Many of you are outstanding experts in the field of Romanian language, grammar and usage and I thank you for all of your help in this regard.
But some of you are not native Romanian speakers. I was looking through some of my notes here to see what topics I’d like to write about and I’d like your input. Is there any particular part of Romanian that you’d like some clarification on? Perhaps some grammar rules or sentence structure? Or what a few slang or euphemistic phrases mean perhaps?
I spent a few hours the other day writing a post on personal pronouns. I’ll finish it if that’s what you’d like most but I’ll warn you it’s a devilishly complex topic (all the mie, mine, imi’s, etc). I’d still like to hear what you’re struggling with if you’re learning Romanian.
Everything’s on the table with the exception of “curse” words, also known in some parts as “cuss” words. Those are easily discoverable online and I won’t waste your time with them.
Note: If you’ve never commented on my blog before, be patient. Your comment goes into a queue for me to review before it gets posted publicly. It’ll be 24 hours (usually far less) before you’ll see it show up. Additionally, sometimes even long-time users get their comments hung up in the queue so again, a modicum of patience is always appreciated :)
All Things Romania 
@ Katharine
You are right to be confused. Romanian linguists are still debating the role of “-e / este” in expressions like “mi-e foame”, “mi-e sete”, “mi-e frig” etc.
Traditional grammar says that, in this example, “foame” is a noun in Nominative case so, basically this is the subject of the sentence. Compare:
“Foamea exista.” vs. “*Foame e.” / “E foame.”
You might hear people saying: “E foame mare in tara noastra!” = “There is big famine in our country!”
Consequently, we have “*Foame e cui?”/ “Cui (ii) e foame?” (engl. Whom?) – “*Foame e mie.”/”Mie (imi) e foame / Mie (mi-)e foame.”
In this case, “mie / mi-” is a pronoun in Dative; the syntactic function is Indirect Object. The verb “a fi” is considered a “predicat verbal” (like most of the verbs; it does not need other words in order to have a meaning; its meaning is “exista” / “there is”)
In order to be concise, I am not going to give you the other interpretations. Let’s stuck with the official one :)
In the second example, things are more clear.
Compare “Noi suntem romani” with “Noi, romani!” (both sentences have the same meaning; in the second one, the verb was replaced by a comma).
noi = personal pronoun, case Nominative, the Subject of the sentence (Cine? / Who?)
suntem romani = syntactic function: “predicat nominal”
suntem = the first part of a “predicat nominal”; “a fi” has the role of a “verb copulativ” (“copula” = link; it’s just the link between two words, like the comma in the example above, so it shows a relationship between two words; in this case the pronoun “noi” and the noun “romani”).
romani = noun, case Nominative, its syntactic function is “nume predicativ”; it’s the second part of a “predicat nominal”; this is the “real” predicate, the one which carries the meaning of the sentence).
In conclusion:
“Mi-e foame.” —————————- “foame”= Subject; “mi-” = Indirect Object;
“Noi suntem romani.”——————-“noi” = Subject; “romani” = Nominal Predicate
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Mihaela, i suppose you’re a Romanian teacher ? Or studied it in the university ? Only my romanian theacher back in high-school could’ve made it SO explicit !!! :))
And, as some we’re saying above, if one is to learn romanian, probably the streeg “slang” will be way more useful than the dictionary. Just imagine people outside Romania, with a dictionary in their hands, trying to figure out what ” Eu o tai”, “O iei pe sestache”, “M-am invartit aiurea prin Mall vreme de 3 ore”, or anything of the like. :)
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@ Daniel
M-ai prins! :) I am not quite a teacher, although I do teach Romanian to people who need it. Despite its complicated (and redundant) grammar, Romanian is a very logical language. If you do understand the logic of the language you have an easier way of learning Romanian. If not, you just have to memorize all the expressions and phrases, which, personally, I find counterproductive. So it really depends on what people want when they decide to learn Romanian. My feeling is that Sam does not just memorize words, but he is really interested in understanding the language. That’s why I keep posting grammar explanations. He could tell me if I am wrong. I wouldn’t mind being less exhaustive or stop writing. :)
On the other hand, when I criticize my fellow Romanians, I am often asked “But what do you do for your country?” Well, I teach Romanian to people who want to study it. This is not my everyday job. I just do it, because I love Romanian. Maybe it’s not enough, maybe it’s not necessary, but what the heck! Fiecare dupa posibilitati, maica! :)
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I am interested in understanding the language! :D Definitely… and thanks for all of the helpful and explanatory comments :)
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For an English speaker, the confusion comes from trying to translate the meaning of a sentence by using what appears to be the same grammatical structure.
