Probably one of the most common slang words used in Romania today, smecherie (shmeck-air-ee-eh) is simply put, the art of being a smecher (shmeck-air). Yet if you plug the word into a dictionary, what you get is “sly boots” or a “cunning person”. Close but not exactly right. The noun smecherie comes from the German word “Schmecker”, which just means someone who is employed as … Continue reading Slang Word of the Day: Smecherie
After all of the grammar insanity of late, you might want to go ahead and run for the hills. If however you ever want to learn this unique language, the following will be most helpful. Romanian uses a Slavic syntax when it comes to diminutives. This can either literally mean like a “tinier” version of something or else imply cuteness, affection or fondness. If you … Continue reading The Definite Article: Part 2
Probably one of my all-time vegetables to eat in Romania is varza, known in English by its less mellifluous name of “cabbage”. That being said, the word “varza” has a variety of slang usages, to wit: A (se) face (sau a ajunge, a fi etc.) varză = a (se) distruge, a (se) degrada, a (se) zdrențui Parsing this out it means something like “worn out” … Continue reading Slang Word of the Day: Varza
Following my post on plural words and my introduction to noun cases it’s now time to address the third component: the definite article. In English, this is always super simple, being the use of the word the. Whether it’s the book or the books, in English it’s always the same – just add the word “the” in front of the words (or clause) and you’re … Continue reading The Definite Article in Romanian
Ahhh yes, plurals, a constant and very difficult subject for people learning the Romanian language. Over the years I’ve learned a number of languages (or parts of them) and Romanian is one of the trickiest because it doesn’t follow any sort of internal rules that you can simply memorize. Furthermore, because it is an inflected language (see my post here on noun cases), this means … Continue reading Pluralizing Words in Romanian
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