I would rather prefer talking about anything else than love, but I have no way and I'll explain it to you. I'm the only Romanian online at this hour, my bad luck. (don't take it in a bad way my friend, just my hard feeling about love, anyway no love !)
So... You want in Romanian to tell you this distinction ?
Here you go...
"De la prietenie până la iubire nu este decât un pas. Nici nu ştii când îl faci, însă ceea ce este cert e faptul că eşti îndrăgostită şi simţi cu adevărat că îl iubeşti. O dragoste ce are ala bază o prietenie strânsă are cele mai mari şanse de reuşită. Iar consolarea este că dacă se sfârşeşte dragostea vreodată, rămâne o frumoasă prietenie."
I hope I understood fine.
Want also a translation into English ?
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O altă zi īncepe dar tu nu ştii...
Tot eu voi fi, cel pe care īl vei dori... !
"Unquestionably Romanian people, in my limited experience so far, are some of the friendliest, most generous & helpful, as well as VERY proud of their culture, people I have yet met...and I have worked with people from all over, about 110 different countries as I once worked on Alaskan fishing boats & so forth where I met people of all ages & cultures....except Romanians! "
Yes Wolver, you're right. We're between the most proud people of their culture from the world. Or I am extremly proud of my origins.
What is to admire at Romanians is that we care at our history and we respect traditions. Some called us primitives, from 200 years ago; I would name this as a cure to don't forget our personalities, our people. I cannot say that here aren't bad people. It's a lie... We have bad ones too like every country. But... A true Romanian would never betraid his country for nothing in the world. A true Romanian fights until he dies, never forget where he left from, never pass by his virtutes.
I have seen other countries, it's true that our economy is rising slowly right now and we have some problems in Government and Justice, and life conditions are low, but this won't make a Romanian to deny his country.
Romania has regions : Moldova(NE, E, CE), Transilvania(C), Maramures(N, NV) Bucovina (N, NNE) Dobrogea(SSE) Muntenia (CE), Oltenia(SSV), Banat(SV) Crisana(V) and Basarabia (stolen by Russia after the WW2 and named Republic of Moldova). All of them are full of legends and history.
I live in Iasi, the capital of Moldova which is the most important cultural city from Romania. Here was founded the first university from Romania "Alexandru Ioan Cuza" in 1860. Iasi was the capital of Romania for 2 years byt the time of the WW1.
Iasi is know as the city of literature, writters, full of restaurants where poets, musicians met. It still keeping this "smell". Here lived the most important personalities from my country like : Mihai Eminescu, Nicolae Iorga, Ion Creanga, Nicolae Titulescu etc.
Ah, I go to sleep, I'm very tired... It's 5 another sleepless night.
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O altă zi īncepe dar tu nu ştii...
Tot eu voi fi, cel pe care īl vei dori... !
Location: In or around Seattle, WA most of the time.
Reputation: 10
"...a warning, to say like that, I have a little different type of writting, poetical. I'll make my best to be straigh and not lyrical..."
Nooooooooo ( or should I say, Nuuuuuuuuu!)!
I want to understand this very thing--lyrical, non "straight" or literal ways of expressing ideas in your limba, very much so---in addition to the "straight" literal. With this in mind I am trying to find jokes & poems written in Romanian so I can grasp this deeper dimension of the thought behind the literal words & grammar, I don't know any other way to really possess a language fully, especially being a bit of a writer myself.
Remember that I came to this site to find translations of song lyrics....I did that for a reason...it is only a very pleasurable bonus to find that there is a thread here called Learning Romanian Language (also I like the Romanian Zone thread) and several generous & willing teachers (or guides, too, maybe expresses it just as well).
So while I wouldn't mind at all if you gave a few translation pointers to assist in understanding when you are waxing poetical, as we say---because it is almost impossible, at this stage of my study, to know when someone is being literal and when they might be straying into the sublimely figurative &/or poeticized forms of expression---I would definitely request that you DON'T stop using this manner of communicating what you want to say in the personal way you want to say it.
About the verbs: in fact there is an extended "Verb Table" at the back of the book "Colloquial Romanian" which is the best book I have found so far for learning about the perplexing puzzlements of your magical grammar & sentence structures. Each is conjugated and in fact I found in looking at it again after Cristina's posts that it does give even the subjunctive along with each of the infinitive forms, something I guess I simply hadn't understood the true significance of until she brought up the point in correcting me.
Spelling---this is a trickier subject because I am constantly seeing different ways of spelling Romanian words in both books & online. Sometimes your word for "word" is spelled cuvint, other times, cuvant, both with & without diacritical marks. I had read about the "old" versus "new" ways of spelling in Romanian, but I see these apparent inconsistencies even in fairly recent books, dictionaries, and lesson guides.
Even the word "Craciun" I have seen spelled "C-r-a-c-U-I-n" at times---for example here--
so for me, an American trying to learn the limba in as many ways as I can, it is not always possible to know what is correct.
Even though I am extremely grateful for it all.
The more I learn about your language, your people, your culture, and your history, the more amazed, even astounded, I am that more Americans don't know much about Romania.
