INTRODUCTION |
Asia: Hi everyone, and welcome back to RomanianPod101.com. This is Absolute Beginner Season 1 Lesson 2 - Making Friends in Romania. Asia Here. |
Mihai: Bună. I'm Mihai. |
Asia: In this lesson, you’ll learn about prepositions in Romanian. The conversation takes place at a cafe. |
Mihai: It's between Andreea, Mrs. Popescu, and Masanobu. |
Asia: The speakers are strangers, therefore, they will speak both formal and informal Romanian. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
DIALOGUE |
Andreea: Bună, mamă. Ți-l prezint pe amicul meu, Masanobu. |
Masanobu: Bună ziua, mă numesc Masanobu. Sunt japonez. Încântat de cunoștință. |
Doamna Popescu: Încântată de cunoștință. Bine ai venit în România! |
Doamna Popescu: Lucrezi? |
Masanobu: Lucrez de doi ani. Acum am douăzeci și șapte de ani. |
Asia: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
Andreea: Bună, mamă. Ți-l prezint pe amicul meu, Masanobu. |
Masanobu: Bună ziua, mă numesc Masanobu. Sunt japonez. Încântat de cunoștință. |
Doamna Popescu: Încântată de cunoștință. Bine ai venit în România! |
Doamna Popescu: Lucrezi? |
Masanobu: Lucrez de doi ani. Acum am douăzeci și șapte de ani. |
Asia: Listen to the conversation with the English translation |
Andreea: Hi Mom. I'm introducing my friend Masanobu to you. |
Masanobu: Hello, my name is Masanobu. I'm Japanese. Nice to meet you. |
Mrs. Popescu: Nice to meet you. Welcome to Romania! |
Mrs. Popescu: Are you working? |
Masanobu: I have been working for 2 years. Now I am 27 years old. |
POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
Asia: In this conversation, we had some people meeting for the first time. That’s always a bit nerve-wracking in any language, isn’t it? |
Mihai: I think so! It can be difficult to know how formal or informal to be if you’re not used to the culture. |
Asia: Right. What are the differences between formal and informal Romanian? |
Mihai: Luckily, the grammar patterns are the same. Only the vocabulary changes. |
Asia: Really? Can you give us an example? |
Mihai: In the conversation we just heard, Masanobu uses bună ziua, which is the equivalent of the English "hello," instead of the informal bună which means "hi.” |
Asia: In the first lesson we had a more informal meeting, but this seems more formal. |
Mihai: Yes, Masanobu was meeting his friend’s mother, so it was more formal. |
Asia: How should we act in formal meetings? Is eye contact good? |
Mihai: It’s perfectly normal to have frequent eye contact with someone you're addressing formally. One thing that I want to point out is that in Romanian, there are two ways to say "friend" - prieten or amic. |
Asia: What is the difference? |
Mihai: Well, prieten can also mean "boyfriend." And the feminine form prietenă can mean "girlfriend." |
Asia: Ah, so if you want to talk about someone who is a friend and avoid confusion, use the other word! Okay, now onto the vocab. |
VOCAB LIST |
Asia: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is... |
Mihai: mamă [natural native speed] |
Asia: mother |
Mihai: mamă[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
Mihai: mamă [natural native speed] |
Asia: Next we have... |
Mihai: a prezenta [natural native speed] |
Asia: to introduce |
Mihai: a prezenta[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
Mihai: a prezenta [natural native speed] |
Asia: Next we have... |
Mihai: amic [natural native speed] |
Asia: friend |
Mihai: amic[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
Mihai: amic [natural native speed] |
Asia: Next we have... |
Mihai: cunoștință [natural native speed] |
Asia: acquaintance |
Mihai: cunoștință[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
Mihai: cunoștință [natural native speed] |
Asia: Next we have... |
Mihai: bine [natural native speed] |
Asia: good, well |
Mihai: bine[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
Mihai: bine [natural native speed] |
Asia: Next we have... |
Mihai: a veni [natural native speed] |
Asia: to come |
Mihai: a veni[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
Mihai: a veni [natural native speed] |
Asia: Next we have... |
Mihai: cu [natural native speed] |
Asia: with |
Mihai: cu[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
Mihai: cu [natural native speed] |
Asia: Next we have... |
Mihai: a lucra [natural native speed] |
Asia: to work |
Mihai: a lucra[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
Mihai: a lucra [natural native speed] |
Asia: And lastly... |
Mihai: douăzeci [natural native speed] |
Asia: twenty |
Mihai: douăzeci[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
Mihai: douăzeci [natural native speed] |
KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
