Introduction
Whether you're stepping in for the first time or returning, welcome (back)!
This guide serves as a compass for your work. Our global community shares a dedication to continual learning, and a pivotal part of this journey involves comprehending and following our guidelines.
It's crucial to grasp that this article provides a guideline—think of it as a starting point. It doesn't intend to be an exhaustive manual on language use.
Additionally, if a customer's instruction conflicts with the language guidelines, the customer's directive always supersedes the language guidelines.
1. Grammar
1.1. Agreement
1.1.1. Tense, mood, aspect, person (for verbs)
In Romanian, the verb’s number and person are always governed by the subject. In the case of nominal predicates, the predicate agrees in number, gender, and case with the subject.
Example
| Source text: | Her girls are very intelligent. |
| ✘ | Fetele ei sunt foarte inteligent. |
| ✓ |
Fetele ei sunt foarte inteligente.
|
In the case of coordinated subjects, the verb will always be in the plural.
Example
| Source text: | The boy and the girl are speaking. |
| ✘ | Băiatul și fata vorbește. (singular) |
| ✓ | Băiatul și fata vorbesc. (plural) |
When the subject is a collective noun, the verb agrees with it in person and number. However, if the collective noun is accompanied by a modifier in the plural, then the verb will also be in the plural.
Example
| Source text: | The majority of people use social media. |
| ✘ | Majoritatea oamenilor folosește social media. |
| ✓ | Majoritatea oamenilor folosesc social media. |
Example
| Source text: | None of my friends uses social media. |
| ✘ | Niciunul dintre prietenii mei nu folosesc social media. |
| ✓ |
Niciunul dintre prietenii mei nu folosește social media.
|
Bear in mind that there is no agreement when the predicate is an impersonal verb.
Example
| Source text: | They must go. |
| ✘ | Ei trebuiesc să plece. |
| ✓ | Ei trebuie să plece. |
1.1.2. Gender and number (nouns and adjectives)
Nouns can have three genders in Romanian: feminine, masculine, and neuter.
The adjective agrees in gender, number and case with the noun or pronoun it modifies. Adjectives can occur in several forms:
- two forms (masc. sing. = fem. sing. = neut. sing.; masc. plur. = fem. plur. = neut. plur.)
- three forms (masc. sing. = neut. sing.; fem. sing.; masc. plur. = neut. plur. = fem. plur.)
- four forms (masc. sing. = neut. sing.; fem. sing.; masc. plur. = neut. plur.; fem. plur.).
In case of a coordinated subject, the adjective (either attribute or predicative) will always be in the plural. The gender of the adjective will depend on the various combinations of the nouns that form the coordinated subject (e.g. masc. + fem. = masc.; neut. + fem. = fem. etc.)
Example
| Source text: | The boy and the girl are beautiful. |
| ✘ | Băiatul și fata sunt frumoase. (feminine, plural) |
| ✓ | Băiatul și fata sunt frumoși. (masculine, plural) |
Example
| Source text: | The pen and the eraser are expensive. |
| ✘ | Creionul și radiera sunt scumpi. (neutral, plural) |
| ✓ | Creionul și radiera sunt scumpe. (feminine, plural) |
When in doubt, you can check the Romanian version of the EU’s House Rules for the preparation of the text, section 10.6.3.1.
1.1.3. Case (nouns and prepositions)
There are five cases in Romanian: nominativ (Nominative), acuzativ (Accusative), genitiv (Genitive), dativ (Dative), vocativ (Vocative).
Nominative and accusative have identical forms. The first one is the case of the subject (Fata cântă à The girl sings) and the second is the case of the direct object (Aud fata à I hear the girl).
The genitive and the dative have identical forms, too. The genitive is the case of the possessor (Acesta este darul fetei à This is the girl’s gift) and the dative is the case of the recipient, target, or beneficiary (I-am dat fetei un dar à I gave the girl a gift).
The vocative is used to address an interlocutor (Te inșeli, prietene à You are wrong, mate).
In Romanian, there are specific prepositions for accusative (ca, cu, către, în etc.), genitive (contra, împotriva, înaintea) and dative (contrat, grație, datorită etc.).
