There’s a lot to be said for being able to make good small talk in another language. Conversations can start up and keep going indefinitely with the right people.

But what can you talk about? Perhaps you’ve tried talking about something like the weather, or food, but didn’t get terribly far.

Or perhaps you’ve already met someone in Romania and gotten along with them, but you don’t know what to talk about whenever you hang out.

The truth is, all you really need is this list. For starters, anyway, as you begin learning how to wish someone a happy birthday in Romanian and similar best wishes in Romanian.

Take a look at these different situations. They all represent life events, big or small, that can be the topic of a great conversation. All you need to do is take the initiative and start chatting!

Table of Contents

1. Birthdays
2. Holidays
3. Weddings and Anniversaries
4. Babies
5. Graduation or Academic Success
6. Workplace Success
7. Bad News in General
8. Good News in General
9. Conclusion

1. Birthdays

We can’t pretend for a moment that Romanians don’t celebrate birthdays. They do, and in style. Families celebrate birthdays for their young children as soon as they’re able to, and even into adulthood most people stick with the tradition of getting together and spending time with good friends.

• La mulţi ani!
  Happy Birthday! (Literally: To many years!)

You can also say happy birthday in Romanian this way (it’s something you’ll mostly see on cards):

• Toate urările de bine!
  A Happy Birthday to you!

Or perhaps:

• Zâmbeşte, iubeşte, trăieşte!
  Smile, love, live!

Another way to wish all the best in a very friendly way in Romanian is: să ai un an bun, which literally means “I hope you’ll have a good year.” It refers to all 365 days of the year until that person’s next birthday!

How about a birthday song? Well, to be honest, most young people see English as so trendy that they’d rather just sing Happy Birthday to You in English. And yet, as Romanians, there’s still something much more special about la mulţi ani, and that one’s not going away soon.

For a true Romanian birthday song, check out Cine să trăiască, which means “Who is to live?” Hint: It’s the one who’s having the birthday.

2. Holidays

In this section, you’ll learn holiday greetings in Romanian for the most popular Romanian holidays.

Romania is a relatively religious country, specifically when it comes to Christianity. Other religions don’t get nearly as much prominence in general Romanian culture. And so as part of the classical Western European cultural tradition, Christmas is perhaps the number-one Romanian holiday.

So, ready to learn how to say Merry Christmas in Romanian? Just like in English, there’s one very useful phrase that you can use to say Merry Christmas in Romanian. It might be a little hard to say, but everyone will appreciate your attempt!

• Crăciun fericit!
  Merry Christmas!

And what comes after Christmas?

Why, it’s New Year’s Day, of course! In Romania, despite the cold, people gather together on New Year’s Eve and New Year’s Day to sing and dance and make merry. You can wish your Romanian friends a happy new year in Romanian with this phrase:

• Să ai un An Nou fericit!
  Happy New Year!

Next is Easter, another popular holiday in Romania that’s often celebrated in a festive way. The tradition of Easter egg hunting is alive and well in Romania, as well as Easter Mass in the churches. To wish someone a Happy Easter, simply say Paşte fericit!

Valentine’s Day is actually celebrated slightly differently in Romania compared to in other countries. It only really entered the cultural consciousness in the last few years as an “international” holiday. Before that, there was a much older cultural holiday known as Dragobete, celebrated on February 24 to mark a day of togetherness as spring arrives.

As for appropriate Valentine’s Day wishes, this is one place where you’d better personalize it! You’ll see the English phrase “Happy Valentine’s Day” out and about (particularly in advertisements), but if you’re dating a Romanian, try to put a little more effort into it than that. There are no set phrases here—just love from the heart.

3. Weddings and Anniversaries

Before a wedding can happen, there’s obviously got to be a proposal and an engagement. Let’s say you’ve found out about the engagement of one of your friends from a post on social media. You can message them and say:

• Felicitări pentru logodnă!
  Congratulations on your engagement!

After that, it’s anyone’s guess as to when the actual wedding ceremony will occur. In Romania, many weddings typically occur in churches, as very formal events. Or at least, for part of it. The rest of the ceremony is almost certain to last well into the night, and you’d better have a good excuse if you want to get any sleep!

Accordingly, one of the “strongest” forms of congratulations in Romanian you can give is usually found at weddings, whether in speeches, in cards, or over a firm handshake.

• • Casă de piatră şi felicitări!
    Warm wishes and congratulations!

• Felicitări mirelui şi miresei pentru fericitul eveniment!
  Congratulations to the bride and groom on their happy union!

If you’ve been invited to the wedding, that’s great. But if you can’t make it, and you’d still like to send the happy couple your greetings, you can use this Romanian wedding congratulations phrase.

• Felicitări pentru unirea destinelor!
  Congratulations on tying the knot!

After a wedding, there’s just one more thing that people tend to celebrate—at least in this realm of life. That’s the anniversary, and the way people say “happy anniversary” in Romanian isn’t much different from how it’s done in English.

• Aniversare frumoasă!
  Happy anniversary!

The concept of the “silver” (argint), or 25-year, and the “gold” (aur), or 50-year, anniversaries are recognized in Romania too.

• Felicitări cu ocazia nunţii de aur!
  Congratulations on your golden anniversary!

4. Babies

A new baby means a lot. It’s a new member of the family, a new mind exploring the world, and a whole new stage of life for the parents.

In contrast to some of the other well-wishes we’ve looked at before, Romanian congratulations for new parents is rather different from English. The typical message of congratulations is more like a little poem or wish.