Asia: Let's have a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first word is.. |
Mihai: Bine ai/ați venit! |
Asia: meaning "Welcome!" |
Asia: What can you tell us about this phrase? |
Mihai: Bine means "good" or "well." Ai venit is the past tense of "to come." |
Asia: So it literally means “well came.” |
Mihai: Yeah. We use it whenever we want to greet someone who has come to someplace new. |
Asia: Are there different informal and formal versions? |
Mihai: Bine ai venit is for informal situations. Bine ați venit is formal speech. |
Asia: Can you give us an example using this phrase? |
Mihai: Sure. For example, you can say, Bine ați venit în București! |
Asia: ...which means "Welcome to Bucharest!" |
Asia: Okay, what's the next word? |
Mihai: Lucrezi? |
Asia: meaning "Are you working?" What can you tell us about this word? |
Mihai: This is the verb a lucra, meaning "to work," in its 2nd person singular form. |
Asia: And it’s phrased as a question. |
Mihai: We can use it to ask if someone is currently working. |
Asia: Be careful if you use it with someone who is of an age that should be working, as it can seem kinda rude then. Can you give us an example using this word? |
Mihai: Sure. For example, you can say, Unde lucrezi? |
Asia: ...which means "Where do you work?" |
Asia: Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus
|
Asia: In this lesson, you'll learn about prepositions in Romanian. |
Asia: Mihai, what is the basic sentence structure in Romanian? |
Mihai: Romanian is an SVO language - subject, verb, object. |
Asia: As is English, and many other languages. |
Mihai: That’s right. If the object is an animate noun, like a person or an animal, it needs the preposition pe to go before it. |
Asia: So between the verb and the object. |
Mihai: For example Eu îl prezint pe amic. |
Asia: This literally means “I introduce him on friend,” or a better translation would be “I introduce the friend.’ |
Mihai: Unlike English, both the pronoun as well as the noun are in the same sentence. |
Asia: What if the object is an inanimate noun - so it isn’t a person or an animal? |
Mihai: Then you don’t need any special prepositions like pe. For example Eu mănânc salamul |
Asia: “I eat the salami.” Now, let’s move onto another preposition. |
Mihai: We can use în for location in Romanian. It’s very similar to “in,” in English. |
Asia: It’s spelt in a very similar way too, but be careful of the pronunciation as it isn’t the same. Can you say it for us one more time, Mihai? |
Mihai: în. In a sentence, it goes before the noun it determines. |
Asia: Let’s hear an example. |
Mihai: Hainele sunt în dulap. |
Asia: “The clothes are in the wardrobe.” Next, let’s look at using a preposition to create a verb tense. |
Mihai: Right. Romanian has no present perfect continuous tense. |
Asia: So how would we say something like “I have been reading this book for 3 days?” |
Mihai: We use the simple present tense, combined with the preposition de. It goes after the verb. |
Asia: So… how do we say “I have been reading this book for 3 days?” |
Mihai: Citesc cartea aceasta de trei zile. |
Asia: In that sentence there was the verb, followed by the preposition, and then followed by the duration. |
Mihai: Yes. Another example is Locuiesc împreună de un an. |
Asia: “They’ve been living together for a year.” |
Outro
|
Asia: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
Mihai: La revedere. |
Comments
HideDo you know someone from Romania?
Hello Nelzee,
A big thank you for your post and kind feedback!❤️
We're glad you're enjoying the lessons!
Please let us know if any questions arise throughout your studies.
Best regards
Labdhie
Team RomanianPod101.com
I have to say it is excellent to be able to read and click on the vocal recording Romanian examples immediately along the way. That's what the Internet is all about. ❤️
Hello li,
Thank you for your comment and for the feedback.
Are you referring to the letters "p" and "b"? I recommend listening to the recordings again and again until it is more clear.
The Romanian language can be challenging, but with practice, in time it will become easier.
Thank you for learning Romanian with our team.
Sincerely,
Patricia
Team RomanianPod101.com
Very useful learning website, but I have a question about 'P' and 'B', when I listen to the recording and write the words, I can't always figure it out.
Bună, Katka!
Thank you for your questions.
Yes, ”Eu” means ”I” and both the ”o” and the ”pe” refers to Andreea, as you mentioned.
“(Eu) ți-l prezint pe amicul meu” means ”I present my (man) friend to you.”
”Ți-l” is made of :
”Ți”, that refers to ”you” (the person I'm speaking to) and
”-l”, that refers to him (the friend I'm introducing you to)
I hope it makes sense now.
