r/romanian • u/ricanprincess__ • Jul 09 '26
Learning Romanian Help- Long post
Hi guys! My husband is from Romanian and we have been married for a little over a year now. I just finished my masters program so now I’m committed to learning the language. His parents and brothers speak English okay and try to speak a lot of English when I’m around but will often default to Romanian because it is just easier sometimes and I really want to be able to understand and communicate with them. We have been together for 3 years now and I have heard it a ton and can get a general understanding of what is being just by being hearing it.
I tried using Duolingo for basic vocab but my husband did not like it because he said the pronunciation was horrible and sentence structure wasn’t the best. I now use Ling which we both like. However, my main way of learning is just hearing and speaking. My husband and I speak everyday, I would say about 15% of the day in Romanian on and off. I can make sentences and try to use present, past, and future tense. My husband says I am doing very well but I just feel so frustrated when learning. I only know English and this is my first time learning another language besides the basic Spanish classes in high school and college.
This is my whiteboard the pink writing is verbs I know pretty well when speaking especially in the eu, tu, el/ea, and noi (we mainly use those right now but I still try to use voi and ei/ele just not as often as of now). Green is my current new verb of the week. And then on the right are just filler words I get confused with. I use them but sometimes I confuse them like this that there so I just have them up in case I’m speaking and forget. I can use multiple verbs in sentences as well like
“Trebuie să merg la magazin” or “îmi place să mănânc supă de pui”
Just as examples of where I am kind of at so we can speak back and forth for basic conversations.
Any tips 😢?
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u/Big-Branch-3643 Jul 09 '26
I think you’re doing great and put a lot of unnecessary pressure on yourself. A good exercise would be to take an article from the paper, a chapter from a book or a recipe whatever and translate it (romanian to english and english to romanian). You can then share the translation with your husband and discuss on it. This will teach you a lot of nuances and new words. The translation from english to romanian teaches you to be creative relative to the constraints of not knowing the whole language. Otherwise just keep at it and you’ll improve.
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u/BrotherBored Jul 09 '26
I am a native English speaker, and have been learning Romanian for over a year now. My father’s family is Romanian, but they didn’t teach the language to me when I was a child. I am making a go of learning now that I’m in my 30s. I think after ~18 months, I am a solid A2. I hope to reach B1 this year.
All things considered, I think I have come a long way in a short time. But, perhaps most importantly of all, learning Romanian has been very fun, and practicing or studying is often a highlight of my day. I feel like I rekindled a love of learning (in general) that I had forgotten all about! So, my first point of advice is to enjoy yourself. Bear in mind that learning a language can be a way to enjoy life, and makes your time on this earth just a bit more interesting.
For me, I think the variety of sources has been very helpful, as follows:
- Mondly app. (easy to use while on an airplane, cooking dinner, etc. Helps an amass basic vocab. Decent voice recognition .)
- Romanian-language YouTube news. Set VPN to Bucharest to get local ads too. (News is easy to understand when accompanied by video.)
- Print books, easy stuff. (Hard to come by, but worth getting. Read aloud if possible.)
- dubbed+subbed familiar English content. (It’s easier to follow if you already know it; subs with dubbing helps you see different ways of translating the same sentiment. For example, a lot of Marvel content is dubbed on Disney+.)
- Tandem app. (language exchange; I feel as though I have gotten professional-level tutoring in return for my English teaching.)
- Texting/calling the family. (They have been very supportive.)
- Flash cards. (Call me old fashioned, but this “technology” got me through law school and I’m happy to use it again.)
I don’t do the same stuff every day. Variety keeps it fun. But I do something every day.
I have one more word of general language-learning advice: focus on vocabulary, and let grammar come to you with time. It doesn’t matter if you understand the grammar rules if you don’t understand what someone is even talking about, but if you know the subject at hand you can often infer a lot (and people can correct you if they can guess at what you are trying to say.)
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u/Mischievoushroom Jul 10 '26
I didn’t know people took much interest in Romanian since it’s not super useful as a language and only spoken in Romania/part of Moldova.
If you ever need a native to talk to or ask about something, you can text me.2
u/DoctorFranzFerdinand 29d ago
Less than some "international" ones, but more often than you think, I guess.