Example
| Source text: | I saw Anna. |
| ✘ | Am văzut Ø Anna. |
| ✓ | Am văzut-o pe Anna. |
1.2. Determiners
In Romanian, determiners agree in gender, number, and case with the noun they refer to. Determiners can both precede (acel băiat a căzut à that boy fell) and follow a noun (băiatul acela a căzut à that boy fell).
As opposed to English, the definite article is enclitic in Romanian, and it is never omitted.
Example
| Source text: | The girl and the boy. |
| ✘ | Fată și băiat. |
| ✓ | Fata și băiatul. |
Example
| Source text: | Spring is my favorite season. |
| ✘ | Primăvară este anotimpul meu preferat. |
| ✓ | Primăvara este anotimpul meu preferat. |
1.3. Prepositions
Prepositions are one of the trickiest part of discourse to translate into Romanian. When dealing with prepositions, you might often have to opt for a Romanian equivalent as opposed to translating the preposition literally.
Example
| Source text: | All the students in my class were Romanian. |
| ✘ | Toți studenții în clasa mea erau români. |
| ✓ | Toți studenții din clasa mea erau români. |
Unlike in English, Romanian prepositions always occur in front of a noun/pronoun, and never at the end of the sentence.
Example
| Source text: | Whom are you talking about? |
| ✘ | Cine vorbești despre? |
| ✓ | Despre cine vorbești? |
When translating from English into Romanian, you might often have to add (art museum à muzeul de artă; marry X à a se căsători cu X) or omit (to turn on à a porni Ø) prepositions. For instance, phrasal verbs do not exist in Romanian, so translating them will not require the use of prepositions.
Example
| Source text: | Pupils frequently drop out of school because of poverty. |
| ✘ | Elevii cad frecvent afară din școală din cauza sărăciei. |
| ✓ | Elevii abandonează Ø frecvent școala din cauza sărăciei. |
1.4. Pronouns
Like Italian, French and Portuguese, Romanian is a null subject language. This means that we don not need to follow the English sentence structure by constantly repeating the pronouns.
Example
| Source text: | You must finish the translation by tomorrow. |
| ✘ | Tu trebuie să termini traducerea până mâine. |
| ✓ | Ø Trebuie să termini traducerea până mâine. |
The same rule applies to possessive adjectives (such as ‘your’).
Example
| Source text: | Type in your password. |
| ✘ | Introduceți parola dumneavoastră. |
| ✓ |
Introduceți parola.
|
In Romanian, unlike in other languages, there are clitic pronouns. There are two kinds of clitics: accusative and dative. The most difficult problem when using clitics is where to place the clitics in a sentence. Please remember this rule: CLITICDAT + CLITICACC.
Example
| Source text: | I give it to you. |
| ✘ | O ți dau. |
| ✓ | Ți-o dau. |
1.5. Verbs
When translating verbs into Romanian, many mistakes are often due to the multiple irregular verbs that exist in this language. In Romanian, there are five verb classes, depending on the final vowel of the verb:
- -A: a urca;
- -EA: a putea;
- -E: a cere;
- -I: a primi;
- -Î: a omorî.
The endings selected by the inflected verb depend on the classes of the verb.
Example
| Source text: | I take. (to take = a lua) |
| ✘ | Luau. |
| ✓ | Iau. |
When translating ‘to be + V-ing’ constructions from English into Romanian, it is recommended that you use a reflexive construction.
Example
| Source text: | Your app is updating. |
| ✘ | Aplicația este în curs de actualizare. |
| ✓ |
(Aplicația) se actualizează.
|
2. Orthography
2.1. Abbreviations
In Romanian, there are different orthographic rules for different types of abbreviations. As a rule, abbreviations, are written without a dot if:
- they preserve the last letter of the abbreviated word (domnul à dl);
- they correspond to symbols used in science and technology (Na, IT);
- they correspond to compass points (S, N);
- they correspond to measures (cm, kg).
Example
| ✘ dl. Popescu |
| ✓ dl Popescu |
There are, however, situations when using a dot is mandatory, such as:
- abbreviations that preserve the first part of a word (str., jud., sg.);
- abbreviations of foreign expressions (P.S., N.B.);
- abbreviations of common phrases (și altele à ș.a.);
- name initials.
