'mine', 'yours', or 'his' you must use the AL construction:

Male Female Neutral

singular al a al

plural ai ale ale

GRAMMAR NOTE: Notice that words of neutral gender in the singular behave like masculine

words, but they behave like feminine words when in the plural. You will see this pattern often.

Now let me try and make sense of that graph for you! If the object owned is masculine and

singular, for example, you would use alinstead of the object, followed by the correspondingmeuform.

For example:

prietenul meu(my friend) becomes al meu(mine)

This is why you need it: If you don't use it, you will sound like a robot, as has been avoidedin

the following example sentences:

"My friend isn't here yet""Mine isn't either."

"Neither mine nor yours is here."

"Thank you captain obvious!"


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In Romanian that would be:

"Prietenul meu nc nu este aici."

"Nici al meu."

"Nici al meu nici al tu nu este aici."('nici' means 'nor' and is repeated before each noun)

HINT: try to think of al meuas just being the English word 'mine' although it istwo words and

feels kind of strange.

"A Friend of Mine"Sometimes, just for the heck of it, you might want to say something like: "A friend of mine".

This especially comes in handy since the word prieten(friend) could mean 'girlfriend' in theright (or wrong!) context. But saying 'a friend of mine' always means "just a friend". The same,

of course, is true for prietenmeaning 'boyfriend'.

To say this in Romanian, you can say defor 'of' :

A friend of mine.

O prieten de a mea

An alternate usage is to leave out the "de":

Niste prieteni ai meiSome friends(masculine or mixed) of mine.

Niste prietene ale meleSome friends(feminine) of mine.Niste scrisori ale lorSome letters of theirs.

You can add the dewithout change of meaning:

Nite prieteni de ai meiSome friends(masculine or mixed) of mine.

Nite prietene de ale meleSome friends(feminine) of mine.

Nite scrisori de ale lorSome letters of theirs.

3. Dative/Genetive Case

The third method of expressing ownership is to use the Dative/Genetive case. This case, like thedefinite article, is a suffix.

Gender Singular Plural


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masculine - ui -lor

feminine - ei* -lor

*Often this ending is "-ii". We'll cover the important words that take this special ending.

The masculine dative/genetive suffix is added to the singular definiteform of any masculine or

neuter word in the singular, and the feminine suffix is added to the plural indefiniteof femininewords.

The following chart shows three typical feminine words in the singular Dative/Genetive:

Nominative/Accusative Plural Dative/Genetive

fat fete fetei

decleraie decleraii decleraiei

cas case casei

The following chart shows three masculine words and one neuter word in the singular

Dative/Genetive:

Nominative/Accusative Definite Dative/Genetive

brtbat brbatul brbatului

cine cinele cinelui

om omul omului

hotel* hotelul hotelului

*"Hotel" is neuter but remember that neuter words act masculine in the singular.

For any word in the plural regardless of gender you add "-lor" to the plural indefinite form.

Singular Plural Dative/Genetive

biat biei bieilor

om oameni oamenilor

familie familii familiilor


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fat fete fetelor

hotel hoteluri hotelurilor

And now to cover those pesky "-ii" words. Unfortunately there is no solid rule, you'll just have tolearn which words take it. One great help is that ALLwords ending in "-tate" change to "-tii",

and words ending in "-are" change to "-rii".Examples:

stare-> strii (state of being)

facultate-> facultii (university)omenire-> omenirii(humanity)

Other important words that take the -iisuffix:

main-> mainii (car)

biseric-> bisericii (church)limb -> limbii(tongue, language)ar-> rii

IMPORTANT GRAMMAR NOTE: Adjectives can also take the dative/genitive endings!

Don't forget that objects owned must be definite! And now for some example sentences! (yey!)

Maina bunului meu prieten.The car of my good friend.Prinul pcii.The prince of peace.

Cauciucul mainii albastre*.The blue car's tire.Pstorul bisericii noastre*.The pastor of our church.Casa tatlui meu.My father's house.

Toate cuvintele ale limbi Romne*.All the words of the Romanian language.

A fost rucsacul soului meu.That was my husband's backpack.

*REMEMBER that to get the Dative/genetive form of feminine words you must build off of the

plural form, even when the word is in the singular. Keeping that in mind, adjectives following

singular feminine nouns take plural endings:

Fata frumoas= The beautiful girl

Fete frumoase= Beautiful girlsFetei frumoase= of/to the beautiful girlFetelor frumoase= of/to the beautiful girls

One last note: When using the Dative/Genetive form of people's names you use the word "lui"

(i.e. not the suffix) for men's names and the regular suffix for feminine names:


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Casa lui Florin. Florin's house.

Fiul lui Emil. Emil's son.

Casa Magdalenei.Magdalena's house.

Fiul Mariei.Maria's son.

For simplicity's sake, in the spoken language it is very common to hear people use "lui" with

female names as well as men's names. This is especially true for foriegn women's names that

don't end in an "a" anyways:

Casa lui Ingrid.

Fiul lui Maria.

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