Learn about expressing preferences
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Becky: Hi everyone, and welcome back to RomanianPod101.com. This is Absolute Beginner, Season 1, Lesson 10 - Talking Sports in Romanian. Becky Here. |
| Mihai: Bună. I'm Mihai. |
| Becky: In this lesson, you’ll learn about expressing preferences and useful adverbs. The conversation takes place at a stadium. |
| Mihai: It's between Masanobu and Mihai. |
| Becky: The speakers are friends; therefore, they’ll speak informal Romanian. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Masanobu: Mă bucur că vedem astăzi meciul de fotbal împreună. |
| Mihai: Și eu mă bucur. |
| Masanobu: La noi baseball-ul este mai popular decât fotbalul, dar eu prefer fotbalul. |
| Mihai: Și ce alte sporturi îți plac? |
| Masanobu: Îmi place să merg pe bicicletă. Ție? |
| Mihai: Mie îmi place și ping-pong-ul. |
| Masanobu: Ce înseamnă ping-pong? |
| Mihai: Ah, tenis de masă. |
| Becky: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| Masanobu: Mă bucur că vedem astăzi meciul de fotbal împreună. |
| Mihai: Și eu mă bucur. |
| Masanobu: La noi baseball-ul este mai popular decât fotbalul, dar eu prefer fotbalul. |
| Mihai: Și ce alte sporturi îți plac? |
| Masanobu: Îmi place să merg pe bicicletă. Ție? |
| Mihai: Mie îmi place și ping-pong-ul. |
| Masanobu: Ce înseamnă ping-pong? |
| Mihai: Ah, tenis de masă. |
| Becky: Listen to the conversation with the English translation. |
| Masanobu: I'm glad today we're watching the soccer game together. |
| Mihai: I'm glad too. |
| Masanobu: Baseball is more popular in my country, but I prefer soccer. |
| Mihai: What other sports do you like? |
| Masanobu: I like riding bicycles. You? |
| Mihai: I also like ping pong. |
| Masanobu: What does ping pong mean? |
| Mihai: Oh, table tennis. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Becky: In this lesson, Masanobu and Mihai have gone to watch a soccer game together. |
| Mihai: I hope their team wins! |
| Becky: Me too! Is watching soccer a popular pastime in Romania? |
| Mihai: Well, soccer is the most popular sport in Romania. |
| Becky: Really? Is it called soccer in Romania? |
| Mihai: No, like a large part of the world, it’s called fotbal. |
| Becky: Okay. Exactly how popular is soccer in Romania? |
| Mihai: If you buy a newspaper and turn to the sports section, it’ll mainly all be soccer. |
| Becky: Do other sports get covered? |
| Mihai: Maybe on the last page of the sports section, in a “Miscellaneous Sports” part. |
| Becky: Other than soccer, what other sports are popular? |
| Mihai: Tennis is popular, as there are a couple of famous Romanian tennis players. For example, Țiriac and Năstase. |
| Becky: Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Becky: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is... |
| Mihai: a se bucura [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to be glad |
| Mihai: a se bucura[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mihai: a se bucura [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have... |
| Mihai: astăzi [natural native speed] |
| Becky: today |
| Mihai: astăzi[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mihai: astăzi [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have... |
| Mihai: împreună [natural native speed] |
| Becky: together |
| Mihai: împreună[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mihai: împreună [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have... |
| Mihai: mai [natural native speed] |
| Becky: more |
| Mihai: mai[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mihai: mai [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have... |
| Mihai: decât [natural native speed] |
| Becky: than |
| Mihai: decât[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mihai: decât [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have... |
| Mihai: fotbal [natural native speed] |
| Becky: soccer |
| Mihai: fotbal[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mihai: fotbal [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have... |
| Mihai: sport [natural native speed] |
| Becky: sport |
| Mihai: sport[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mihai: sport [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have... |
| Mihai: bicicletă [natural native speed] |
| Becky: bicycle |
| Mihai: bicicletă[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mihai: bicicletă [natural native speed] |
