Learn about common suffixes and prefixes
Now Playing: Lesson Audio
Get a breakdown of the dialogue and translations instantly with the Premium line-by-line Audio. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Get this lesson’s key vocab, their translations and pronunciations. Sign up for your Free Lifetime Account Now and get 7 Days of Premium Access including this feature.
Unlock Lesson Notes and Transcripts for every single lesson. Sign Up for a Free Lifetime Account and Get 7 Days of Premium Access.
| INTRODUCTION |
| Sydney: Hi everyone, and welcome back to RomanianPod101.com. This is Intermediate Season 1 Lesson 20 - Finding Your Way in Romania. Sydney Here. |
| Mihai: Bună. I'm Mihai. |
| Sydney: In this lesson, you’ll learn about common suffixes and prefixes. The conversation takes place on the phone. |
| Mihai: It's between Bogdan and the secretary. |
| Sydney: The speakers are co-workers; therefore, they will speak both formal and informal Romanian. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Bogdan: Doamna Elena, o să am o cerință ceva mai ciudată, dar asta e situația... |
| Secretară: Da, vă ascult. Nu vă faceți griji. Haideți să vedem cum putem rezolva. |
| Bogdan: Mulțumesc. Am rămas fără internet pe telefon și trebuie să ajung la o întâlnire de vânzare la fără un sfert. Am parcat în zona, însă mai departe că era arhiplin în parcare și acum am luat-o pe jos. Mă puteți asista puțin prin telefon cu o hartă online? |
| Secretară: Da, sigur. Deschid acum harta, doar dați-mi un reper unde să mă uit. |
| Bogdan: Căutați vă rog Institutul de Zootehnie, pe strada Popa Șapcă. Sunt aproape, însă am înnebunit tot chinuindu-mă să găsesc intrarea în institut. |
| Secretară: A, păi eu trec zilnic pe acolo, că merg la sora mea. Ce vedeți, mai exact, în jurul dumneavoastră acum? |
| Bogdan: Minunat. Păi, văd o croitorie și o marcă de televiziune, parcă ABC TV îi spune. |
| Secretară: Gata, știu. Sunteți foarte aproape de intrarea în institut. Dacă aveți televiziunea pe stânga, mergeți drept spre o clădire mare verde ce se vede în intersecția din apropiere, apoi faceți dreapta și mergeți pe acea parte până dați de poartă. În maxim trei minute veți fi acolo. |
| Bogdan: Ce veste bună! Mulțumesc mult, doamna Elena. Nu știu ce m-aș face fără ajutorul dumneavoastră. Haideți că închid atunci. Revin dacă mai e nevoie de ceva. Mulțumesc. |
| Secretară: Cu plăcere. Și succes la întâlnire! |
| Sydney: Listen to the conversation with the English translation. |
| Bogdan: Ms. Elena, I'm going to have an unusual request, but that's the situation... |
| Secretary: Yes, I'm listening. Don't worry. Let's see how we can fix it. |
| Bogdan: Thank you. I lost my internet connection on my phone and I have to get to a sales meeting. I parked in the area, but a little bit further than the meeting point as that parking lot was overcrowded and now I'm walking there. Can you assist me by phone with an online map? |
| Secretary: Yeah sure. I'm opening the map now, just give me a landmark to look at. |
| Bogdan: Please look for the Zootechnics Institute, on Popa Şapcă street. I'm close, but I went crazy struggling to find my way into the institute. |
| Secretary: Oh, well, I pass by there everyday when I go visit my sister. What do you see, more precisely, around you now? |
| Bogdan: Wonderful. Well, I see a tailoring company and a television company, I think ABC TV is its name. |
| Secretary: There, I know. You are very close to entering the institute. If you have the television company on your left, go straight to the large green building that can be seen at the nearby crossroad, then right and continue on that side until you reach the gate. Within three minutes, you'll be there. |
| Bogdan: What good news! Thank you very much, Ms. Elena. I do not know what I would do without your help. Let me hang up then. I will call you back if I need anything else. Thank you. |
| Secretary: You're welcome. And good luck with the meeting! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Sydney: I feel Bogdan’s pain, as I get lost all of the time, especially if I take public transport anywhere. |
| Mihai: It can be difficult to know where you are sometimes. |
| Sydney: What is public transport like in Romania? |
| Mihai: Well, during the 40 years of Communism, the national transportation developed rapidly as it was important to the economy. |
| Sydney: What happened after the fall of Communism? |
| Mihai: In the period between then and right up until 2017, little attention had been given to it. If problems arose, they were fixed, but nobody invested money into it. |
| Sydney: Okay. What’s it like to travel around inside the big cities? |
| Mihai: In Bucharest, the subway and people’s own cars are the most popular forms of transportation. Taxi services in Romania are also pretty affordable. |
| Sydney: What is the traffic like in the big cities? |
| Mihai: It can be pretty bad in Bucharest, but taxi drivers know a few shortcuts that they can use to get around quicker. |
| Sydney: Are things like Uber popular in Romania? |
| Mihai: They’re starting to become popular and a viable alternative. |
| Sydney: Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Sydney: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is... |
| Mihai: cerință [natural native speed] |
| Sydney: request |
| Mihai: cerință [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mihai: cerință [natural native speed] |
| Sydney: Next we have... |
| Mihai: ciudat [natural native speed] |
| Sydney: unusual |
| Mihai: ciudat [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mihai: ciudat [natural native speed] |
| Sydney: Next we have... |
| Mihai: zootehnie [natural native speed] |
