Learn about some common adjective suffixes in Romanian
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Intro |
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| Antoni: What are some adjective suffixes in Romanian? |
| Anna: And why are they useful to know? |
| Antoni: At RomanianPod101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following situation: The Lee family is having dinner with their neighbors when Mark asks, |
| "How's the soup?" |
| Mark Lee: Cum este supa? |
| Dialogue |
| Mark Lee: Cum este supa? |
| Ioana Iordache: Este gustoasă. |
| Antoni: Once more with the English translation. |
| Mark Lee: Cum este supa? |
| Antoni: "How's the soup?" |
| Ioana Iordache: Este gustoasă. |
| Antoni: "It's delicious." |
Lesson focus |
| Antoni: In this lesson, you will be learning about the different suffixes that form adjectives in Romanian. Let's quickly talk about what suffixes are. The Romanian word for "suffix" is |
| Anna: sufix |
| Antoni: and suffixes are small units of language that are usually not independent words. They are attached to the ends of words in order to modify those words. The suffixes we will be looking at in this lesson produce adjectives when they are added to other types of words such as nouns, verbs, and other adjectives. An important point to remember is that, in Romanian, adjectives follow the nouns they are modifying, unlike in English where the adjective precedes the noun. If an adjective precedes a noun in Romanian, it is there for emphasis. |
| In Romanian, an adjective must agree with the noun that it is modifying, so many of the suffixes will change, depending on the noun's gender and on whether it is singular or plural. You heard one of these suffixes in the dialogue earlier, so let's quickly look at that again and use it as the starting point for our discussion of adjective suffixes in Romanian. |
| [Recall 1] |
| Antoni: Do you remember how Mark Lee says "How's the soup?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Anna as Mark Lee: Cum este supa? |
| [Recall 2] |
| Antoni: Now let's take a look at our second sentence. |
| Do you remember how Ioana Iordache says "It's delicious?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Anna as Ioana Iordache: Este gustoasă. |
| Antoni: Here Ioana uses the adjective "delicious" or |
| Anna: gustoasă |
| Antoni: to describe the soup. We will proceed to break this word down, with its various possible endings, so that you can get a good idea of how adjective suffixes work. The suffix that Ioana used in this case was |
| Anna: -oasă |
| Antoni: which is the feminine singular ending. This ending was used because the adjective is modifying the noun "soup," which is a feminine noun and is being used in the singular. If it were modifying a masculine, singular noun, or a neuter, singular noun, such as "apple" or |
| Annal: măr |
| Antoni: the suffix would be |
| Anna: -os. |
| Antoni: In order to talk about a "delicious apple," then one would say |
| Anna: măr gustos. |
| Antoni: As you can see, this adjective has two endings—one for the feminine and one for the masculine and neuter. This is not the case for all adjectives, but we will say more about that later. As mentioned before, the adjective needs to agree with the noun in terms of number as well, so let's hear how to say "delicious apples" |
| Anna: mere gustoase. |
| Antoni: This time, the ending you heard was the neuter plural because the Romanian word for "apple" is a neuter noun and the neuter, plural ending is |
| Anna: -oase |
| Antoni: It also happens to be the feminine plural ending for this particular suffix. Let's now hear what the masculine plural sounds like in a phrase meaning "delicious sausages" |
| Anna: cârnați gustoși |
| Antoni: As you heard, the masculine plural version of this suffix is |
| Anna: -oși. |
| Antoni: And, with that, you know all the endings for this adjective. Let's quickly run through those again before we look at other examples of adjective suffixes. We'll start with the masculine and neuter singular ending and then the feminine, singular ending. These were: |
| Anna: -os |
| Antoni: and |
| Anna: -oasă. |
| Antoni: Then, there was the masculine plural |
| Anna: -oși, |
| Antoni: and the feminine and neuter plural |
| Anna: -oase. |
| Antoni: One important point we have not yet mentioned is that the root of this adjective is the noun: |
| Anna: gust |
| Antoni: which means "taste." All of the suffixes you heard were added to this one noun in order to turn it into an adjective with gender or number properties. Let's look at some more examples of this phenomenon. We'll start by looking at the way another adjective is broken down into root and suffix. Let's use the root noun meaning "heaven:" |
