Learning Romanian language

Thread: Learning Romanian language

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  1. mike123's Avatar

    mike123 said:

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    Quote Originally Posted by dragonfly93 View Post
    I thought a uita meant to forget.
    "a uita" does mean to forget. But "a se uita" (reflexive) means "to look at (something)".

    (eu) mă uit
    (tu) te uiţi
    (el-ea) se uită
    (noi) ne uitam
    (voi) vă uitaţi
    (ei-ele) se uită

    the only difference is the reflexive verb will always have the reflexive pronoun.

    btw, you're welcome with the pronouns and here is a very good document which has them all. it's 183 pages of Romanian grammar. This should get you started.

    http://www.seelrc.org:8080/grammar/p...e_romanian.pdf
    De multe ori tăcerea e mai bună decât răspunsul.
     
  2. dragonfly93's Avatar

    dragonfly93 said:

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    Thank you Mike, I already downloaded the PDF though.
    Minä olen horjunut, epäilen enemmän kuin ennen
    Mutta halusit ihmisen, sen viat, sen heikkouden
     
  3. mike123's Avatar

    mike123 said:

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    ahh good.
    De multe ori tăcerea e mai bună decât răspunsul.
     
  4. dragonfly93's Avatar

    dragonfly93 said:

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    I was wondering if there is a rule on when to pronounce the "e" at the beginning of a word as "e" and when to pronounce it as "ie". Does it have to do with whether there is a word in front of it, and if so, does it depend on if that word ends in a consonant or vowel?
    Minä olen horjunut, epäilen enemmän kuin ennen
    Mutta halusit ihmisen, sen viat, sen heikkouden
     
  5. mike123's Avatar

    mike123 said:

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    Quote Originally Posted by dragonfly93 View Post
    I was wondering if there is a rule on when to pronounce the "e" at the beginning of a word as "e" and when to pronounce it as "ie". Does it have to do with whether there is a word in front of it, and if so, does it depend on if that word ends in a consonant or vowel?
    Tis one, i'm not 100%, but i think it sounds like e always except for conjugations of "a fi" that begin with e.

    these are pronounced:

    eşti = y-eşt
    este = y-este
    eram = y-eram
    erai = y-erai
    ...etc.
    De multe ori tăcerea e mai bună decât răspunsul.
     
  6. dragonfly93's Avatar

    dragonfly93 said:

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    That is true for a fi, but I also hear it in the pronouns el, ea, ei, and ele... And I'm pretty sure they are not verbs

    Or are they the only other words besides the a fi conjugations that have the "ie" sound?
    Minä olen horjunut, epäilen enemmän kuin ennen
    Mutta halusit ihmisen, sen viat, sen heikkouden
     
  7. smfc_stevo_smfc's Avatar

    smfc_stevo_smfc said:

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    I have a question that sprung to mind today:

    In English we say "me", "you", etc. wether it be on their own, in sentences like "beside me" or "I love you" etc.
    But in Romanian it is different. They say "tu" for "you" and "te iubesc" for "I love you" and "lângă tine" for "beside you".
    Why is this? Can someone explain this whole rule/concept to me please?
     
  8. mike123's Avatar

    mike123 said:

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    Quote Originally Posted by dragonfly93 View Post
    That is true for a fi, but I also hear it in the pronouns el, ea, ei, and ele... And I'm pretty sure they are not verbs

    Or are they the only other words besides the a fi conjugations that have the "ie" sound?
    ahh yes, you are right. these pronouns also have the "y" sound.

    yel, yea, yay and ye-le
    De multe ori tăcerea e mai bună decât răspunsul.
     