Even more so I have been surprised to discover how many Romanians live here without my ever having realized it before. But when just a couple of them found I that I wanted to learn the language, and how serious I am about it, suddenly they came, much to my joy, pouring out of the woodwork, as we say here sometimes.
With not only friendly tips about pronunciation & such---but tasty little samples of Romanian food as well.
Nice!
[p.s. to dya: I knew about the iubesc vs. dragosta types of "love" but I am still not sure, even after looking at your post carefully, about how the distinction is made between "only" loving someone---ie caring about them a lot, having great affection for them, etc---as compared to being "in love" with them, meaning feeling a deep romantic attraction, if not connection, that feels like "Fate" and out of one's control, to the person who has such feelings.
You can be "in love" passionately with someone only to find after a time that the feelings have cooled to the point where now you "love" them but are not "in love" with them....maybe it's a more subtle difference, colloquially or maybe idiomatically speaking, than I had assumed?
Looking forward to your reply. And about the shopping, it is my best Romanian friend's one true passion, lol, she loves doing other things but she is truly "in love" with shopping and probably couldn't live without it...even "window shopping" (yes, she is the one I was trying to express this idea to and I am pretty sure she understands what I mean by that now...thanks to your help here.
So what did you buy? Gifts for family or friends? Or only food.... ?
Now, I need to sleep--big day tomorrow. Saturday, I hope to learn how to say Ļ need to sleep" in Romanian, as per Cristina's teasing hints in one post above, lol]
Even the word "Craciun" I have seen spelled "C-r-a-c-U-I-n"
That is one usual typo!u and i are one after the other on the keyboard and when we type in a hurry or when we don't pay attention, this happens. The only way to say Christmas is Crăciun
Quote:
Originally Posted by wolver99
With not only friendly tips about pronunciation & such---but tasty little samples of Romanian food as well.
Nice!
I was wondering when you'd finally run into the Romanian food Now, that Pandora's box has been opened for you...enjoy!!!
Location: In or around Seattle, WA most of the time.
Reputation: 10
Oh, dya, you're back! I edited in a little reply to you in my post above yours, I must have been typing mine while you were typing yours, lol. But seriously, bedtime for me now, I must get up early. Buna ziua and looking forward to catching up with this thread tomorrow night...
Sooo.... The distinction you spoke about, between love and "be in love" has the exact meaning and implications in Romanian as well. You can love someone without being in love with that person(the way you love your friends has nothing to do with romance, for example). Also you can love someone after being previously in love with that person. The "butterflies in the stomach " period is over but love(usually at a more profound level, a "couple love") is there.
Maybe your friend's "dilemma" has to do with a combination between these two: not in love anymore(if ever) and love for the person but not romance/profound/ couple love, but more like love for someone you know for a long time, have respect, admiration, etc for that person but it's more like a friendly love than a couple love. I'm just taking a guess here, I don't know if that's the case in her situation.
Oh, and my shopping was for food
And, finally, I need to sleep can be said in two ways:
Am nevoie să dorm
Am nevoie de somn( I need sleep)
Da da ! Hai radeti toti de mine ca m-am trezit acum . Dar pana si eu rad, deci...
Eu am lucrat in seara trecuta la traduceri draga mea, de ce esti rea ?
Bei o cafea ?
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O altă zi īncepe dar tu nu ştii...
Tot eu voi fi, cel pe care īl vei dori... !
BTW, eu ma pregatesc sa fac un dus si sa ies la o cafenea cu niste prieteni. Te-as fi invitat, insa cine stie ce amenda ti-au mai dat si politistii aia, sunteti recunoscuti pentru ei . Eu sper intr-un final sa scapi linistita si sa revii la "traduceri".
Numai noi avem limba dulce
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O altă zi īncepe dar tu nu ştii...
Tot eu voi fi, cel pe care īl vei dori... !
Today I've made a revison of all we learned here and I realized that we didn't talk about general rules for the nouns.So,today I will tell some things about the nouns in romanian.
GENDERS AND NUMBERS:
There are three genders in Romanian: masculine, feminine, and neuter and two numbers: singular and plural. Each gender has singular and plural forms. Nouns which end in a consonant or in vowel/semivowel u are mostly masculine or neuter; if they end in ă or a they are usually feminine.
The general rule for determining a noun's gender relies on the "one-two" test, which consists in inflecting the noun to both the singular and the plural, together with the numbers one and two.
Examples:
Masculine:
one man-two men
un bărbat-doi bărbaţi
one child-two children
un copil-doi copii
Feminine:
one woman-two women
o femeie-două femei
one girl-two girls
o fată-două fete
The Romanian neuter is in form identical to the masculine in the singular, but in the plural has the feminine form.
one chair-two chairs
un scaun-două scaune
one bed-two beds
un pat-două paturi
The bad thing is that the plural form is highly irregular with many rules and exceptions. But to have a rule: ending i corresponds generally to masculine nouns, whereas feminine and neuter nouns often end in e.
But I repeat :there are many exceptions to these rules, each noun has to be learned together with its gender.
CASES
There are five cases in Romanian: nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, and vocative.
