Alo! This Moldovan course was developed by the U.S. Peace Corps for its volunteers going to Moldova. It can be useful as a primer for learning the basics of the Moldovan language. You can listen and follow along to each lesson or download the whole course directly.

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Introduction

Up to 30 million people are currently speaking Romanian. 20 million live in Romania (90 percent of the population); 3 million in the Republic of Moldova and about 1 million in neighboring countries (Ukraine, Hungary, the Czech Republic, Slovakia, Serbia and Montenegro, Bulgaria and Greece). There are also significant communities of Romanian language speakers in countries like Canada, United States, Germany, Israel, Australia, New Zealand, Italy and Spain.

Romanian is the only Eastern Romance language and most words in Romanian vocabulary (about 75 percent) are of Latin origin. This is why Romanian shares approximately 70 percent of its vocabulary with the other Romance languages, mostly Italian and French, followed by Sardinian, Catalan, Portuguese, Romansh, and Spanish. Over the centuries, Romanian has also borrowed many words from its Slavonic neighbors, German, Hungarian, Turkish, French and, more recently, from English.

The Romanian alphabet is based on the Latin alphabet, and has five additional letters (these are not diacriticals, but letters in their own right): ă, î, â, ş, and ţ. The Romanian alphabet is basically phonetic (with one exception: â - used inside the words - and î - used at the beginning or the end - both represent the same sound). The sounds denoted by letters are largely similar to Italian.

Note that a version of the Cyrillic alphabet was used in the Soviet Republic of Moldova until 1989, when they switched back to the Romanian version of the Latin alphabet.

Lesson 1 – Conversational Romanian

Lesson 2 – Basic Expressions

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Lesson 3 – Introductions

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Lesson 4 – Basic Questions and Answers

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Lesson 5 – The Romanian Alphabet

Note: Any Romanian word starting with “e” is pronounced with an English “y” sound at the beginning.

Example: “este” is pronounced as yes-the

Diphthongs

Note: Put the two vowel sounds together to make the diphthong sound.

i (ee) + e (eh) = ie (yeh)

o (oh) + a (ah) = oa (wah)

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Lesson 6 – Pronouns

The English pronouns (I, you, he, she, we, etc.) are the same in Romanian. The only exception is that Romanian has a singular and plural form for “you”. Let’s learn the pronouns:

Notes:

1. If there is a group of masculine and feminine nouns, then it is always referred to by the pronoun ei.

2. If a person wishes to address someone (or group of people) in a formal tone, the speaker would use the pronoun DUMNEAVOASTRĂ. The verb’s form for this pronoun is the same as for voi.

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Lesson 7 – To Be and To Have

Two of the most basic verbs in Romanian are “a fi” (to be) and “a avea” (to have). Let’s us learn the present tense conjugation of these verbs.

a fi

Examples:

· Eu sînt student. (I am a student.)

· El nu e voluntar. (He is not a volunteer.)

· Mircea este inteligent. (Mircea is intelligent.)

a vea

Examples:

· Radu are un apartament. (Radu has an apartment.)

· Noi avem mulţi prieteni. (We have many friends.)

· Tu nu ai bilet. (You don’t have a ticket.)

Notes:

1. From the examples above you can notice that the conjugation este can be shortened to e, and it is done quite often in spoken Romanian. It has the same meaning.

2. The negation of a verb is done by preceding it with nu. You can observe it in the examples above.

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Lesson 8 – Articles

As in English, in Romanian the indefinite articles (a, an, some) precede the noun to which they refer.

Expressions

Examples:
· Adrian este un om bun. (Adrian is a good man.)
· Cristina are o carte. (Cristina has a book.)
· Nişte copii sunt in faţa şcolii. (Some kids are in front of the school.)

Definite Articles

The definite articles in Romanian come after the noun, as a suffix.

If the word ends in a consonant, add –ul:

If the word ends in –ă, substitute –a:

If ending in –ea, add –ua:

If ending in –u, add –l:

Examples:

· Copacul este foarte înalt. (The tree is very tall.)

· Maşina va veni peste o oră. (The car will come in an hour.)

· Tricoul este murdar. (The t-shirt is dirty.)

Notes: In some instances the Romanian definite articles must be used, though they will not be used in English.

1. When we speak about something in general:

· Viaţa este foarte diferită. (Life is very different.)

· Îmi place cafeaua foarte mult.(I like coffee very much.)

2. When showing possession:

· Fratele meu este doctor. (My brother is a doctor.)

· Trenul tău pleacă mîine. (Your train leaves tomorrow.)

Lesson Vocabulary

carte – book (f.)
copil – child (m.)
în faţă – in front (adv.)
şcoală – school (f.)
copac – tree (m.)
înalt – tall (adj.)
maşină – car (f.)
oră – hour (f.)
tricou – t-shirt (m.)
murdar – dirty (adj.)
viaţă – life (f.)
diferit – different (adj.)
soră – sister
doctor – doctor (m.)
tren – train (m.)
mîine – tomorrow

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Lesson 9 – Numbers

As in other numerical systems, the Romanian number names use a limited set of words and combining rules, which can be applied to generate the name of any number within sufficiently large limits.

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Lesson 10 – Days

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Lesson 11 – Months

Note: The first day of the month is called întîi (oon-tooee) not one. For example the first of August is întîi August.

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Lesson 12 – Basic Words

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Lesson 13 – Basic Adverbs and Adjectives

Adverbs

Adjectives

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Lesson 14 – Food and Drinks

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Lesson 15 – Around the House

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Lesson 16 – Introducing Yourself

Dialogue 1

Dialogue 2

Dialogue 3

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Lesson 17 – Daily Conversation

Dialogue 1

Dialogue 2

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Lesson 18 – Questions and Answers

Dialogues

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Lesson 19 – English Cognates

The Romanian language has also many words that sound similar in English and have the same meaning. Let us listen:

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Original Course Text

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