  9. mike123's Avatar

    mike123 said:

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    Quote Originally Posted by smfc_stevo_smfc View Post
    I have a question that sprung to mind today:

    In English we say "me", "you", etc. wether it be on their own, in sentences like "beside me" or "I love you" etc.
    But in Romanian it is different. They say "tu" for "you" and "te iubesc" for "I love you" and "lângă tine" for "beside you".
    Why is this? Can someone explain this whole rule/concept to me please?
    tu is a nominative pronoun for "you". te is the accusative pronoun for "you".

    in english we use - me, you, him, her, it, us, you-all, them. for the accusative.

    in rom, the nominative isn't required bc it is understood by the conjugation of the verb.

    iubesc = I love. (I (eu) is in the nominative case )
    iubesţi = you love. (you (tu) is in the nominative case)

    The accusative asks the question next: who do you love? the answer is "you", of which you use the accusative pronoun. ("te" in this case). "te iubesc"

    You'll see "mă, te,îl, o, ne, vă, îi, le" used for the accusative.

    mă omori - you're killing me
    te vreau - i want you
    îl asculţi - (you) listen to him

    Or with more stress (but i don't believe it's used often) is :
    "te iubesc pe tine" - Is like saying "I love you (and not anyone else).

    "te" is the unstressed version of the nominative pronoun "you". There is a stressed version which is "tine". The stressed always requires a preposition before it. (pe tine, cu tine, de tine, la tine, etc.)

    mi-e dor de tine - I miss you
    mi-a fost dor de tine - I've missed you.
    locuieşti cu mine - You live with me.
    ...etc.
    Last edited by mike123; 02-16-2010 at 05:45 PM.
    De multe ori tăcerea e mai bună decât răspunsul.
     
  10. dragonfly93's Avatar

    dragonfly93 said:

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    Quote Originally Posted by smfc_stevo_smfc View Post
    I have a question that sprung to mind today:

    In English we say "me", "you", etc. wether it be on their own, in sentences like "beside me" or "I love you" etc.
    But in Romanian it is different. They say "tu" for "you" and "te iubesc" for "I love you" and "lângă tine" for "beside you".
    Why is this? Can someone explain this whole rule/concept to me please?
    Yes, Mike is correct. Like Latin, Romanian has different cases for pretty much everything. It has a total of 5 cases: nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, and vocative. Each has a different set of pronouns, for indirect and direct object pronouns.
    Minä olen horjunut, epäilen enemmän kuin ennen
    Mutta halusit ihmisen, sen viat, sen heikkouden
     
  11. dragonfly93's Avatar

    dragonfly93 said:

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    Quote Originally Posted by mike123 View Post
    ahh yes, you are right. these pronouns also have the "y" sound.

    yel, yea, yay and ye-le
    I had something else interesting I found, though... In the song "Sare Sare" by Mahay and Cezarmonic, "era" is not pronounced with the "ie" sound... that's why I wanted to know if there was a rule.

    Here is the link to the song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ednxEM-xeI
    Minä olen horjunut, epäilen enemmän kuin ennen
    Mutta halusit ihmisen, sen viat, sen heikkouden
     
  12. mike123's Avatar

    mike123 said:

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    Quote Originally Posted by dragonfly93 View Post
    I had something else interesting I found, though... In the song "Sare Sare" by Mahay and Cezarmonic, "era" is not pronounced with the "ie" sound... that's why I wanted to know if there was a rule.

    Here is the link to the song: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=5ednxEM-xeI
    I hear what you mean. But i just confirmed that it should be pronounced: ieram, ierai, iera

    edit: I was told that many romanians make this mistake.
    Last edited by mike123; 02-15-2010 at 02:26 PM.
    De multe ori tăcerea e mai bună decât răspunsul.
     
  13. dragonfly93's Avatar

    dragonfly93 said:

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    By the way, is there a difference between "româneste" and "română" when referring to the language?
    Minä olen horjunut, epäilen enemmän kuin ennen
    Mutta halusit ihmisen, sen viat, sen heikkouden
     
  14. smfc_stevo_smfc's Avatar

    smfc_stevo_smfc said:

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    Good point Dragonfly. I've often wondered that myself. I've not seen "romana" being used on it's own when referring to the language. Usually "limba romana" but I've heard "romaneste" being used on it's own when referring to the language.
     