Example
| ✘ Str Fericirii |
| ✓ Str. Fericirii |
2.2. Apostrophes
The apostrophe is rarely used in Romanian. There are only two formal cases in which the apostrophe is used in Romanian:
- To mark the accidental absence of the first digit or two when indicating a calendar year.
Example
| Source text: | The 1960s. |
| ✘ | Anii 60. |
| ✓ |
Anii ’60. |
- In loanwords which already contain an apostrophe, e.g., D'Annunzio, McDonald's.
Beyond this, the apostrophe is used in literature: in prose and drama to define characters by reproducing their speech, and in poetry for reasons of prosody, allowing the elimination of a syllable.
In these cases, the apostrophe marks the absence of:
of a sound:
- consonant: al'fel (altfel, meaning differently), cân'va (cândva, meaning sometime)
- a vowel: tocma' (tocmai, meaning exactly), numa' (numai, meaning only)
of several sounds or syllables: dom'le (domnule, meaning Mister), 'neața (bună dimineața, meaning good morning)
This use is optional and not required for most Unbabel translations, since we rarely translate literary texts.
Blank space placement: Within words, the apostrophe is neither preceded nor followed by a space; at the beginning of a word, the apostrophe is preceded but not followed by a space; at the end of a word it is followed by space.
2.3. Capitalization
Romanian always uses capital letters for proper names (anthroponyms and toponyms), civil and religious holidays, events and brands. Bear in mind that when the name consists of a multiword sequence containing connectors, these are not capitalized.
Example
| Source text: | United Kingdom of Great Britain and Northern Ireland |
| ✘ | Regatul Unit Al Marii Britanii Și Irlandei De Nord |
| ✓ | Regatul Unit al Marii Britanii și Irlandei de Nord |
Unlike in English, the names of days, months, languages, and ethnicities/nationalities are not capitalized in Romanian.
Example
| Source text: | I’ll see you on Monday. |
| ✘ | Ne vedem Luni. |
| ✓ | Ne vedem luni. |
2.4. Compounds
There are no specific rules for compound words in Romanian, which can be written either together as one word or joined by a hyphen or whitespace. In what concerns the plural of compounds, Romanian exhibits two categories of such words:
- compound words which form the plural by inflecting each constituent term (broască-țestoasă à broaște-țestoase);
- compound words which form the plural by only inflecting one of the terms (nou-născut à nou-născuți).
Bear in mind that even when a compound word’s equivalent in Romanian is another compound word, this might be spelled differently.
Example
| Source text: | I planted some sunflowers in my garden. |
| ✘ | Am plantat niște floareasoarelui în gradină mea. |
| ✓ | Am plantat niște floarea-soarelui în gradină mea. |
2.5. Diacritics
The Romanian diacritics are: Ăă, â, Îî, Șș, Țț.
Their usage is compulsory, as it can otherwise lead to confusion.
Example
| Source text: | The girl stroked his face. |
| ✘ | Fata i-a mangaiat fata. |
| ✓ | Fata i-a mângâiat fața. |
2.6. Foreign words
Over the past decades, English had been the main source of loanwords for Romanian. Many terms borrowed from English have preserved their original spelling (marketing, computer), but there are also some that have been adapted to Romanian pronunciation (match à meci, goal à gol, sandwich à sandviș). When dealing with well-established loanwords, which have no equivalent in Romanian, there is no need to translate them.
Example
| Source text: | Please go to check-in. |
| ✘ | Mergeți la biroul/punctul de verificare. |
| ✓ | Mergeți la check-in. |
When accompanied by a determiner (definite article), it is recommended that loanwords are written without a hyphen.
Example
| Source text | Did you get my email? |
| ✘ | Mi-ai primit e-mail-ul? |
| ✓ | Mi-ai primit e-mailul? |
There are a few exceptions to this rule, so for the most recent rules on the spelling of foreign words, please refer to DOOM3. Before using a foreign word in the translation, always check whether there is a Romanian equivalent.
2.7 Numerals
Regarding numerals format (written in numbers or words), you must always respect the source text: if they are written as digits in the source text, this should be maintained in the translation; on the other hand, if they are written as words, they should be translated into the target language. Regarding Romanian:
- Romanian uses a full stop or a whitespace to indicate groups of thousands, contrary to English, which uses a comma.
