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Lesson Transcript

All About, Lesson 5 - The Top 5 Must-Know Romanian Phrases
Eric: Welcome back to RomanianPod101.com. This is All About, Lesson 5 - The Top Five Must Know Romanian Phrases. I’m Eric.
Raluca: And I’m Raluca.
Eric: In this lesson, we’re taking years of experience in Romania and boiling it down to a few essential phrases that are a great place to start in Romanian.
Raluca: Yes, these are real-life Romanian words that will help you every day!
Eric: These are phrases that you'll be really glad you learned. We'll teach you not only the phrases, but more importantly, when and where to use them.
Raluca: So, where should we begin?
Eric: Well, first we want to make sure that we're polite.
Raluca: Oh yeah. There's a set of rules and steps that you should follow when you're in Romania and you’re introducing yourself to somebody.
Eric: So how would we start?
Raluca: With bună. It translates as "hi."
Eric: It’s only used in informal situations, right?
Raluca: Yes. In formal Romanian, bună is replaced by the expression bună ziua, “good morning,” or bună seara “good evening.”
Eric: I see. We just add the words for “morning” and “night” to create the expressions.
Raluca: Exactly! Next we have Îmi pare bine să vă cunosc.
Eric: What does that mean?
Raluca: It's the equivalent of "Nice to meet you," but it literally means "To me it seems good to know you."
Eric: That’s an interesting way to say it!
Raluca: I agree! So when you’re meeting someone new, saying Bună ziua, îmi pare bine să vă cunosc all at once should work.
Eric: We can use that expression in formal situations. What about if it’s informal?
Raluca: We say Bună, îmi pare bine să te cunosc. We simply replaced the word vă with te.
Eric: Okay! I see. So now that we've learned how to take the first step and break the ice, we should learn how to thank somebody, right?
Raluca: Exactly, and that's the next pair of words.
Eric: Why a pair?
Raluca: Because they’re often used together. The first word is mulțumesc.
Eric: Which means "Thanks," or "thank you," right?
Raluca: Yes. Romanians say mulțumesc pretty often, so you’d better learn it!
Eric: Are there any particular cases in which you could use mulțumesc?
Raluca: Well, it's a good word to use, say, if someone does something for you or gets you something. Then you can say mulțumesc.
Eric: And you could use it to partly apologize for the trouble that a person went through to help you.
Raluca: So the answer to that, the English "you're welcome," is cu placere.
Eric: That’s easy to remember, it’s similar to the English word “pleasure.”
Raluca: It’s no accident – the literal translation in English is “with pleasure.”
Raluca: The next phrase we want to cover is Scuzați-mă or scuză-mă.
Eric: They both mean "excuse me." You could use those phrases when asking something of somebody you don't know, right?
Raluca: Yes. Scuză-mă could be used for the same purpose, but only with friends or relatives in casual situations. Scuzați-mă is used in more formal Romanian.
Eric: It’s very important to know the difference.
Raluca: Yes. You can use these expressions to get someone’s attention…like to call the waiter over at a restaurant, to get the attention of a shop clerk, or to get the attention of a passerby if you want to ask a question.
Eric: You’ll hear those two expressions a lot in Romania. Just remember not to mix up formal and informal expressions too much, because that could be rude.
Raluca: The last words we'll cover are vă rog! and te rog.
Eric: Ooh, those are really good to know as well. You’ll hear them quite often..
Raluca: Definitely. They both simply mean "please." Vă rog is good to use in formal situations whereas te rog in used in informal situations.
Eric: You can use it when you're asking a favor or request of some kind, so it's like asking "please."
Raluca: You can also use them to ask for something, as in a tangible object. The thing that you are asking for comes before vă rog. For example, if you go to a café, you can say O cafea, vă rog? which means "A coffee, please!"
Eric: Yeah, it's a pretty easy way to ask for something. When you're just starting out in Romanian, that's probably how you're going to be using it.
Raluca: You can also use it to show respect by doing something. For example when you open the door for someone...
Eric: Or offer a drink.
Raluca: Yes... or when you’re at the table and want to let people know that they can eat.
Eric: There are many situations where you’ll use “please”, listeners!
Raluca: Well, I think that just about does it for today!
Eric: We've gone over our Top Five must-know phrases in Romanian. Let's recap them before we go. What did we hear?
Raluca: Bună
Eric: Meaning “Hi,” “hello”
Raluca: Îmi pare bine să vă cunosc
Eric: Meaning “Nice to meet you.”
Raluca: Mulțumesc/Cu plăcere
Eric: Meaning “Thank you, you’re welcome.”
Raluca: Scuzați-mă / scuză-mă
Eric: “Excuse me.”
Raluca: And Vă rog/te rog
Eric: Meaning “Please.” Knowing these will take you a long way. So keep those phrases in mind, and we'll see you next time!
Raluca: La revedere!

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