| Anna: cer. |
| Antoni: In order to turn it into an adjective, meaning "heavenly," we add the suffix |
| Anna: esc. |
| Antoni: The resulting word is |
| Anna: ceresc. |
| Antoni: This suffix is similar, in effect, to the English "L-Y" at the end of a noun. In both cases, the noun is converted into an adjective. Here's another example: |
| Anna: avocățesc. |
| Antoni: This means "lawyerly" and the root of the word is the noun |
| Anna: avocat, |
| Antoni: meaning "lawyer," of course. |
| It was mentioned earlier that sometimes a suffix can form an adjective out of another adjective. As an example of this kind of conversion, listen to this adjective, meaning "charmed" or "enchanted" |
| Anna: fermecat. |
| Antoni: By using the suffix |
| Anna: -or, |
| Antoni: it becomes a different adjective, meaning "charming" or "enchanting:" |
| Anna: fermecător. |
| Antoni: Some adjectives are formed by using the verbal past participle. For instance, the past participle of the verb |
| Anna: a cunoaște, |
| Antoni: which means "to know" is |
| Anna: cunoscut. |
| Antoni: This word means "known" and can be used as an adjective with the usual inflections according to gender and number. The neuter or masculine singular form is: |
| Anna: cunoscut |
| Antoni: while the feminine singular is: |
| Anna: cunoscută. |
| Antoni: Additionally, the masculine plural is |
| Anna: cunoscuți |
| Antoni: while the feminine and neuter plural is |
| Anna: cunoscute. |
| Antoni: You've now heard several different ways of using adjective suffixes in Romanian. Hopefully, by breaking these adjectives down, as we have done, you now have a good idea of how they work. Let's briefly review what you have learned so far before going on to look at more examples of adjective suffixes in Romanian. |
| [Summary] |
| Antoni: In this lesson, we have talked about the fact that suffixes are small units of language that are not actual words but that are attached to the ends of other words in order to modify them. The suffixes we are talking about in this lesson are those that attach to nouns, verbs, and other words in order to form adjectives. |
| You also learned that, in Romanian, adjectives follow nouns and must agree with the noun that they are modifying, in terms of gender and number. The suffixes will change, depending on the gender and number of the noun that is being modified. There are, however, some adjectives that don't change form. |
| Expansion/Contrast (Optional) |
| Antoni: Earlier, when we were discussing the adjective suffixes that were used in the dialogue, we noted that some suffixes have two endings, both in terms of gender and number. Not all inflections of adjectives occur in this way in Romanian. Some adjectives, for instance, only inflect differently for gender. Listen to this one that means "heavy," for instance. First, you will hear the masculine and then the feminine singular version: |
| Anna: greoi, [pause] greoaie |
| Antoni: Now listen to the plural versions of the masculine and feminine. |
| Anna: greoi, [pause] greoaie |
| Antoni: As you can hear, the endings are the same when it comes to number. It is only when it comes to gender that they change. Two other adjectives that follow this pattern are |
| Anna: vioi |
| Antoni: meaning "lively," and |
| Anna: bălai |
| Antoni: meaning "blond." Then, there are those adjectives that only change when it comes to number but are the same when it comes to gender. This adjective means "big:" |
| Anna: mare |
| Antoni: and the form you just heard was the one that is used for both the masculine and feminine singular. However, the masculine and feminine plural form is |
| Anna: mari. |
| Antoni: Adjectives of this type are commonly known as "adjectives with the singular |
| Anna: -e |
| Antoni: ending." Another adjective that behaves in the same way is: |
| Anna: dulce |
| Antoni: which means "sweet." There are a few adjectives that have the same form every time. These tend to be used when naming colors and in neologisms. Neologisms are newly coined words, in case you were wondering. The adjective |
| Anna: cumsecade |
| Antoni: means "kind," "helpful," or "nice," but only in reference to people, and it never changes form. Examples of words for colors that do not change form are |
| Anna: lila |
| Antoni: meaning "lavender," and |
| Anna: gri |
| Antoni: meaning "gray." |
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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