English:
I am hungry = Subject Pronoun + Verb + Adjective
Romanian:
Eu sunt foame = Subject Pronoun + Verb + Noun (engl. I am hunger.)
The equivalent adjective for the noun “foame” is “infometat” so the grammatical equivalent is “Eu sunt infometat.” = Subject Pronoun + Verb + Adjective
But Romanians rarely say that and, besides, this structure can be considered passive, better translated in English as “I am starved.”
So the meaning of “I am hungry” can be translated only like this:
Mi-e foame = Object Pronoun + Verb + Subject Noun
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It’s not particular to Romanian, German has it too and I suppose all languages with dative pronouns use it:
Mir ist kalt (îmi este frig).
Saying “ich bin kalt” means “I am frigid” :)
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I have a bloody hard time figuring out when to use certain cases in saying similar things. For example:
‘Mi-e foame’
vs.
‘Noi suntem romani’
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What about “ser’us toc” (from servus toc)! Always wondered about that… I sepak Romanian, but i don’t speak Hungarian and I think that’s where “toc” comes from (my friends told me that it means Hi, everybody!) And it is only used in Cluj.
Thanks!
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It’s not exactly on the topic, but I would like to emphasize an important detail related to Romanian language. In English, the editors of a dictionary often conduct surveys to establish the meaning of a word. There is no “authority”, except the one of the English language users. That’s not the case in Romanian language. The only authority, when it comes to Romanian, is The Romanian Academy, whose members (linguists) establish what is the meaning of a word and how that word should be spelled or used.
Asking Romanians in the street what is the meaning of a word is not the best thing to do when learning Romanian. You should have the latest version of the dictionary published by the Romanian Academy if you want to excel in this language. I know, it might sound puzzling for most of English speakers, but, before you judge us, you should know that French and other European languages have the same system.
Sometimes, TV shows conduct surveys in the street, asking people to give the definition of different words. These are not lexicographic programs but entertaining shows, simply because the outcome of such surveys is hilarious (or, at least, this is how Romanians make fun of themselves).
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well….i think that asking people on the street is a good way, because that’s how the majority of romanians will define different terms. The Romanian Academy gives the official romanian, that, as Sam previously put it, makes you understood by any romanian anywhere, but will not help you understand too much of what’s going on around you.
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Nice to put it that way, but, than, it makes people think that, if I use a word like, let’s say “fronda”, than I consider myself an aristocrat who is looking with contempt toward “little people.” It also makes Caragiale pedant and you will definitely think that Maiorescu was a “moftangiu.”
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Well…if that’s the general conception in one region then that’s it, you will look like an aristocrat. I always thought (without looking through a dictionary) that “fronda” means to oppose, or to make/organize an opposition with all your friends :D.
For me in the UK I often find myself warned that if I use certain words people will think X or Y about me….and I’m like: o.O but that’s the first word that came into my head…
PS- we should explain to Sam what “moftangiu” is :P
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Correction:
Accusative
pe ei, îi, i-
pe ele, le, le-
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German-to-romanian quick guide:
Accusative
mich = pe mine, mă, m-
dich = pe tine, te, te-
ihn = pe el, îl, l-
sie = pe ea, o, -o
uns = pe noi, ne, ne-
euch = pe voi, vă, v-
sie = pe ei / pe ele, îi, i-
Accusative reflexive
mich = mă, m-
dich = te, te-
sich = se, s-
uns = ne, ne-
euch = vă, v-
sich = se, s-
Dative
mir = mie, îmi, mi-
dir = ţie, îţi, ţi-
ihm = lui, îi, i-
ihr = ei, îi, i-
uns = nouă, ne, ne-
euch = vouă, vă, v-
ihnen = lor, le, le-
Dative reflexive
mir = îmi / mi-
dir = îţi / ţi-
sich = îşi / şi-
uns = ne / ne-
euch = vă / v-
sich= îşi / şi-
Posession
Singular, masculine: meu, tău, lui, ei, nostru, vostru, lor
Singular, feminine: mea, ta, lui, ei, noastră, voastră, lor
Plural masculine: mei, tăi, lui, ei, noştri, voştri, lor
Plural feminine: mele, tale, lui, ei, noastre, voastre, lor
I hope I didn’t get something wrong.
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Banalities – common phrases that everybody uses, but noone can explain. Also the differences between ‘city’ and ‘country’ dialect :)
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