If you know any Romanians, then you might have asked them to teach you a couple of Romanian words in the past.
Most people jump straight to the curse words, which are always good for a laugh.
But there’s another class of words that can have a much better effect. Those are Romanian compliments.
A foreigner who knows how to speak a little Romanian is not a rarity anymore. But someone who knows how to speak Romanian well is hard to come across. How about someone who can pay natural, beautiful compliments in Romanian?
Nearly impossible to find.
However, that can be you. All you have to do is read this article.
Because you can’t just rush into Romanian. It’s different enough from English that some things you’d expect to transfer over simply don’t. This guide is going to help you through those difficulties and toward some truly high-level Romanian.
Table of Contents
1. Don’t Be Perfunctory
First, we’ve got to get real.
It doesn’t matter if you’re looking for romance or if you’re just generally interested in saying something nice.
People can tell when you’re being fake. In fact, many Romanians think that Americans, for example, are superficial for their endless compliments. It’s just a difference in culture, really; in American culture, compliments are sort of a signal of friendship and good faith.
In Romanian, it would come across as strange to compliment people left and right every time you see them.
For that reason, you’ve got to be genuine and mention specific details about the person you wish to compliment. This isn’t difficult to learn—in fact, it just requires that you learn a little bit more advanced vocabulary. That can be a fun challenge in itself!
And what should you expect people to say after you’ve complimented them?
Romanians tend to accept compliments with mersi or mulțumesc, but just as soon might downplay what you’re saying.
You can try the same thing. If someone should happen to tell you this:
- Vorbiți bine limba română.
“You speak Romanian well!”
Then you can smile and say something polite like this:
- Încă mai fac greșeli.
“I still make mistakes.”
That’s your Romanian home run. Now, what other types of compliments in Romanian are there?
2. You Look Great!
All right, the first thing that many people want to know is how to give compliments in a flirty situation.
You’re hanging out at a local bar, it’s a sultry summer evening, and someone catches your eye. But they’ve probably gotten a number of come-ons from foreigners that evening. Wouldn’t it be better to open up in Romanian?
First let’s talk about first impressions. When giving romantic compliments, Romanians often start with a general description, if you will.
- Ești frumoasă.
“You’re beautiful.” - Ești chipeș.
“You’re handsome.” - Ești drăguț.
“You’re cute.” - Arăți minunat.
“You look gorgeous.”
Nothing too crazy, just some simple statements of beauty. The last one can be gender-neutral, though the first two are gender-coded like their English translations.
In our imaginary scenario, we’re of course using the informal tu form. It would sound kind of weird to use the formal dumneavoastră, unless everyone present is middle-aged or older.
Remember, it’s important to be specific when you’re paying compliments, even more so when love may hang in the balance. You don’t want to say what they’ve already been hearing for the entire evening.
- Zâmbești foarte frumos.
“Your smile is beautiful.” - Îți stă bine cu jacheta aceea.
“That jacket looks nice on you.” - Miroși bine.
“You smell good.”
We’ll keep this an all-ages article and draw the line there.
If things happen to go well with the person you’re meeting at the bar, romantic phrases in Romanian pretty much all take the form of compliments as well. Here are just two to get your imagination going.
- Eşti cel mai bun lucru din viaţa mea.
“You’re the best thing in my life.” - Tu ești totul pentru mine.
“You’re everything to me.”
It looks like finding a Romanian partner might be the best way to get yourself interested in Romanian compliments!
3. Nice Work Today!
Romanian employers welcome foreign talent, particularly skilled talent. Given that many old Romanians don’t speak very good English, one of the skills you might need is good Romanian!
Should you happen to end up on a Romanian team or overseeing work at the Romanian branch of your company, a couple of well-placed compliments can go a very long way, even if the working language in the office is English.
- Foarte bine!
“Well done!” - Bună treabă!
“Great job!” - Performanța ta a depășit așteptările mele.
“Your performance exceeded my expectations.”