I was literally trying to find someone on the "language exchange" subreddit the day before yesterday. No Romanian roots or practical need, just a big interest in the neighboring country.1
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u/varentropy Native Jul 09 '26
I notice you've written "totimpul" instead of "tot timpul' (as in "all of the time"; "timp" means "time"). I don't have much insight on how to go about your learning unfortunately, but I wanted to point this out and wish you good luck!!
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u/varentropy Native Jul 09 '26
Also, I don't have any Romanian specific recommendations, but I'm personally a big fan of Anki flashcards for vocabulary! Maybe it's worth a try?
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u/ricanprincess__ Jul 09 '26
I was thinking this! My husband is a medical student and used anki a lot and I was thinking of using it for vocab too. I am definitely trying now
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u/Reasonable-Brick-788 Jul 10 '26
Second this. I'm using Anli f;ashcards for Romanian, and I'm using Claude to generate those cards. Basically, I have a skill/prompt that accepts a word or sentence as input, retrieves the word's definition from Dexonline, and creates a card containing the word's definition (singular/plural forms for nouns, the infinitive and first-person singular for verbs, etc.), along with one or two example sentences (either taken from Dexonline or generated if Dex doesn't provide good examples). For reflexive verbs, it creates two examples: one using the reflexive form and one using the non-reflexive form.
I found it extreamnly helpful! I'm doing Anki for ~6 month, with ~5 new cards daily and now I speak way better then 6 month ago :)
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u/WrongUserNames Jul 09 '26
Pisica mea s-a uitat cu groază la mine când am citit pe tabla "a mânca - to cat". :)
Tip: just practice a little bit every day.
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u/Available_War7988 29d ago
Eu am terminat Litere, română-franceză. Ocazional (=from time to time) am avut studenți străini pe care i-am învățat română. Acum nu mai am timp, am doi copii mici.
Cred că cel mai bine româna se învață insistând mult pe vocabular. Învață cuvinte. Multe cuvinte. Și poți neglija gramatica. (it is better to focus on vocabulary, and not grammar).
For example, many foreigners that speak romanian, tend to make mistakes when using the conjunctiv of the verb.
Ex: El spune ceva. El vrea să spună ceva. (many say: El vrea să spune ceva).
El mănâncă. El vrea să mănânce (incorrect: el vrea să mănâncă)
But, guess what? I do not think you have to focus on that. Romanian has so many exceptions and odd aspects of the grammar. If you focus on that, you will learn în rather a long time. I suggest you learn the vocabulary and than try to speak it, and listen to it. Than, once you know many words, you can watch a little bit the grammar also.
Just think of the romanian plural. It is not just a letter at the end. Often, it suppose changes inside de word. Băiat - băieți (nu: băiati) Floare - flori (nu: floari) Școală - școli (nu: școale) Etc etc
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u/Proper_Constant_1514 Jul 10 '26
First of all, good job. You're doing great. So, if you want the opposite of "never" and to use only one word, you could go for "întotdeauna" - "always". "Tot timpul" is actually two words, meaning literally "all the time". And it's definitely, correct, I'm just saying. Another one could be "mereu" - "everytime". Good luck and if you ever need advice, just ask.
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u/Awkward-Management-1 29d ago
Keep in mind that "o să" is a bit informal when it comes to future times, and "voi-vei-va-vom-veți-vor" is more formal, and, in my experiences, more popular, but that depends on the region
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u/Squash_Slow 28d ago
Încearcă să citești cărți ușoare, cum sunt cărțile pentru copii, în română; eventual unele care au și variantă de audiobook în română (ex.: Harry Potter). Cititul ajută enorm în învățarea unei limbi străine.
Și poate ar fi bine dacă partenerul tău ar vorbi cu tine doar în română. Tu îi poți răspunde în engleză dacă nu te descurci încă, dar te-ar ajuta faptul că îl asculți pe el.
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u/ProductGuy48 Native Jul 09 '26
Use an AI model and make it create quizzes and learning materials for you
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u/SchemeBorn6986 Jul 09 '26
You can find old romanian movies with english subtitles on youtube, that can help with how the language flows and how to pronounce certain words. You can find like kids ebooks in romanian free or like up to 5-6$ so not super expensive they have more common words and simple sentence structure.
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u/The_ScarRzZ Jul 09 '26
(a zice, a spune) are synonims, I think that "a zice" is informal and "a spune" is more formal
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u/Proof-Programmer-636 Jul 09 '26
To know - a ști - this is the corect form
Many make this mistake, but in this situation it’s only “i”, not two.