• Să vă trăiască și să fie sănătos!
  May they live for you, may they be healthy!

That covers it pretty well for talking to people in person. The following two phrases are a little bit less personal, and so they’d be good for cards or emails.

• • Felicitări pentru noul sosit!
    Congratulations on your new arrival!

• Am fost încântaţi să aflăm despre naşterea bebelușului/ bebelușei vostru / voastre.
  We were so happy to hear of the birth of your new baby boy / girl.

5. Graduation or Academic Success

Romania might not have the international prestige of other countries when it comes to universities, but nevertheless, every year thousands of brilliant graduates throw their caps in the air and embark on the next stage of their development.

When it comes to graduates, the type of things you say and the way you say them are likely to be quite different, depending on whether you’re graduating in the same class or if you’re just talking to someone who’s finished their school.

For the first case, you can use this phrase for lightly teasing someone who did really well in their classes.

• Cine este geniul nostru?
  Who’s this genius?

Now, here are some phrases you can include in more formal or less personal messages.

• • Felicitări cu ocazia absolvirii!
    Congratulations on your graduation!

• Felicitări pentru master şi mult noroc în viitor!
  Congratulations on the Master’s degree, and lots of luck in the future!

6. Workplace Success

Do you know anyone who’s up for a promotion? Or maybe looking to switch careers? Generally, in Romania most companies try to maintain a culture of friendship, especially if you’ve been working with the same people for a long time.

If someone you know is going to take a big leap in their professional life, encourage them with these phrases.

• • Îţi urăm noroc şi succes.
    We wish you luck and success.

• O poți face!
  You can do it!

And then, assuming everything all worked out for them, congratulations are in order!

• • Felicitări pentru obţinerea postului!
    Congratulations on your new job!

• Mult noroc pe viitor!
  Best of luck for the future!

7. Bad News in General

We’ll take a brief detour here into something a little less upbeat.

It’s important to know how to appropriately offer condolences in Romanian to others when they’ve met with misfortune in their lives. If you know someone who’s going through a rough patch, you should definitely reach out to them.

However, be careful here. Make sure you mean what you say. Romanians take friendships seriously, and that means you can’t just shoot off a quick text and expect it to be received the same as if you had visited in person with flowers.

In short, be genuine, and if your Romanian isn’t very strong, perhaps stick to English or another shared language if you don’t feel very confident with these phrases yet.

Below are some best wishes in Romanian for when a friend is going through a rough time, to get you started.

1- Funerals

You might think that a Romanian funeral would be an extremely somber occasion. And it’s true; there’s certainly a place for serious formality. However, Romanian funeral traditions can be quite diverse.

At such an occasion, you’ll certainly hear this phrase:

• Dumnezeu să-l odihnească în pace!
  May God rest him in peace!

Although there may be celebrations of life, it’s far, far better to err on the side of being too formal when you give your condoleanţe or “condolences.” Here are some elegant Romanian condolences you can use to comfort others in their time of loss.

• • Gândurile noastre sunt alături de tine în aceste momente dificile.
    Our thoughts are with you during this difficult time.

• • Ne pare foarte rău pentru pierderea suferită.
    We are very sorry to hear of your loss.

• În aceste clipe grele prin care treci să nu uiţi că suntem alături de tine.
  Do not forget that we are with you in this difficult time.

2- Poor Health

Nowadays, it seems like people rarely send get-well cards. But that doesn’t mean they go unappreciated. Whether you’re suffering from a really bad cold or spending a couple of days in the hospital, it always feels great to know if you’re on somebody’s mind.

• • Însănătoşire grabnică!
    Get well soon!

• • Însănătoşirea are nevoie de timp. Îţi doresc tot binele din lume.
    Healing takes time. I wish you all the best.

• • Mă gândesc la tine tot timpul!
    Thinking of you!

• Nu pot să-ți iau suferința, dar sufăr alături de tine.
  I can’t take your pain, but I suffer with you.

Any of these might sound a little cheesy, especially if you show up with a card and a huge bouquet when somebody’s just down with the sniffles. Again, though, it’s better to be thought of as somebody who cares too much than somebody who cares too little.

8. Good News in General

And in order to end on a happy note, let’s look at just a few more phrases you can use for any kind of catch-all good stuff. Becoming familiar with these congratulations in Romanian means that you’ll be able to quickly and fluently praise or encourage people, no matter what they’re facing in life.

• • Minunat!
    Awesome!

• Să fie într-un ceas bun!
  Have a great time!

And finally, here are two more general phrases that are more fitting for a congratulatory email or social media post—they just sound a little stiff when spoken aloud to a close friend.

• • Bine lucrat cu …
    Well done on…

• Îţi urez succes în…
  I wish you success in…

9. Conclusion

We hope you enjoyed learning about Romanian life event messages, and other best wishes in Romanian, with RomanianPod101. Did you learn anything new today? Are there still some life events you want messages for? Let us know in the comments!

It may seem that we’ve covered just about all there is in a person’s life, but as it turns out, the human experience is so much more than just a series of important events.

These represent points where you can hopefully spark a conversation or make some contact with somebody else. What ends up happening a lot of the time is that you’re aware a friend or colleague of yours has something important coming up, and then you try out one of these phrases.

Pleasantly surprised, they start asking you (in Romanian) how you know that saying, and the ball keeps rolling from there. Maybe after that, you’re invited to a wedding or a graduation party. You never know!

After that, will your Romanian be up to the task? Better take a look at the rest of our materials here on RomanianPod101.

Happy studying!