| Becky: Next we have... |
| Mihai: a (îi) plăcea [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to like |
| Mihai: a (îi) plăcea[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mihai: a (îi) plăcea [natural native speed] |
| Becky: And last... |
| Mihai: a merge [natural native speed] |
| Becky: to walk / to ride |
| Mihai: a merge[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mihai: a merge [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Becky: Let's have a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first word is... |
| Mihai: Mă bucur că... |
| Becky: meaning "I'm glad that…." This phrase has three words. Can you break it down for us? |
| Mihai: Mă means "myself." Bucur is the first person singular for a bucura. |
| Becky: This means “to rejoice.” And the last word? |
| Mihai: că is the conjunction “that.” |
| Becky: It’s literally “I rejoice myself that…” but we translate it as “I’m glad that…” |
| Mihai: You can use this in formal and informal speech, but it’s best avoided with superiors, such as teachers or supervisors. |
| Becky: Can you give us an example using this phrase? |
| Mihai: Sure. For example, you can say, Mă bucur că pot să exersez limba română cu tine. |
| Becky: ...which means "I'm glad I can practice Romanian with you." |
| Becky: Okay, what's the next phrase? |
| Mihai: Ce înseamnă...? |
| Becky: meaning "What does...mean?" |
| Becky: What can you tell us about this question? |
| Mihai: Ce means “what.” înseamnă is the 3rd person singular for a însemna. |
| Becky: This means “to mean.” |
| Mihai: You can use this to ask what something means. |
| Becky: This may come in handy as a Romanian learner. |
| Mihai: Yes, but it sounds a little childish coming from a native speaker, as it’s direct. |
| Becky: Can you give us an example using this phrase? |
| Mihai: Sure. For example, you can say, Ce înseamnă acest cuvânt? |
| Becky: ...which means "What does this word mean?" |
| Becky: Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Becky: In this lesson, you'll learn about expressing preferences and useful adverbs. |
| Becky: Let’s look at how we talk about the degree of something using “too.” |
| Mihai: In Romanian, we say prea. We heard this in the conversation. |
| Becky: Yes, we did! You can use this word with an adjective to say that something is too much. For example, “too late” or “too hot.” |
| Mihai: Yes. It can also be used in negative verbal structures in Romanian, to show the low degree or frequency of a verb. |
| Becky: Okay, let’s hear an example with an adjective first. |
| Mihai: Prea goes before the adjective. Deja este prea târziu. |
| Becky: “It’s already too late.” And now, a negative verb example. |
| Mihai: The pattern for this is nu, followed by prea, followed by the verb. Nu prea joc biliard. |
| Becky: “I don’t play billiards that much.” |
| Mihai: Nu prea îmi plac filmele de acțiune. |
| Becky: “I don’t like action movies that much.” We can also use “more” and “than” to talk about preferences in comparative sentences. |
| Mihai: Yes, we can. Mai means “more,” and decât means “than.” |
| Becky: How can we use those in a sentence? |
| Mihai: noun, plus verb, plus mai, plus an adjective, plus decât, and then a noun. |
| Becky: That might sound a little complicated, so let’s hear an example. |
| Mihai: Desertul este mai dulce decât carnea. |
| Becky: “Dessert is sweeter than meat.” |
| Mihai: Vara este mai caldă decât iarna. |
| Becky: “Summer is hotter than winter.” Now, let’s finish by briefly talking about neologisms - these are loanwords, words that originally come from other languages. |
| Mihai: In Romanian, they’re usually nouns or adjectives. When they’re nouns, they usually take masculine or neuter grammatical gender. |
| Becky: How do neologism adjectives behave? |
| Mihai: Unlike Romanian adjectives, they don’t change depending on the noun. |
| Becky: It’s important to remember that Romanian nouns can take a definite article, so it’s like saying “the noun.” |
| Mihai: Yes. These neologisms behave like traditional Romanian adjectives, but the article is connected to the noun with a hyphen after the noun. |
| Becky: You can see some examples of this in the lesson notes! |
Outro |
| Becky: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Mihai: La revedere. |
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