At some point in your travels in Romania you’re going to need to eat something and you’re going to hear a few phrases that would be useful to understand. Just like my post on drum bun earlier, these are phrases that are obligatory. This means they aren’t “oh hey use ’em whenever the mood strikes you”. No! You must say these at the right time … Continue reading Expression of the Day – Pofta Mare/Buna
If you speak English and see the expression drum bun your mind conjures up a musical instrument for striking out rhythms combined with some kind of light bread style pastry and it makes NO SENSE. That being said, in Romanian it DOES make sense, sort of. Drum (pronounced droom) literally means a “road” or “path” and bun (boon) just means “good”. So drum bun literally … Continue reading Expression of the Day – Drum Bun
Hopa (pronounced hope-ah) is a tough word to translate because it’s used in two different situations. The most general way to think of regular hopa is something like “oops-a-daisies”. For example: Waiter drops some dishes – HOPA! Your friend stumbles on the sidewalk – HOPA! You spill beer on yourself because you’re drunk – HOPA! The other way it’s used is in the expression hopa … Continue reading Slang Word of the Day – Hopa
Over the years, I’ve met a few poor bastards who were trying to learn the Romanian language. Most of these people were ethnic Hungarians and so have a genuine need-to-know so they can operate and live in this country. The rest? Poor saps who fell in love with a Romanian person, usually Foreign Guy meets Beautiful Can’t Live Without Her Romanian Girl. Sigh. I guess … Continue reading A Few Useful Phrases
Sooner or later in Romania you’re going to hear (or read) the word mă (pronounced muh as in “mug” without the g sound). What does it mean? It’s a little confusing because “ma” is a normal pronoun referring to something that is “mine” or about “me”, for example saruta-ma means “kiss me”. But mă is something different and doesn’t exist in any dictionary. If you … Continue reading Slang Word of the Day – Ma
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