Example
| ✘ | 80,000 |
| ✓ | 80.000 |
|
✓ |
80 000 |
- Romanian uses a comma to indicate the decimal place, contrary to English, which uses a full stop.
| Source text: | 5.5 dollars |
| ✘ | 5.5 dolari |
| ✓ | 5,5 dolari |
- Pay attention to false friends such as ‘billions’ or ‘trillions’. The correct translation of these terms into Romanian is miliarde and bilioane, respectively (as opposed to bilioane and trilioane).
Example
| Source text: | 50 billions |
| ✘ |
50 bilioane
|
| ✓ | 50 miliarde |
- Bear in mind that, unlike in English, compound numerals are separated by whitespace, and not hyphens.
Example
| Source text: | twenty-four |
| ✘ | douăzeci-și-patru |
| ✓ | douăzeci și patru |
2.8. Symbols
Symbols (%, /, |, etc.) are not preceded by a whitespace. Please keep in mind that Romanian, in comparison to other languages, uses whitespaces only after these symbols.
Example
| Source text: | Romanian/ English |
| ✘ | Romanian / English |
| ✓ | Romanian/ English |
3. Punctuation
3.1. How to use punctuation marks
In general, Romanian uses punctuation marks very similarly to English. In Romanian, the full stop (period), exclamation mark, question mark, comma, semicolon, colon, and suspension points are never preceded, but always followed by a white space.
- Comma: please keep in mind that commas must never be used in Romanian to separate subjects from verbs, verbs from their objects, adjectives from the nouns they modify, or prepositions from their objects. Romanian does not use the Oxford comma, nor does it add a comma before ‘etc’.
Examples
| Source text: | We speak about literature, history, linguistics, etc. |
| ✘ | Vorbim despre literatură, istorie, lingvistică, etc. |
| ✓ | Vorbim despre literatură, istorie, lingvistică etc. |
| Source text: | She bought apples, pears, and oranges. |
| ✘ | A cumpărat mere, pere, și portocale. |
| ✓ | A cumpărat mere, pere și portocale. |
- Hyphen: it is widely used in Romanian to join words that are pronounced together without a pause (a văzut-o, dă-mi), join the parts of compound words (floarea-soarelui), or join the plural ending or definite article to a foreign word (acquis-ul).
- En dash: this is only occasionally used in Romanian to join ad-hoc compound words consisting of a single word and an established compound word (sud–sud-est).
- Em dash: it is used in Romanian to introduce additional or explanatory information in a sentence, and to mark the start of someone’s contribution in a dialogue (as opposed to English, which uses quotation marks for dialogues). When used to introduce additional information, the em dash is preceded and followed by a whitespace. When used to mark a dialogue, the em dash always starts a new line and is followed by a whitespace.
| Source text: | The substance is achromatic—that is, without color. |
| ✘ | Substanța este incoloră—adică nu are coloare. |
| ✓ | Substanța este incoloră — adică nu are coloare. |
| Source text: |
“How do you plead?”
��Not guilty.”
|
| ✘ |
“Cum pledați?”
“Nevinovat.”
|
| ✓ |
— Cum pledați?
— Nevinovat.
|
- Quotation Marks: in Romanian, quotation marks are used to indicate the beginning and end of word sequence that was said or written by someone else (reported speech), and which is reproduced verbatim. The graphic signs for quotation marks in Romanian („ ”) are slightly different from those used in English (“ ”). Also, unlike English, which uses single quotation marks to mark a quotation inside a quotation, Romanian use chevrons (« »).
Example
| Source text: | “He said to me, ‘I think you are mistaken, my friend.’” |
| ✘ | “Mi-a spus: ‘Cred că te înșeli, prietene.’” |
| ✓ | „Mi-a spus: «Cred că te înșeli, prietene.»” |
- Brackets: just as in English, brackets are used in Romanian to add an explanation or extra information to a sentence or a phrase. There is never a whitespace between brackets and the text contained between them.
Example
| Source text: | His friend (the doctor) runs three marathons each year. |
| ✘ | Prietenul lui( doctoral )aleargă la trei maratoane în fiecare an. |
| ✓ | Prietenul lui (doctoral) aleargă la trei maratoane în fiecare an. |
3.2. Punctuation in greetings and closings
The rule in Romanian is to always add a comma between the greeting forms Bună and Bună ziua and the noun in the vocative case.
