Learning Romanian language

Yeah but Mike, say you spend a months holiday in Romania and pick up Romanian insults. Would your opinion then change of Romanian and your own language now that you would know insults in 2 languages and hear them a lot?

I don't really think the English language sounds great or horrible. I like it I suppose but I love the latin sounds of Romanian and Italian.

I'm curious as to what are insults in Romanian although unfortunately I wouldn't be able to find out here due to language filters. - I don't exactly plan on using the insults but I think it'd be useful to know when you are being insulted and what the insult actually means.

I like how the English language has a lot of synonyms. Dragonfly, what do you mean by the use of deeper insults?

When looking for Romanian teaching sites I came across this one, it has a section on insulting others if you care to look for it.

http://www.phrasebase.com/english/

Originally Posted by smfc_stevo_smfc

Yeah but Mike, say you spend a months holiday in Romania and pick up Romanian insults. Would your opinion then change of Romanian and your own language now that you would know insults in 2 languages and hear them a lot?

I don't really think the English language sounds great or horrible. I like it I suppose but I love the latin sounds of Romanian and Italian.

I'm curious as to what are insults in Romanian although unfortunately I wouldn't be able to find out here due to language filters. - I don't exactly plan on using the insults but I think it'd be useful to know when you are being insulted and what the insult actually means.

I like how the English language has a lot of synonyms. Dragonfly, what do you mean by the use of deeper insults?

I mean, since we have so many words, some mean different things than they started out.

I know a few Romanian insults and won't repeat them here.

Mersi Darcy.
I done a sort of quiz on that site and it said that "rau" meant "worst". Can a native please tell me if this is true or not? - I thought "rău" just meant bad and assumed "mai rău" (or something like that) meant "worst"

Does "rau" without the diacritic change the meaning of the word? (Google translator has me confused again)

Dragonfly, what about in a private message (if that's possible)?

Originally Posted by smfc_stevo_smfc

Yeah but Mike, say you spend a months holiday in Romania and pick up Romanian insults. Would your opinion then change of Romanian and your own language now that you would know insults in 2 languages and hear them a lot?

I don't really think the English language sounds great or horrible. I like it I suppose but I love the latin sounds of Romanian and Italian.

I'm curious as to what are insults in Romanian although unfortunately I wouldn't be able to find out here due to language filters. - I don't exactly plan on using the insults but I think it'd be useful to know when you are being insulted and what the insult actually means.

I like how the English language has a lot of synonyms. Dragonfly, what do you mean by the use of deeper insults?

insults aren't so bad. I mean those 4-letter words really don't offend. I was refering more to the regular language usage. Full sentences but professional people to belittle those around them. Done by people with superiority complexes. :P I hear romanian has some very vulgar curse words. In a bus in ploiesti, I read grafiti off of the side of a building and recieved some pretty funny looks.

darcy, i'm the most active member of the romanian forum on phrasebase! stop by anytime. too bad not many natives visit but there are some fun games.

Stevo: LOL Mike is right, they are... Very... Ummm "personal" insults... Mi se pare that they are mainly based off one method of insult!

"Mai rău" is "worse", not "worst", I think.
"Rau"... Not sure if it's a different word, but be aware that "râu" means river

Mike I have never been on their forums, this is the first one i have joined. I don't know enough to say anything more than the occasional word or very,very short sentence. When I get chance I will have a look at the games, so far I only looked at the phrases.

would cel mai rau be worst, like cel mai bun is best?

Hmmm, that SOUNDS right, but check with a native, or at least someone more fluent than I!

it depends on the noun you are describing.

maşina cea mai rea
câinele cel mai bun

think of:
"good, better, best" == "bun, mai bun, cel mai bun."
"tall, taller, tallest" == "înalt, mai înalt, cel mai înalt"

I think it is safe to say if you translate it literally you find "tall, more tall, the most tall"

the same rule applies to all adjective as far as I know. And also keep in mind that "cel, cei, cea cele" must match the noun and the adjective in person and number.

+ Femeia cea mai frumoasă - the most beautiful girl
+ Femeile cele mai frumoase - the most beautiful girls

+ Bărbatul cel mai bogat - the richest man
+ Bărbaţii cei mai bogaţi - the richest men

anyway, the forum isn't for advanced speakers. I started there around 2+ years ago with very small vocabulary, no knowledge of grammar and without the ability to form sentences. not that i'm an expert now or anything. far from it.