| Sydney: zootechnics |
| Mihai: zootehnie [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mihai: zootehnie [natural native speed] |
| Sydney: Next we have... |
| Mihai: zonă [natural native speed] |
| Sydney: area |
| Mihai: zonă [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mihai: zonă [natural native speed] |
| Sydney: Next we have... |
| Mihai: a parca [natural native speed] |
| Sydney: to park |
| Mihai: a parca [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mihai: a parca [natural native speed] |
| Sydney: Next we have... |
| Mihai: grijă [natural native speed] |
| Sydney: worry |
| Mihai: grijă [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mihai: grijă [natural native speed] |
| Sydney: Next we have... |
| Mihai: arhiplin [natural native speed] |
| Sydney: overcrowded |
| Mihai: arhiplin [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mihai: arhiplin [natural native speed] |
| Sydney: Next we have... |
| Mihai: a se chinui [natural native speed] |
| Sydney: to struggle |
| Mihai: a se chinui [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mihai: a se chinui [natural native speed] |
| Sydney: Next we have... |
| Mihai: a rămâne [natural native speed] |
| Sydney: to remain |
| Mihai: a rămâne [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mihai: a rămâne [natural native speed] |
| Sydney: And last... |
| Mihai: croitorie [natural native speed] |
| Sydney: tailoring |
| Mihai: croitorie [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mihai: croitorie [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Sydney: Let's have a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first phrase is... |
| Mihai: a-și face griji |
| Sydney: meaning "to worry" |
| Sydney: This expression is a verbal phrase. |
| Mihai: First is the reflexive pronominal verb a-și face, which means "to make (for) oneself." Then is griji. |
| Sydney: This is a neuter plural noun which means "worries." It literally means "to make worries for oneself," but can be translated as "to worry." |
| Mihai: It is usually followed by the preposition pentru, meaning "about." |
| Sydney: Can you give us an example using this expression? |
| Mihai: Sure. For example, you can say... Vasile mi-a zis să nu ne facem griji pentru masă că va rezolva el. |
| Sydney: ...which means "Vasile told me not to worry about the dinner because he will arrange it." |
| Sydney: Okay, what's the next phrase? |
| Mihai: a rămâne fără |
| Sydney: meaning "to run out of." |
| Sydney: This is also a verbal phrase. |
| Mihai: First is the infinitive form of the verb a rămâne, meaning "to remain." Then is fără. |
| Sydney: This is a preposition meaning "without." It literally translates as "to remain without," but can also be translated as "to run out of." |
| Mihai: It is followed by a nominal group in accusative. |
| Sydney: It’s used in a situation where a resource is running out. Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Mihai: Sure. For example, you can say... Cornel, am rămas fără lapte. Mergi, te rog, la magazinul din colț și ia un litru. |
| Sydney: ... which means "Cornel, I ran out of milk. Please go to the corner store and buy a liter." |
| Sydney: Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Sydney: In this lesson, you'll learn about common suffixes and prefixes. |
| Sydney: Suffixes are those extra bits that add on to the end of a word to change them into a new word or grammatical form. Prefixes are ones that go at the start. |
| Mihai: In Romanian, there are over 350 known suffixes. |
| Sydney: Of course, we don’t have time to go through all 350 in this lesson! |
| Mihai: That’s a shame! But, we can categorize these suffixes by the type of speech they help to form. |
| Sydney: Some suffixes form nouns. |
| Mihai: Yes, like -ar, such as in ospătar. |
| Sydney: "Waiter." Some suffixes form adjectives. |
| Mihai: For example, -al. semestrial. |
| Sydney: "Biannual." There are also some used with verbs. |
| Mihai: Like -a. a civiliza |
| Sydney: "To civilize." They are also used with adverbs. |
| Mihai: Such as -ește. mișelește |
| Sydney: "Cowardly." There are more examples in the lesson notes. Can we have an example sentence please, Mihai? |
| Mihai: Sure! Copilul vecinilor este foarte certăreț. Realmente nu te poți înțelege cu el omenește. |
| Sydney: "The neighbor's child is very quarrelsome. You really can not get along with him suitably." Now, let’s look at prefixes. |
| Mihai: The most used Romanian prefixes include în- / îm-, răs- / răz-, de- / des- / dez-, ne- and re-. |
| Sydney: There are also some international prefixes that may sound familiar. |
| Mihai: Yes, like anti-, auto-, bio-, contra-, macro-, neo- and more. |
| Sydney: Let’s finish this lesson with some more example sentences. |
| Mihai: Mihai și Andrei au fost foarte încântați să meargă să vadă hidrocentrala de la Porțile de Fier. |
| Sydney: "Mihai and Andrei were very pleased to go to see the Iron Gates hydroelectric power station." |
| Mihai: Vlad studiază energia geotermală și este hiper-entuziasmat de faptul că va participa curând la o tabără internațională pe acest subiect. |
| Sydney: "Vlad is studying geothermal energy and is hyper-enthusiastic about the fact that he will soon attend an international camp on the subject." |
| Mihai: Ne-am întors cu un sentiment de dezarmare de la concurs deși antrenorul nostru încerca să ne îmbărbăteze după această tristă nereușită. |
| Sydney: "We returned from the contest with a feeling of helplessness, although our coach tried to cheer us after this sad failure." |
Outro |
| Sydney: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye! |
| Mihai: La revedere. |
Comments
Hide