Examples
| Source text: | Hello Dragomir, |
| ✘ | Bună ziua Dragomir, |
| ✓ | Bună ziua, Dragomir, |
| Source text: | Hello Mary, |
| ✘ | Bună Mary, |
| ✓ | Bună, Mary! |
On the other hand, there should not be a comma with the following greetings: Stimate domnule, Stimată doamnă, Distinse domnule, Distinsă doamnă and Dragă.
Examples
| Source text: | Dear Mrs Smith, |
| ✘ | Stimată doamnă, Smith, |
| ✓ | Stimată doamnă Smith, |
| Source text: | Dear Ana, |
| ✘ | Dragă, Ana, |
| ✓ | Dragă Ana, |
4. Register
4.1. Grammatical and Lexical Registers
Register refers to the level of formality used in the text. It shows how our clients address their customers and contributes to the voice of the brand itself. Register may vary depending on the company, the brand, the service they offer, the customers, and the target language.
We make a first main distinction between grammatical and lexical register: the first one regards the use of pronouns and verb person (for the languages to which this morphological feature is applied), while the latter is related to lexical choices, since some words and expressions also have a degree of formality or colloquialism.
Both these registers are also divided into formal and informal, as shown below.
4.2. Formal Register
In Romanian, unlike in English, there is a distinct class of personal pronouns, called politeness pronouns. These mark different degrees of politeness, from low (dumneata), to standard (dumneavoastră), and very high or reverential (Domnia-Voastră, Domnia-Sa).
The low degree of politeness is used in less formal settings, such as speaking or referring to an elderly relative or acquaintance.
|
Category
|
Examples
|
Type of Register
|
|
Personal (politeness) pronouns
|
2nd person: dumneata
3rd person: dumnealui, dumneaei
|
Grammatical
|
|
Verbs (person used to conjugate the verb)
|
matches the person and number of the subject (personal pronoun or proper names).
Example: dumneata vrei, dânșii vor
|
Grammatical
|
|
Possessive pronouns
|
2nd person: dumneata
3rd person: dumnealui, dumneaei
|
Grammatical
|
|
Clitics
|
vă, vi, v-
|
Grammatical
|
|
Greetings
|
Stimate domnule, Stimată doamnă
Distinse domnule, Distinsă doamnă
Bună ziua
|
Lexical
|
|
Closings
|
La revedere!
|
Lexical
|
The standard degree of politeness uses the form dumneavoastră (for both singular and plural). It is used in formal situations such as official correspondence, or when meeting someone for the first time.
|
Category
|
Examples
|
Type of Register
|
|
Personal pronouns
|
dumneavoastră
|
Grammatical
|
|
Verbs (person used
to conjugate the verb)
|
2nd person plural
|
Grammatical
|
|
Possessive pronouns
|
dumneavoastră
|
Grammatical
|
|
Clitics
|
vă, vi, v-
|
Grammatical
|
|
Greetings
|
Stimate domnule, Stimată doamnă
Distinse domnule, Distinsă doamnă
Bună ziua
|
Lexical
|
|
Closings
|
La revedere!
Cu stimă,
Cu respect,
|
Lexical
|
4.3 Informal Register
Due to the recent English linguistic influence, the informal register has a lot of liberties, and is specific to the so-called “relaxed Romanian”.
The language has evolved in such a way that now clients will not feel offended anymore if they are addressed in the second person singular. Companies that want to maintain an informal, relaxed tone, often address customers using the second person singular.
|
Category
|
Examples
|
Type of Register
|
|
Personal pronouns
|
tu, (pe) tine, ție
|
Grammatical
|
|
Verbs (person used
to conjugate the verb)
|
2nd person singular
|
Grammatical
|
|
Possessive pronouns
|
tău, ta, tăi, tale
|
Grammatical
|
|
Clitics
|
ție, îți, ți-
|
Grammatical
|
|
Greetings
|
Salut!
Bună!
Dragă!
|
Lexical
|
|
Closings
|
Salut!
|
Lexical
|
5. Localization challenges
5.1. Proper nouns
Proper nouns refer to unique entities, such as persons, places, organizations, brands, events, etc. As foreign proper nouns are concerned, languages may adopt different rules regarding whether they should be translated or kept in the original language. When editing a text, you should follow your languages rules for all different types of proper nouns listed below.