After doing business in Romania for a long time, you might be left in charge of the interview process, where you can throw out compliments like this one:
- CV-ul tău este impresionant.
“Your resume is impressive.”
Using this compliment in Romanian is also a good way to test people, even in your home country. If they put “Romanian” on their CV and don’t know how to react to that phrase, then perhaps it’s time to end the interview!
Sometimes the best compliments come from people who rarely give them. In those cases, a compliment may not even seem like a compliment at first:
- Ține-o tot așa!
“Keep this up!”
If you hear that one at work, though, it means you’re very much on the right track to success.
How about in a business meeting? With a lot on the line, you may want to stick with English for the first few years at the job. However, if you work on your business Romanian, someday soon you may find yourself coming up with phrases like these:
- Sunt foarte impresionat de produsul vostru, dar avem nevoie de o soluție mai bună.
“I’m very impressed with your product, but we need a better solution.”
4. Congratulations!
When you’re out with your Romanian friends, they may not be expecting compliments from you.
For one thing, they might not expect you to speak Romanian! Having learned their language is a compliment in itself.
For another, friends generally don’t give each other honest and deep compliments. It’s often more surface-level stuff like the appearance phrases at the beginning of the article. You’ll find more phrases like that in this section, by the way.
First, we’ll look at two that are easy since they’re exactly the same as in English. When you learn cognates like this, though, remember to pronounce them the Romanian way.
- Super!
“Super!” - Bravo!
“Bravo!” - Minunat!
“Outstanding!”
When someone’s really been working hard on something, it’s good to let them know that you see it. Imagine you have a friend who’s been in his room writing page after page of essays until late into the night. What might you say to him?
- Lucrezi din greu!
“You’re working really hard!” - Știu că va fi minunat.
“I know it’s going to be great.”
And then, one day, he’s all finished and his essays have been published. It looks like congratulations are in order!
- Felicitări! O meriți.
“Congratulations! You deserve it.”
5. You’re Amazing!
Everybody has a special skill of some kind. Some people call their skills useless or just hobbies, but no hobby is useless if it brings you enjoyment.
Perhaps your friends or acquaintances are showing off their hobbies, like salsa dancing, poetry writing, or guitar. Romanians tend to be shy performers, so some encouraging compliments are exactly what some people need to step out of their shells.
- Extraordinar!
“Amazing!” - Ai talent la scris.
“You have a way with words.”
Literally, this last sentence translates to “You have talent in writing.” Switch out the hobby as needed!
Now imagine that you’ve stopped in a small restaurant in a small town somewhere in Transylvania. Wouldn’t it be nice to compliment the chef?
- Îmi place ce ați gătit.
“I love your cooking.” - E delicios!
“It’s delicious!”
Finally, you can tell your friends that you simply like hanging out with them. No matter how infrequently it comes up, people like to hear from their friends that they’re appreciated.
- Ești un prieten bun.
“You’re a good friend.” (to a man) - Ești o prietenă bună.
“You’re a good friend.” (to a woman) - Eu chiar te admir.
“I really admire you.”
6. Conclusion
There’s something to be said for studying Romanian in the sink-or-swim way. The faster you’re thrown into real situations where you’ve got to speak Romanian to get by, the faster you’ll start speaking something.
But if you get tossed into Romania tomorrow and have to pick up everything as fast as you can, you’ll more than likely form some bad habits and ignore some of the finer points of the Romanian language and culture.
The culture aspect, especially, is going to take a hit as you’ll be mostly focused on language.
The way to avoid overlooking all of the details of culture in Romania is to do your best to consume content tailor-made to show you the grammar, vocabulary, and culture points that you need to know.
Maybe you see it coming already—that’s exactly what you get with RomanianPod101.com. Your language-learning journey has never been easier, so create your free basic lifetime account today and enjoy the fast-track to Romanian success.
In the meantime, did we miss any important compliments or occasions? Don’t hesitate to reach out in the comments section with any questions you still have about Romanian compliments, and we’ll do our best to help you out!
