Learn some common Romanian idioms
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Intro |
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| Antoni: What are some common Romanian idioms? |
| Anna: And how are they used? |
| Antoni: At RomanianPod101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following situation: Karen Lee hears an idiom she is unfamiliar with. She asks her neighbor, Ioana Iordache, |
| "What does "to stare like a calf at a new gate" mean?" |
| Karen Lee: Ce înseamnă a se uita ca vițelul la poarta nouă? |
| Dialogue |
| Karen Lee: Ce înseamnă a se uita ca vițelul la poarta nouă? |
| Ioana Iordache: Înseamnă a fi confuz, nedumerit. |
| Antoni: Once more with the English translation. |
| Karen Lee: Ce înseamnă a se uita ca vițelul la poarta nouă? |
| Antoni: "What does "to stare like a calf at a new gate" mean?" |
| Ioana Iordache: Înseamnă a fi confuz, nedumerit. |
| Antoni: "It means to be confused." |
Lesson focus |
| Antoni: In this lesson, we are going to gain insight into a few Romanian idioms you are likely to hear on the streets of Bucharest. Before we start, let's remind ourselves of what idioms are. An idiom is a phrase that has a meaning of its own, and, when you do a word-for-word translation, the phrase doesn't necessarily make sense. Here's an example: Claudia grabbed the bull by the horns and asked her boss for a raise. If the expression was unfamiliar to us, we would struggle to understand why Claudia "grabbed the bull by the horns" before speaking to her boss. Luckily, if we are native speakers and are familiar with English idioms, we know that this idiom means that Claudia took decisive and confident action when asking her boss for a salary increase. |
| [Recall 1] |
| Antoni: Now let's take a closer look at the dialogue. |
| Do you remember how Karen Lee asks Ioana Iordache, "What does "to stare like a calf at a new gate" mean?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Anna as Karen Lee: Ce înseamnă a se uita ca vițelul la poarta nouă? |
| Antoni: As Ioana Iordache later explains, the idiom means "to be confused." We can trace the origin of this idiom to the practice of cow herding in the Romanian countryside. The cowherd will lead the herd back to the first village roads before allowing them to continue home on their own. While both adult cows and their young know the way, calves tend to get confused when presented with anything new in their path, like a new gate. They will then wait there, staring at the obstacle in their path. We can see how this observation about the calf's behavior was an apt way to illustrate a person's confusion in a particular situation. |
| [Summary] |
| Antoni: In the lesson so far, you learned what an idiom is, and we explored the meaning of an unfamiliar idiom. We also saw how idioms originated through observations made in the native speaker's surroundings. Let's continue learning a few more that are sure to come in handy when you are having a conversation with a Romanian person. |
| Expansion/Contrast |
| Antoni: Imagine that you are sitting at a café, and you overhear the owner saying to the manager, |
| Anna: Ştefan stătea acolo și freca menta. |
| Antoni: The owner literally said, "Stephen just sat there, rubbing mint." In Romanian, the expression "to rub mint," or |
| Anna: a freca menta |
| Antoni: means "to do nothing useful." The origin of this idiom lies in the distant past, when servants performed household chores. There were those who dutifully did the hard work, and then there were those who always picked the lightest chores, like rubbing the wooden tables with mint to release a pleasant odor. These servants were deemed lazy, choosing "to rub mint" rather than to do something more useful. |
| Another idiom that describes being lazy or wasting time is when you say, |
| Anna: A tăia frunze la câini. |
| Antoni: This expression literally means "to cut leaves for the dogs" and anyone with common sense can see how this is a poor use of one's time. |
| For our next example, imagine that two speakers are having an argument. One of them says, |
| Anna: A o căuta cu lumânarea. |
| Antoni: Here, the expression translates as "To look for something with a lit candle." In this situation, it actually means that someone is looking for trouble. |
| But, apart from this, idioms are also a great way to gain insight into a new culture. Imagine that Sorina is memorizing a Romanian poem "off by heart" so that she can recite it in class. In English, "off by heart" means to memorize something. A Romanian idiom that has the same meaning is |
| Anna: Să știi ca pe Tatăl Nostru. |
| Antoni: The word-for-word translation is "to know like the Lord's Prayer," and it's derived from the fact that, in Romanian society, children from traditional families learn the Lord's Prayer from a young age. So, to say that Sorina knew the poem "like the Lord's Prayer" means that she could recite it from memory without any help. |
| Our next saying draws its inspiration from the animal kingdom. When someone uses the idiom, |
| Anna: a face din tânțar armăsar, |
| Antoni: they are saying "don't turn a mosquito into a stallion," which means that you shouldn't exaggerate. You would be right if you drew a correlation between the English expression "don't make a mountain out of a molehill" and this idiom. |
| For the following idiom, we turn our attention to another annoying insect—the fly. We can all relate to moments when we know we were guilty of or responsible for something, and a perfect way to describe that uneasy feeling in Romanian is to say |
| Anna: a se simți cu musca pe caciulă. |
| Antoni: This Romanian idiom literally means "to feel the fly on one's hat." Some sayings also relate to our understanding of the human body. While we know that the heart pumps blood to supply oxygen to the various parts of the body, many cultures around the world view the heart as the seat of human emotions. When we say |
| Anna: a-ți lua inima în dinți, |
| Antoni: which literally translates to, "to take your heart in your teeth," we mean that someone is brave or daring for having done something. |
| Then, there are those idioms that relate to people who are less than noble in their actions, trying to deceive others. In Romanian, there is an excellent idiom that says |
| Anna: a duce cu preşul, |
| Antoni: which, when literally translated, means "to carry someone on a carpet." This sounds like it could be a luxurious way to travel, but it actually means that someone is being cheated. |
| From each of the idioms we have discussed so far, we can see that they capture something about how nature and situations are viewed through the eyes of Romanian speakers. These sayings sum up situations instantly, and understanding them will help you know exactly what your Romanian acquaintance is trying to tell you. |
| Imagine that you are telling your friend, Andrei, about a recent conversation you had with someone else. Andrei replies by saying, |
| Anna: a vinde gogoși. |
| Antoni: This means "he's just selling doughnuts" and, while it may sound like the idiom refers to something harmless, your friend actually means that, whoever you were talking to, lied to you. |
| Our last example also illustrates how knowing the meaning of a Romanian idiom will save you from any unnecessary embarrassment or misunderstanding. When someone tells you that something will happen |
| Anna: La Paștele Cailor, |
| Antoni: then it is almost certain to never happen. The literal meaning of this idiom is "At horses' Easter," which is something that never happens, of course. |
Outro |
| Antoni: Do you have any more questions? We're here to answer them! |
| Anna: La revedere. |
| Antoni: See you soon! |
| Credits: Anna (Romanian, Romania), Antoni (English, synthetic voice) |
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