I think one of the curious things is that no one has ever actually asked me how to say, “I’m more Romanian than you”.

And since that is, mysteriously enough, the number one search term that leads people to this blog (why? how many egomaniac romaniophiles can there be? good lord!) I thought I’d answer that simple question as it brings up an interesting grammatical subject.

When discussing someone’s nationality, as in I’m more Romanian than you, the syntax takes a decidedly Slavic turn and has some interesting changes.

Starting with Romanian, and how to say it, there are four ways to say it, two male and two female, singular (and plural).

Male: roman, romani
Female: romanca, romance

Therefore, if you’re a male, you would say: Eu sunt mai roman decat tine (yew soont my roe-muhn day cut tee-neigh).

And if you’re female: Eu sunt mai romanca decat tine (yew soont my roe-muhnkuh day cut tee-neigh).

Note: I am not using the diacritical marks here so being a (male) Romanian would be roe-muhn and being a (historical) Roman would be roe-mahn. In all cases above the m-a-n part of the word is pronounced in a deeply guttural way, like muuuuun.

Helpful Hint: Have a friend punch you in the stomach when you say “muuun”.

Incidentally if the word “you” in I’m more than Romanian than you meant the plural you (as in all y’all) then it would be “voi” instead of “tine”.

Therefore in some cases you can see the female version is just the male version plus “ca” (and “ce” in the plural – pronounced “chay” as in “neighbor” and “weigh”).

Note: These forms might be similar to saying things are Romanian (as in “Romanian wine”) as opposed to people but quite often they are not (and we’ll get to that later hehehe).

The other form for people of nationalities is what I call the “zoyka” variant.

Let’s examine the nationality Chinese, which in Romanian is:

Male: chinez, chinezi
Female: chinezoaica, chinezoaice

Wow that’s a tongue twister, eh? Again it’s similar in the sense that it ends in ca/ce (singular/plural) but it has that extra bit in the middle.

Again, a female Chinese “thing” (not a person) would be: chineza. So this “zoyka” form is only when referring to people of that nationality.

Let’s examine the nationality of English, which in Romanian is:

Male: englez, englezi
Female: englezoaica, englezoaice

Let’s do a few more!

Male: american, americani
Female: americanca, americance

Male: australian, australiani
Female: australianca, australiance

Male: rus, rusi
Female: rusoaica, rusoaice

Male: finlandez, finlandezi
Female: finlandezoaica, finlandezoaice

Male: albanez, albanezi
Female: albanezoaica, albanezoaice

Male: noua zeelandez, noua zeelandezi
Female: noua zeelandezoaica, noua zeelandezoiace

Male: nemt, nemti
Female: nemtoaica, nemtoaice

Note: The last one means “German” due to the Slavic name for the people of Germany, which it seems every language has a different word for.

German: Deutsch
Italian: Tedesco
Spanish: Aleman
English: German
Romanian: Nemt
Russian: Немц

I think you might guess the pattern by now. If the male version ends in a pleasant sound to mix with “ca” for the female, then that’s what it does.

If it ends in any kind of z, s or “ts” sound, then you add the “oaica” part in there. That’s why I called it “zoyka” because the name reminds you when to use it.

Let’s have some fun! Again, if you get stuck, highlight over the blank portions with your mouse.

Who	Nationality	I’m more X than you!
girl	American	Eu sunt mai americanca decat tine!
boy	Russian	Eu sunt mai rus decat tine!
girl	Australian	Eu sunt mai australianca decat tine!
boy	German	Eu sunt mai nemt decat tine!
girl	Chinese	Eu sunt mai chinezoiaca decat tine!
boy	Japanese	Eu sunt mai japonez decat tine!
girl	Japanese	Eu sunt mai japonezoiaca decat tine!
boy	English	Eu sunt mai englez decat tine!
girl	Romanian	Eu sunt mai romanca decat tine!
boy	Romanian	Eu sunt mai roman decat tine!
girl	New Zealand	Eu sunt mai noua zeelandezoaica decat tine!

.
Epic!

Oh and just for the record…

INCA EU SUNT MAI ROMAN DECAT TINE…. :P