But they recently redid the site layout. And the problem is the romanian moderator made too many sticky so only 3 regular forums remain on the first page. But if you look through the other pages, there are some nice beginner games/exercises. The lessons are very good as well. I'll happily play them with you or anyone else. I'll help the best I can there or here. Of course natives are more than welcome to join.

There's even one thread where I was giving piano lessons to someone! \/

Originally Posted by dragonfly93

Au vorbe care dor în românește, nu?

Dragonfly, I forgot to ask.. what did you want to say here?

If anyone would like to learn the pronunciation of the romanian alphabet. I came across this link.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SpkzaxkcdJE

Originally Posted by mike123

Dragonfly, I forgot to ask.. what did you want to say here?

There are words that hurt in Romanian as well as English, like in every language. I'm not sure that's correct, though.

I tried the forum the other night. It seemed kinda useful at first with the games but after a while I started to not enjoy it when the answers were kinda wrong and I could no longer hear the audio because I wasn't a member.

(Question for a native) - What's most commonly used in Romania when writing? - S and T with a cedilla or with a comma underneath?

dragonfly, ahh i see. I would try to say (with hopes of a correction) like this:
"Cuvinte există să supară in română la fel că şi engleză, la fel că şi în toţi limbi."

stevo, the games on phrasebase? Ahh, yes i seem to remember I had a limit with those too. And the code which they use to test is a little buggy. But you can go on the forum without limitations. unfortunately, as I've said, there aren't many natives who participate. But i will help the best that I can.

Here's the link to the romanian forum.

http://www.phrasebase.com/discuss/board.php?FID=56

Originally Posted by dya

Cine- Who
Ce- what
Unde- Where
Când- When
De ce- Why
Cum- How

I know that while Romanian is a Romance language, it's often mistaken for a Slavic language, but when I saw these words it struck me how similar they are to their equivalents in French. You can really hear those Latin roots when you look deeper.

Ce -- Quoi
Unde -- Où
Când -- Quand
De ce -- Pourqoui
Cum -- Comment

Does Romanian have the informal/formal pronouns like French does (tu/vous) or in the archaic English (thou/you)?

Originally Posted by Mipp

I know that while Romanian is a Romance language, it's often mistaken for a Slavic language, but when I saw these words it struck me how similar they are to their equivalents in French. You can really hear those Latin roots when you look deeper.

Ce -- Quoi
Unde -- Où
Când -- Quand
De ce -- Pourqoui
Cum -- Comment

Does Romanian have the informal/formal pronouns like French does (tu/vous) or in the archaic English (thou/you)?

Yes, if you want to look further into the roots... there are words from Russian (iubire, bogat...they're abundant), Turkish (geam, can't think of others off the top of my head, but there are a lot), and Latin (the rest of the words that are neither of the above)

Romanian uses tu/voi (like in Italian; it's identical) for you(informal) and you(formal)

EDIT: I forgot to mention that in Italian, voi is used for plural, but Lei is used for singular formal. Sorry!

As for this...here's a list of translations you may find interesting:

Romanian/French/Spanish/Italian
Ce / Quoi / Qué / Che
Unde / Où / Dónde / Dove (old Italian was "onde")
Când / Quand / Cuando / Quando
De ce / Pourquoi / Porqué / Perché
Cum / Comment / Cómo / Come

I could list the Latin...But you'd find that it looks most similar (if not identical) to Romanian and Italian (not to mention, one of these words in Latin would get quite a few laughs out of Romanian-speakers)

Hope this was helpful!!

"Foarte interesant"... (I think there is a lack of selection on this forum when it comes to smillies.)

Originally Posted by smfc_stevo_smfc

"Foarte interesant"... (I think there is a lack of selection on this forum when it comes to smillies.)

I agree... someone needs to reprogram the interface xD

Originally Posted by dragonfly93

Romanian uses tu/voi (like in Italian; it's identical) for you(informal) and you(formal)

Also remember that Tu & Voi represent the singular-plural distinction:

tu- personal pronoun, singular
voi- personal pronoun, plural

with all the necessary verb form changes (apart from English which has the same form of the verb for both plural and singular)

Dragonfly, I know you know this, so my post addresses those who are not familiar with Romanian language...yet