The nominative case is the usual form of some parts of the speech such as nouns, adjectives, pronouns and less frequently numerals and participles, and sometimes does not indicate any special relationship with other parts of speech.The nominative case marks the subject of a verb, as opposed to its object or other verb arguments.Basically, it is a noun that is doing something, usually joined with the accusative case.
The accusative case is used to mark the direct object of a transitive verb. The same case is used to indicate duration of time,to indicate direction towards which,in indirect statements.Basically, it is a noun that is having something done to it, usually joined with the Nominative case.
Example:
I see the flower. - Eu văd floarea-> the flower(floarea) is is the direct object of the verb "see".
The genitive case or possessive case is the case that marks a noun as being the possessor of another noun.
In usual genitival phrases such as "casa omului"(the house of the man), the genitive is only recognized by the specific ending ("-lui" in this example) and no other words are necessary. However, in other situations the genitival article is required, as for example "īn cāteva camere ale casei" ("in some of the house's rooms').
The dative case is used to indicate the noun to whom something is given. In romanian dative phrases the noun in the dative is doubled by a pronoun.The position of this pronoun in the sentence depends on the mood and tense of the verb.
Example:
I give a book to [my] friends.-Le dau o carte prientenilor.
The pronoun "le" doubles the noun "prietenilor" without bringing any additional information.
The vocative is less used as it is normally restricted to nouns designating people or other things we can address.
Example:
And you,Maria?-(Şi) tu,Maria? -The noun "Maria" is in vocativ case.
ARTICLES
Romanian has both indefinite and definite articles. These articles are gender-specific, and decline for case and number.
The indefinite article (a, an in English) declines thus:
Nominative/Accusative:
masculine
-singular:un
-plural:nişte (some)
feminine
-singular: o
-plural: nişte (some)
neuter:
-singular: un
-plural: nişte
Genitive/Dative:
masculine
-singular: unui
-plural: unor
feminine
-singular: unei
-plural: unor
neuter:
-singular:unui
-plural:unor
The definite article (the in English) is a suffix that forms part of the noun declension.
Examples:
Masculine nouns (singular, nominative/accusative):
codru - codrul (forest - the forest);
pom - pomul (tree - the tree);
frate - fratele (brother - the brother);
tată - tatăl (father - the father).
Neuter nouns (singular, nominative/accusative):
teatru - teatrul (theater - the theater);
loc - locul (place - the place);
Feminine nouns (singular, nominative/accusative):
casă - casa (house - the house);
floare - floarea (flower - the flower);
cutie - cutia (box - the box);
stea - steaua (star - the star);
There are situations in Romanian when the noun in the genitive requires the presence of the so-called genitival (or possessive) article :
Location: In or around Seattle, WA most of the time.
Reputation: 10
Cristina, your lesson on GENDER & NUMBERS is excellent! It is very helpful the way that you include examples, it helps me, and probably some others, a lot in understanding the information and we can use it right away.
But, a couple of quick questions, is there a Romanian term for 'feedback' of the audio kind? Especially the unpleasant kind caused when a guitar amplifier and microphone starts feeding back? Or sound speakers?
Also, do you have some version of St. Valentine's Day in Romania like we have here in the U.S.?
But, a couple of quick questions, is there a Romanian term for 'feedback' of the audio kind? Especially the unpleasant kind caused when a guitar amplifier and microphone starts feeding back? Or sound speakers?
I believe that refers to the case when something is heard with some kind of a weird echo. If that's what you ask, then we simply call it echo=ecou.
The expression would be(if you hear the other person with this effect): Te aud cu ecou
If you hear yourself (which I personally find very annoying especially on the phone, because I can't concentrate on what I was saying!! LOL) you say: Mă aud cu ecou.
Quote:
Originally Posted by wolver99
Also, do you have some version of St. Valentine's Day in Romania like we have here in the U.S.?
Yes, we do and we have an entire "campaign" to promote this versus your Valentine's day! Due to massive imports from your culture( via movies) we are making a big deal today on Valentine's Day, which speaking from a strictly cultural point of view is not our holiday but somehow it sells all right around here.
Our version of Valentine's Day is an old holiday celebrated on 24th of February. It's called Dragobete. Brief history/mythology: Dragobete is the Romanian "equivalent" of Eros/Cupid and is seen as a young, handsome, restless, naughty, etc man said to be the protector of the love of those who met on his day, and their love will last for the entire year.
The significance of this day seems to also be related to the coming of spring. The end of February means also the coming of spring, the nature comes back to life, animals and birds start to mate thus the connection to love. Basically everything comes back to life, love first!
There are/were all kind of traditions associated with this day, but I don't know if you're interested so I'll stop here
parents=părinţii
father= tată
mother=mamă
brother=frate
sister=soră
grandfather=bunic
grandmother=bunică
cousin (for a male)=văr or verişor (it is a diminutive but we use this form
frequently)
cousin (for a female)=vară or verişoară
uncle-unchi
aunt-matuşă
nephew,grandson=nepot
niece,granddaughter=nepoată
son=fiu
Again Love ? :(
another sleepless night.
)