However, please note that if there is a glossary provided by the client that includes these types of units, you should always apply the glossary items.
5.1.1. Persons
A person’s name is always kept untranslated in Romanian. It is never spelled phonetically using the Romanian alphabet.
Examples
| Source text: | Jon Snow |
| ✘ | Nelu Omăt |
| ✓ |
Jon Snow
|
| Source text: | William Shakespeare |
| ✘ | Uiliam Șecspir |
| ✓ |
William Shakespeare |
5.1.2. Places
Almost all the names of countries, cities or monuments are translated into Romanian. When they have an equivalent in Romanian, please use it.
Example
| ✘ United Kingdom, United States, The Netherlands |
| ✓ Regatul Unit, Statele Unite, Olanda |
5.1.3. Organizations
The Organization (e.g. University of Birmingham) is frequently translated. Similarly to place names, if the Organization has an equivalent in Romanian, please use it.
Example
| Source text: | University of Birmingham |
| ✘ | University of Birmingham |
| ✓ | Universitatea din Birmingham |
5.1.4. Brands and products
Brands (e.g. Sony) and products (e.g. PlayStation) are kept untranslated.
Example
| Source text: | I buy an Apple laptop. |
| ✘ | Cumpăr un laptop Măr. |
| ✓ | Cumpăr un laptop Apple. |
5.1.5. Other entities
If entities such as famous works of art (paintings), events (festivals, theatre plays, etc.), names of boats (e.g. Titanic), etc. have an established translation in Romanian, please use it. Otherwise, the names should be kept untranslated.
Examples
| Source text: | The Statue of Liberty |
| ✘ | The Statue of Liberty |
| ✓ | Statuia Libertății |
| Source text: | Simphony of the Seas is the largest cruise ship in the world. |
| ✘ | Simfonia Mărilor este cel mai mare vas de croazieră din lume. |
| ✓ | Simphony of the Seas este cel mai mare vas de croazieră din lume. |
5.2 Acronyms and initials
If the acronym has an equivalent in Romanian, then it should be translated.
Example
| Source text: | He participated at the last UN meeting. |
| ✘ | A participat la ultima reuniune UN. |
| ✓ | A participat la ultima reuniune ONU. |
On the other hand, if the acronym doesn’t exist in Romanian, please keep the source abbreviation.
Example
| Source text: | Test your IQ now! |
| ✘ | Testează-ți CI-ul acum! |
| ✓ |
Testează-ți IQ-ul acum!
|
5.3 Date format
Some languages might use a different date format – for example, the preferred date format in American English is month/day/year. This means that references to date need to be changed to a day/month/year format when translating into Romanian.
Example
| Source text: | The certificate was issued on 12/31/2018. |
| ✘ | Certificatul a fost emis pe 12/31/18. |
| ✓ | Certificatul a fost emis pe 31.12.2018. |
5.4 Time format
Some languages might use an am/pm format. This needs to be changed into a 24-hour format when translating into Romanian.
Example
| Source text: | I go to bed at 10 pm. |
| ✘ | Mă duc la culcare la ora 10 pm. |
| ✓ |
Mă duc la culcare la ora 22. |
5.5 Measures
Measures should always keep the format of the source text and should never be converted. You should only translate them when they have an equivalent term in Romanian.
For example, translate ‘feet’ into picioare, and ‘centimeters’ into centimetri, but leave all original abbreviations untranslated.
Examples
| Source text: | The bride’s veil was 10 feet long. |
| ✘ | Vălul miresei era lung de 3,04 metri. |
| ✓ | Vălul miresei era lung de zece picioare. |
| Source text: | Our pool is 90 ft long and 40 ft wide. |
| ✘ | Piscina noastră măsoară 90 de picioare pe lungime și 40 de picioare pe lățime. |
| ✓ |
Piscina noastră măsoară 90 ft pe lungime și 40 ft pe lățime. |
5.6 Currency
Currency values should be left as they are in the source text, only translating the currency.
