When you’re an English speaker learning Romanian, two of the first words that you’ll learn are the equivalents for “yes” and “no.” These are “da” and “nu” respectively, and you might think that’s the end of the story. But Romanian is a unique language that has preserved a lot of Latin grammar, and that includes a more nuanced way to affirm or contradict a statement. … Continue reading Ba
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!
The other day, my wife and I watched The Big Short about the collapse of the American economy in 2007-2008 (known in Romanian as the criza financiara). She was having trouble following the plot, and so she fell asleep. I’d already read the book (it’s fantastic) and so I managed to stay awake. But afterwards, it got me to thinking. I doubt very few Romanians … Continue reading How A Few Bankers Fucked Romania
WORD COUNT: 346 A few years ago in Cluj (to be specific, it was when I first saw the hilarious David Ciceo on TV) I heard a word that I’d never heard before, and I had to ask a Romanian what it meant. Now I know, and since moving to the Republic of Moldova, I hear it all the time, but I realize that it’s … Continue reading Shut up and Dâns With Me
This past weekend I was in Sibiu for their medieval festival and I got to hear a word that was new to me and not yet part of my vocabulary. The cool thing about this word is that one of a rare triplet of synonyms in modern Romanian. As I’ve detailed before, there are lots of Romanian synonyms in which one word comes from a … Continue reading Word of the Day: Norod – Neam – Popor
All Things Romania 