You are welcome to write to us again.
We appreciate that you are learning Romanian with our team!
Sincerely,
Patricia
Team RomanianPod101.com
Bună! I wanted to ask you to clarify the sentence structure with the “pe” preposition, cause I’m not sure I understand it properly.
So when we have the sentence “Eu o întreb pe Andreea.” there is no other person in this sentence, so the Eu refers to me and both the o and the pe refers to Andreea, correct?
In the sentence “Ți-l present pe amicul meu” that we have in the dialogue, could you explain which part refers to the person she’s introducing him to? What does the Ți-l at the beginning mean? Is it some sort of abbreviation?
Thank you very much. :)
Bună, Joel,
Ne bucurăm să te cunoaștem.
Îți mulțumim pentru comentariu.
Se vede că locuiești în România, pentru că scrii foarte bine românește.
Please feel free to write to us again and if you have any questions, please let us know.
Thank you for studying Romanian with us!
Sincerely,
Patricia
Team RomanianPod101.com
Bună tuturor, Eu mă numesc Joel, sunt în România de aproximativ un an.
Bună, Veronica,
Mulțumim pentru comentariu și pentru că ai răspuns la întrebare. Frumos! 😄
Ne bucurăm că înveți limba română împreună cu noi.
Cu sinceritate,
Patricia
Team RomanianPod101.com
Da! Sotul meu este roman si toata familia lui. Avem și amici în România
Hi Veronica,
Thank you for studying with us.
Episode 1 is accessible just through the link, but to be able to access the rest you have to log in with your ID and password.
If that doesn't solve the problem, can you please send us an email about it to contactus@RomanianPod101.com?
Cheers,
Lena
Team RomanianPod101.com
Both lesson 2 & 3 are still locked for free account as others have noted below 7 months ago.
Hopefully can be fixed soon.
Thanks
Hello Eleri,
Thank you for taking the time to leave us a comment.
Please note that your free account gives you access to the most recent lessons from the past three weeks as well as the first three lessons from any difficulty level. So you should have no problem accessing this lesson.
Please recheck and let us know if the issue persists.
Best,
Ali
Team RomanianPod101.com
It seems that I can't listen to lesson 2 unless I upgrade! I don't want to upgrade as I currently don't have much time.
Bună, Tim,
Thank you very much for your feedback. It is a joy to know that you like this course.
Regarding your question ”I was wondering if the î sound and the â sound are the same?”, the sound is the same. The difference is that we generally use ”î” at the beginning of a word and sometimes at the end. We always use ”â” in the middle parts of a word.
A few examples:
început/ beginning, a amărî/ to make someone/ something bitter, când/ when
If you have any questions, your messages are welcomed.
Sincerely,
Patricia
Team RomanianPod101.com
Bună ziua!
I was wondering if the î sound and the â sound are the same? I also really like this course!!!
Bună ADAM ZAID ABDALLA AYOUB,
Thank you so much for your heart! ❤️️❤️️
We are very happy that you like to study with us.
Feel free to contact us if you have any questions.
Numai bine,
Levente
Team RomanianPod101.com
❤️️❤️️❤️️❤️️
Bună, Armando,
Thank you for your kind comment and question.
Although my expertise is mostly limited to the Romanian language for now, after a quick research I discovered that the sound of "î" is indeed present in Russian, Ukrainian and in other languages, including French and Italian.
You can check this here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/%C3%8E#Afrikaans
Also, in one of our other lessons ( https://www.romanianpod101.com/lesson/all-about-2-learn-the-romanian-writing-system/ ) you can find that the Cyrillic alphabet was used in Romania in the past, and continues to be used for a variety of languages across Eurasia. The sound of "î" can be discovered in Russian words, Ukranian words and most probably in other slavic languages too.
Sincerely,
Patricia
Team RomanianPod101.com
Dear Susan,
Thank you for sharing. We appreciate it.
It is a joy to know that you are enjoying the lessons. ❤️️
In regards to the question, I appreciate your sense of humour. :)
Please look at the Dialogue segment of our lesson to find the audio for ”douăzeci și șapte de ani”. While the vocabulary segment doesn't include all the words in the lesson, besides the recording in the Dialogue, the audio for "douăzeci și șapte" is present two more times, including slowly spoken, in the audio of the complete lesson (in the first part of the lesson). If it works better, you are free to read the lesson transcript while listening to the audio.
Thank you for learning Romanian with us!
Sincerely,
Patricia
Team RomanianPod101.com