Learning Romanian language

Originally Posted by Darcy

hello, I hope you don't mind me joining here. I am trying to learn Romanian, it is very difficult and I am not getting very far lol

I can deal with vocabulary, but forming sentences just has me totally confused. I have no access to college courses, so I am just learning by myself.

I found this forum by listening to Romanian music, DJ Project, and then looking for translations. As much as the music isn't really the type I would usually listen to, it is really helping with pronounciation. I find I can now sing along with a couple of tracks, even though I have no idea what they/I am singing lol

I look forward to looking around this forum.
x

Salut Darcy,

Welcome to the forum. This site is, without a doubt, the best place online to ask questions. Another great site to do speaking and writing exercises (which are corrected by natives) and build vocabulary is livemocha.com. I highly recommend this site.

Originally Posted by Darcy

hello, I hope you don't mind me joining here. I am trying to learn Romanian, it is very difficult and I am not getting very far lol

I can deal with vocabulary, but forming sentences just has me totally confused. I have no access to college courses, so I am just learning by myself.

I found this forum by listening to Romanian music, DJ Project, and then looking for translations. As much as the music isn't really the type I would usually listen to, it is really helping with pronounciation. I find I can now sing along with a couple of tracks, even though I have no idea what they/I am singing lol

I look forward to looking around this forum.
x

Welcome ! I hope you'll have a nice time here.

I also can recommend some Romanian music ( not soo commercial as Dj Project ) : Florin Chilian, Alexandrina Hristov, Iris, Zale , Vita de vie , and if you want more Romanian music have a look on Romanian Music / Muzică Românească thread.

Hello, I want to say that I made a doll for me /myself and a bag for my sister.

Do I say am fost a faci or do I use facut? Also, are 'me' and 'myself' both 'mine'?

Would ' Am facut o papusa pentru mine si o punga pentru sora mea' be correct?

Originally Posted by Darcy

Hello, I want to say that I made a doll for me /myself and a bag for my sister.

Do I say am fost a faci or do I use facut? Also, are 'me' and 'myself' both 'mine'?

Would ' Am facut o papusa pentru mine si o punga pentru sora mea' be correct?

Am facut o păpușă pentru mine și o poșetă pentru sora mea.
(I think this is correct?)

You could say pungă too.

for "mine"... It depends on if it's a direct object pronoun. In foreign languages like Romanian, it is important to base use of pronouns on parts of speech.

thanks, not sure if I was clear...I meant is 'for me' the same as 'for myself' with both of them being 'pentru mine'.

Originally Posted by Darcy

thanks, not sure if I was clear...I meant is 'for me' the same as 'for myself' with both of them being 'pentru mine'.

I think so. I was saying "me" and "myself" in this case both are direct objects, no? So you would use "mine".

ah ok thats great thanks. While tryig to learn Romanian I find myself doubting my own language hahaha Last week i couldn't for the life of me remember how to spell airport, took me 2 goes,I kept writing aeroport. lol

Originally Posted by Darcy

ah ok thats great thanks. While tryig to learn Romanian I find myself doubting my own language hahaha Last week i couldn't for the life of me remember how to spell airport, took me 2 goes,I kept writing aeroport. lol

That's OK! It happens to me, too... I want to say something in one language, I think in another. Eventually I reach the correct conclusion

If you want to say "myself", I think you use a reflexive pronoun. hopefully a native can correct both of us, but I believe you want to say:

m-am facut o păpuşă şi o poşetă pentru sora mea.

Originally Posted by dragonfly93

That's OK! It happens to me, too... I want to say something in one language, I think in another. Eventually I reach the correct conclusion

I used to think "restaurant" was spelt differently in English than in French. Purely because we don't really emphasise the "au" part as much as they do when pronouncing it.

I hate thinking in english. I'm going to switch over to romanian very soon.

haha, restaurant is funny. I'm quite sure i've spelled it wrong until learning it in romanian.

LOL! I'm ok with it because I speak French... But yep, I think in Ro already!!

Why do you hate thinking in English, Mike?

I'm kinda starting to think in Română.

I don't know. Maybe i've seen it used to hurt people too much.

Originally Posted by mike123

m-am facut o păpuşă şi o poşetă pentru sora mea.

Mi-am făcut o păpușă și o poșetă pentru sora mea.

But it's not right. The correct way to render this phrase is the one that was already mentioned in here:

Am făcut o păpușă pentru mine și o poșetă pentru sora mea.

The reflexive pronoun construction (mi-am făcut ) would have been ok if the action of the verb had been related to me only.

Mi-am făcut o păpușă.

But since the action I performed had two "beneficiaries" (my sister and I), we can't use a reflexive contruction at the begining of the phrase and imply an active one at the end especially since the verb does not appear in the second half of the phrase.

Remember what I said in the past that the conjunction și connects two similar parts. So, in this sentence, by using și we mean to say that the verb stays the same for the both "beneficiaries":

Am făcut o păpușă pentru mine și am făcut o poșetă pentru sora mea.

This is why the reflexive construction can't be used here, cause the extended phrase would look like this (and would be incorrect) :

Mi-am făcut o păpușă pentru mine și mi-am făcut o poșetă pentru sora mea.

Originally Posted by mike123

I don't know. Maybe i've seen it used to hurt people too much.

Huh?

Originally Posted by smfc_stevo_smfc

Huh?

Me too

Well...I sort of get it. But I need a bit more specific of description...

Originally Posted by dya

Mi-am făcut o păpușă și o poșetă pentru sora mea.

But it's not right. The correct way to render this phrase is the one that was already mentioned in here:

Am făcut o păpușă pentru mine și o poșetă pentru sora mea.

The reflexive pronoun construction (mi-am făcut ) would have been ok if the action of the verb had been related to me only.

Mi-am făcut o păpușă.

But since the action I performed had two "beneficiaries" (my sister and I), we can't use a reflexive contruction at the begining of the phrase and imply an active one at the end especially since the verb does not appear in the second half of the phrase.

Remember what I said in the past that the conjunction și connects two similar parts. So, in this sentence, by using și we mean to say that the verb stays the same for the both "beneficiaries":

Am făcut o păpușă pentru mine și am făcut o poșetă pentru sora mea.

This is why the reflexive construction can't be used here, cause the extended phrase would look like this (and would be incorrect) :

Mi-am făcut o păpușă pentru mine și mi-am făcut o poșetă pentru sora mea.

That's a great explanation...multumesc frumos.

dya thanks for the great explanation and the correction. it makes sense to me now.

sorry for the brief discription stevo and dragonfly. i wrote it while I was at work. what I mean (and maybe it's just me) is that people use words to say terrible things about other people. To put them down, to stab them in the back, to crush the simple nature of others as if to make them feel worthless and insignificant. IMO. I suppose this probably happens in all languages, but for me I've only known english. So sadly, this abuse has given english a bad reputation for me.

Au vorbe care dor în românește, nu?

Though perhaps you've only heard mostly English because you're in the U.S. ... I have heard terrible things in French and Spanish :O The thing about English is that although it isn't the most beautiful-sounding language, it DOES have a lot of synonyms, hence the use of deeper insults.