Learn about genders
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Asia: Hi everyone, and welcome back to RomanianPod101.com. This is Absolute Beginner Season 1 Lesson 8 - Going on a Shopping Trip in Romania. Asia Here. |
| Mihai: Bună. I'm Mihai. |
| Asia: In this lesson, you’ll learn about gender in Romanian. The conversation takes place at a shopping mall. |
| Mihai: It's between Masanobu and Andreea. |
| Asia: The speakers are friends; therefore, they will speak informal Romanian. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Masanobu: Astăzi vreau să-mi cumpăr o cămașă roșie, verde, galbenă. |
| Andreea: Deci vrei să cumperi trei cămăși? |
| Masanobu: Nu, doar una. |
| Andreea: Nu înțeleg. Deci ce culoare cauți? |
| Masanobu: Toate culorile. Vreau o cămașă pentru excursia din Delta Dunării. |
| Andreea: Ah, acum înțeleg. Vrei ceva colorat, pentru vară. |
| Masanobu: Da, asta vreau să spun. |
| Asia: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| Masanobu: Astăzi vreau să-mi cumpăr o cămașă roșie, verde, galbenă. |
| Andreea: Deci vrei să cumperi trei cămăși? |
| Masanobu: Nu, doar una. |
| Andreea: Nu înțeleg. Deci ce culoare cauți? |
| Masanobu: Toate culorile. Vreau o cămașă pentru excursia din Delta Dunării. |
| Andreea: Ah, acum înțeleg. Vrei ceva colorat, pentru vară. |
| Masanobu: Da, asta vreau să spun. |
| Asia: Listen to the conversation with the English translation. |
| Masanobu: Today I want to buy a red, green, and yellow shirt. |
| Andreea: So you want to buy three shirts? |
| Masanobu: No, only one. |
| Andreea: I don't understand. So what color are you looking for? |
| Masanobu: All of them. I want a shirt for the trip to the Danube Delta. |
| Andreea: Oh, now I understand. You want something colorful for the summer. |
| Masanobu: Yes, that's what I mean. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Asia: There was a little miscommunication at the start of the conversation, but things were smoothed out by the end. |
| Mihai: Yeah, it all went well! I hope Masanobu found a shirt. |
| Asia: As the conversation was about shopping, let’s talk about shopping. And since I’m hungry, let’s talk about food shopping! |
| Mihai: Okay! You should have eaten before we started recording. |
| Asia: I know… Is there a staple food in Romania? |
| Mihai: Originally, it was bread. Every meal would be accompanied by bread. |
| Asia: What’s the staple food now? |
| Mihai: Now it’s mămăligă |
| Asia: That’s “polenta” in English. |
| Mihai: It’s made of cornmeal and has a consistency close to wheat bread. |
| Asia: Sounds good! Is there a common drink in Romania? |
| Mihai: țuică is popular. This is a brandy-like drink made from plums. It’s about 40% alcohol. |
| Asia: Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Asia: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is... |
| Mihai: a vrea [natural native speed] |
| Asia: to want |
| Mihai: a vrea[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mihai: a vrea [natural native speed] |
| Asia: Next we have... |
| Mihai: cămașă [natural native speed] |
| Asia: shirt |
| Mihai: cămașă[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mihai: cămașă [natural native speed] |
| Asia: Next we have... |
| Mihai: doar [natural native speed] |
| Asia: only |
| Mihai: doar[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mihai: doar [natural native speed] |
| Asia: Next we have... |
| Mihai: roșu [natural native speed] |
| Asia: red |
| Mihai: roșu[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mihai: roșu [natural native speed] |
| Asia: Next we have... |
| Mihai: verde [natural native speed] |
| Asia: green |
| Mihai: verde[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mihai: verde [natural native speed] |
| Asia: Next we have... |
| Mihai: galben [natural native speed] |
| Asia: yellow |
| Mihai: galben[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mihai: galben [natural native speed] |
| Asia: Next we have... |
| Mihai: a înțelege [natural native speed] |
| Asia: to understand |
| Mihai: a înțelege[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mihai: a înțelege [natural native speed] |
| Asia: Next we have... |
| Mihai: pentru [natural native speed] |
| Asia: for |
| Mihai: pentru[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mihai: pentru [natural native speed] |
| Asia: And lastly... |
| Mihai: colorat [natural native speed] |
| Asia: colorful |
| Mihai: colorat[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mihai: colorat [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: Vreau să cumpăr |
| Asia: meaning "I want to buy." What can you tell us about this phrase? |
| Mihai: The structure of this phrase is the same as the English version. First is vreau, meaning “I want.” |
| Asia: The middle word is a conjunction meaning “to.” |
| Mihai: Right, that’s să. Finally is cumpăr, meaning “I buy.” |
| Asia: So you can use this when you want to buy something. |
| Mihai: Yes, it’s something you can say to salespeople. |
| Asia: Can you give us an example using this phrase? |
| Mihai: Sure. For example, you can say, Vreau să cumpăr o casă la mare. |
| Asia: ...which means "I want to buy a house at the seaside." |
| Asia: Okay, what's the next word? |
| Mihai: doar una |
| Asia: meaning "only one.” Let’s break this down. |
| Mihai: First is doar, which is an adverb meaning "only." |
| Asia: What’s the second word? |
| Mihai: una, a feminine pronoun, and it means "one." |
| Asia: When can you use this phrase? |
| Mihai: In any situation when you want to talk about “only one.” |
| Asia: Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Mihai: Sure. For example, you can say, "Am doar una." |
| Asia: ...which means "I only have one." |
| Asia: Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Asia: In this lesson, you'll learn about gender in Romanian. |
| Asia: We’ve heard a few mentions of gender so far, but we haven’t really touched on it yet. |
| Mihai: Yes, Romanian is one of those languages where nouns have a gender. |
| Asia: Is there a pattern to which nouns are masculine and which are feminine? |
| Mihai: The patterns are based on the ending sounds of the words, but there’s no absolute rule. |
| Asia: So the best idea is to try and remember each noun individually? |
| Mihai: To begin with, yes. As you learn more Romanian and become more proficient, you’ll be able to tell instinctively. |
| Asia: To help with that though, let’s look at some of the patterns. |
| Mihai: Okay. Nouns ending in a consonant or in the vowel or semivowel u are almost always masculine. Such as domn. |
| Asia: This means “mister” or “gentleman.” |
| Mihai: Nouns ending in ă and stressed a are feminine. |
| Asia: Let’s have some examples of those. |
| Mihai: fată and tejghea. |
| Asia: “Girl” and “bar counter,” respectively. |
| Mihai: Nouns ending in e are also generally feminine, such as librărie. |
| Asia: “Bookstore.” Some nouns are neutral, right? |
| Mihai: Yes, but there’s no third declension for this gender. There are some words that are masculine in singular form, but feminine in plural form. |
| Asia: And these are the nouns that are called neuter nouns in Romanian. Let’s hear an example. |
| Mihai: oraș is masculine in singular, and orașe is the feminine plural. |
| Asia: Those words mean “city” and “cities.” |
| Mihai: Finally, the gender of the noun affects adjectives. The basic form of adjectives are masculine. To make them feminine, you add ă for singular and e for plural. |
| Asia: Let’s work through an example using the adjective for “warm.” |
| Mihai: The basic masculine form is cald. The feminine singular is caldă. |
| Asia: What about the plurals? |
| Mihai: The masculine is calzi and the feminine calde. |
| Asia: Okay, thank you for the examples! |
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. |
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