Example
| Source text: | 8 euros |
| ✘ | 8 euros |
| ✓ | 8 euro |
Currency symbols (€, $, £, etc.) should not be translated. In Romanian, these should be placed after the number and they should be preceded by a whitespace. The same rule applies to currency initials (USD, GBP, RUB, INR, DKK, NOK, etc.).
Examples
| Source text: | €100 |
| ✘ | €100 |
| ✓ | 100 € |
| Source text: | 100 USD |
| ✘ | 100 dolari americani |
| ✓ | 100 USD |
6. Tricky cases
- Clitic pronouns
In comparison with English, which uses some identical pronominal form for nominative, accusative and dative cases, the Romanian language has a richer paradigm called the “clitic pronouns” (pronumele clitice). It has different forms for accusative and dative.
Example
| Source text: | I see you. I buy you a book. |
| ✘ | Văd tu. Cumpăr tu o carte. |
| ✓ | Te văd. Îți cumpăr o carte. |
Bear in mind that clitic pronouns are also used in Romanian to “double” the role of a dative phrase.
Example
| Source text: | I gave my car to John. |
| ✘ | Ø Am dat mașina mea lui John. |
| ✓ | I-am dat mașina mea lui John. |
- Possessive article placement
In Romanian, if the genitive is not adjacent to the definite article, the possessive article is interposed between the nominative and genitive nouns.
Example
| Source text: | John’s older brother. |
| ✘ | Fratele mai mare Ø lui John. |
| ✓ | Fratele mai mare al lui John. |
Please note that the genitive case marks are al (masculine, neutral, singular), a (feminine, singular), ai (masculine, plural) and ale (feminine, neutral, plural).
- Reflexive verbs and pronouns
In Romanian, unlike in other languages, there are numerous reflexive verbs, which should be used in combination with a reflexive pronoun. This highlights the distinction between the subject and: (i) the direct object; (ii) the indirect object; (iii) the indirect object expressed through a prepositional phrase.
Example
| Source text: | I wash my car. I wash my face. |
| ✘ | Spăl mașina. Spăl fața mea. |
| ✓ |
Îmi spăl mașina. Mă spăl pe față.
|
7. Most frequent errors
- Noun-adjective word order
Unlike in English, adjectival modifiers are usually placed after the noun.
Example
| Source text: | A nice girl. |
| ✘ | O frumoasă fată. |
| ✓ | O fată frumoasă. |
- Inflection of possessive pronouns
As an inflected language, Romanian has a rich paradigm of possessive pronouns and adjectives with gender and number agreement.
Example
| Source text: | My girl. My boy. |
| ✘ | Fata meu. Băiatul meu. |
| ✓ | Fata mea. Băiatul meu. |
- Double negation
Similar to other Romance languages, and unlike English, Romanian uses double negation.
Example
| Source text: | Nobody knows where John is. |
| ✘ | Nimeni Ø știe unde e John. |
| ✓ |
✓ Nimeni nu știe unde e John.
|
8. Useful online resources
Romanian dictionaries
Bilingual dictionaries
Orthographic dictionary for Romanian
DOOM3
Online language guides
English verb conjugator
English grammar guide
English dictionaries
Thesauruses
Academic grammars
GALR = Gramatica limbii române, Valeria Guțu-Romalo (coord.), 2005, București, Editura Academiei Române, Vol.I: Cuvântul, Vol. II: Enunțul.
GBLR = Gramatica de bază a limbii române, Gabriela Pană-Dindelegan, 2010, București, Editura Enciclopedia Gold.
Handbooks
BR NCUŞ, Grigore, IONESCU, Adriana, SARAMANDU, Manuela, 2003 –Limba română. Manual pentru studenţii străini, Bucureşti, Editura Universităţii din Bucureşti.
DAFINOIU, Cristina-Valentina, PASCALE, Laura-Elena, 2015 – Limba română. Manual pentru studenţii din Anul Pregătitor. Nivel A1-A2, Bucureşti, Editura Universitară.
GÖNCZÖL-DAVIES, Ramona, 2008 - Romanian. An Essential Grammar, London-New York, Routledge.
KOHN, Daniela, 2009 – Puls. Manual de limba română pentru studenţii străini, Iaşi, Polirom.
VASILESCU, Andra (coord.), 2006 – Limba română ca limbă străină. Dosare pedagogice, Bucureşti, Editura Universităţii din Bucureşti.