  15. mike123's Avatar

    mike123 said:

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    Quote Originally Posted by dragonfly93 View Post
    By the way, is there a difference between "româneste" and "română" when referring to the language?
    română is the language , and româneşte is when you speak about it.

    like in "ştiu româneşte"

    ....if you want to use română , you have to add "limba română".
    De multe ori tăcerea e mai bună decât răspunsul.
     
  16. dragonfly93's Avatar

    dragonfly93 said:

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    Hey Mike, in the phrase "multă energie", the "e" îs pronounced as a "ie"... Maybe because multă ends with a vowel???
    Minä olen horjunut, epäilen enemmän kuin ennen
    Mutta halusit ihmisen, sen viat, sen heikkouden
     
  17. mike123's Avatar

    mike123 said:

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    I'm not all that good at speaking because I don't do enough of it. maybe someday. :-< someone else will have to help with this one.
    De multe ori tăcerea e mai bună decât răspunsul.
     
  18. Euridike said:

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    Quote Originally Posted by dragonfly93 View Post
    By the way, is there a difference between "româneste" and "română" when referring to the language?
    Bună

    I heard that if you mean "to speak Romanian", you should say "a vorbi româna", because saying "a vorbi româneşte" means "to speak clearly", i.e. in understandable and coherent way
     
  19. krityx's Avatar

    krityx said:

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    Quote Originally Posted by dragonfly93 View Post
    That is true for a fi, but I also hear it in the pronouns el, ea, ei, and ele... And I'm pretty sure they are not verbs

    Or are they the only other words besides the a fi conjugations that have the "ie" sound?
    No words really have that ye sound, that's just the way most people pronounce it. If you want to speak the words 100% correctly you won't say ye, you'll say a simple e. This comes naturally to us and it usually serves as a way to make a smoother transition between some words. For example if one says "E cald afara" he'll always say E because there's nothing before it.

    Quote Originally Posted by mike123 View Post
    in english we use - me, you, him, her, it, us, you-all, them. for the accusative.

    in rom, the nominative isn't required bc it is understood by the conjugation of the verb.

    iubesc = I love. (I (eu) is in the nominative case )
    iubesţi = you love. (you (tu) is in the nominative case)

    The accusative asks the question next: who do you love? the answer is "you", of which you use the accusative pronoun. ("te" in this case). "te iubesc"

    You'll see "mă, te,îl, o, ne, vă, îi, le" used for the accusative.

    mă omori - you're killing me
    te vreau - i want you
    îl asculţi - (you) wait for him

    Or with more stress (but i don't believe it's used often) is :
    "te iubesc pe tine" - Is like saying "I love you (and not anyone else).

    "te" is the unstressed version of the nominative pronoun "you". There is a stressed version which is "tine". The stressed always requires a preposition before it. (pe tine, cu tine, de tine, la tine, etc.)

    mi-e dor de tine - I miss you
    mi-a fost dor de tine - I've missed you.
    locuieşti cu mine - You live with me.
    ...etc.
    correct, except il asculti means - you listen to him
    te iubesc pe tine is not correct, no one says this, it's basically a repetition. te means pe tine, and although the meaning's the same you use them in different situations.

    So tine is not a stressed version of te. Tine is never used on its own anyway, you'll always say "pe tine" which is the same as te but as I said earlier it's used in different situations.

    Euridike, you're wrong, a vorbi romaneste = a vorbi romana, although you'll find the latter is used a lot more. But yes, it can have that meaning when someone says something you don't understand, you can say vorbeste romaneste or vorbeste in romana = speak romanian (as in speak so i can understand)
     
  20. dragonfly93's Avatar

    dragonfly93 said:

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    Thank you, Krityx!
    Minä olen horjunut, epäilen enemmän kuin ennen
    Mutta halusit ihmisen, sen viat, sen heikkouden