If you’re learning Romanian, you’ll soon find out that there are a metric ton of strange and confusing grammar rules. The vocabulary and verb conjugations are relatively easy, but understanding noun cases is pretty tricky. And probably one of the most difficult things to learn is when and how to use the genitive “a”. If you remember my post The Case of the Frustrating Cases, … Continue reading Hey, Hey, It’s the Genitive A!
If you want to know what life is like in my house, consider that my wife and I spent half an hour debating the sign you see above. I took that photograph here in Chisinau because I was delighted to see a very old Romanian word that I hadn’t seen in years. Alas, even the sign you see will be gone soon as that shop … Continue reading WOTD: Băcănie
The other day I was walking in town and I passed a billboard with some admonishments to passersby on how to stay healthy. One thing “fun” about Moldova is that a huge percentage of billboards are used by the government, governmental agencies, or foreign NGOs to broadcast helpful information. Not quite sure if that’s due to a lack of commercial customers for the billboard owners … Continue reading Going Down?
If your native language is English, you’re almost hopelessly fucked when it comes to learning a foreign language. Basic English grammar is very simple, with no genders, no need for adjective/adverb matching, simple verbs, and no cases. At one time in the distant past, English was far more complex but was then simplified into its modern form. Most other languages, however, still use these archaic … Continue reading The Case of the Frustrating Cases
Following up on my post A Refreshing Drink of Sweet Water Juice, I thought I’d explore some other common words in the Romanian language which have a number of common variants. When I first moved to Cluj-Napoca and I’d go to the grocery store, the clerk would ask me if I wanted a punga. This is probably the most universal word in Romanian for “bag”, … Continue reading The Net Bag Mini Sack Pack
All Things Romania 