Learn some common pronouns in Romanian
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Intro |
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| Antoni: What are some formal and informal pronouns in Romanian? |
| Anna: And when are they used? |
| Antoni: At RomanianPod101.com, we hear these questions often. Imagine the following situation: Beatrice Balan runs into a family friend, Petre Pavel, in a supermarket. She greets him by saying, |
| "How are you?" |
| Beatrice Balan: Ce faci dumneata? |
| Dialogue |
| Beatrice Balan: Ce faci dumneata? |
| Petre Pavel: Sunt bine, mulțumesc. |
| Antoni: Once more with the English translation. |
| Beatrice Balan: Ce faci dumneata? |
| Antoni: "How are you?" |
| Petre Pavel: Sunt bine, mulțumesc. |
| Antoni: "I'm fine, thank you." |
Lesson focus |
| Antoni: In this lesson, we will be talking about formal and informal Romanian pronouns and when to use them. |
| Romanian has different pronouns that are used, depending on how formal the situation is. An informal way of addressing someone as "you" is when you use the pronoun, |
| Anna: tu. |
| Antoni: For example, when you ask the question, "Are you an American?" in an informal way, you would say, |
| Anna: Tu eşti American? |
| Antoni: A more polite, but still somewhat informal way to ask the same question would be to say, |
| Anna: Dumneata eşti American? |
| Antoni: The most polite, and a very formal way of asking someone their nationality, would be to say, |
| Anna: Dumneavoastră sunteţi din Statele Unite? |
| Antoni: We'll say more about the different types of polite pronouns, or |
| Anna: pronumele de politețe |
| Antoni: in a moment, but, before we do that, let's listen to the dialogue again so that we can see how it displays degrees of formality. |
| [Recall 1] |
| Antoni: Do you remember how Beatrice Balan says, "How are you?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Anna as Beatrice Balan: Ce faci dumneata? |
| Antoni: Here, Beatrice has used the formal pronoun |
| Anna: dumneata. |
| Antoni: This is the second person singular pronoun. In terms of degree of politeness, or formality, it is only slightly more polite than the informal second-person pronoun |
| Anna: tu. |
| Antoni: In fact, these days, most people don't see much difference between these two at all, and the pronoun |
| Anna: dumneata |
| Antoni: does not get used as much as it used to be. You might hear older people using it, but most modern Romanians will prefer to use |
| Anna: dumneavoastră |
| Antoni: if they want to be very polite. |
| [Recall 2] |
| Antoni: Now let's take a look at our second sentence. |
| Do you remember how Petre Pavel says "I'm fine, thank you?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Anna as Petre Pavel: Sunt bine, mulțumesc. |
| Antoni: Here, Petre has responded in a standard way. He has not used a polite pronoun, but he did say "thank you" or |
| Anna: mulțumesc |
| Antoni: which means that he is still being polite. |
| [Summary] |
| Antoni: In this lesson, so far, you have learned that there are formal and informal pronouns in Romanian and that one should use formal pronouns when you want to be polite. We talked about the pronoun |
| Anna: dumneata |
| Antoni: which is the formal, second-person singular pronoun. It is not used as frequently in modern Romania as it was in the past. We also talked about the formal, second-person plural pronoun, which is |
| Anna: dumneavoastră. |
| Antoni: This pronoun can also be used as a more polite way of saying "you" in the singular and is preferred if you want to be very polite towards someone. |
| Let's look at some other formal pronouns. There is no formal first-person pronoun so we'll look at the third-person pronouns. There are two third-person singular pronouns—the masculine and the feminine. Let's start with the masculine, which is |
| Anna: dumnealui. |
| Antoni: This is the most formal way of saying "he" in Romanian. You could also say |
| Anna: dânsul |
| Antoni: which is still polite, but not quite as formal as |
| Anna: dumnealui. |
| Antoni: The feminine counterpart for this is |
| Anna: dumneaei. |
| Antoni: As with the masculine third-person pronoun, there is a slightly less formal but still polite way to say "she" as well. It sounds like this: |
| Anna: dânsa. |
| Antoni: And, of course, we must include the plural third-person pronoun, which is |
| Anna: dumnealor. |
| Antoni: This can be used in reference to men only or to men and women. It also has a slightly less formal version, which is |
| Anna: dânşii. |
| Antoni: If you want to use "they" but you are speaking only to women, you can use the word |
| Anna: dânsele. |
| Antoni: This is the only polite version of this pronoun. |
| Expansion/Contrast (Optional) |
| Antoni: Earlier, it was mentioned that the very polite "you" was the same word in the singular and the plural. It's quite a long word and so, as with many pronouns in Romanian, people often choose to drop it from their sentences entirely. Consider, for example, the difference between asking someone the time like this: |
| Anna: Dumneavoastră aveți timp? |
| Antoni: meaning "Do you have time?" and then like this: |
| Anna: Aveți timp? |
| Antoni: In the latter example, the formal "you" was dropped in favor of no pronoun at all. It was possible to do this and remain polite because the verb |
| Anna: aveți |
| Antoni: is in the second person plural, thus becoming the formal version of |
| Anna: a avea. |
| Practice |
| Antoni: Let's review. Respond to the prompts by speaking aloud. Then, repeat after the native speaker, focusing on pronunciation. |
| Do you remember how Beatrice Balan says "How are you?" |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Anna as Beatrice Balan: Ce faci dumneata? |
| Antoni: Listen again and repeat. |
| Anna as Beatrice Balan: Ce faci dumneata? |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Anna as Beatrice Balan: Ce faci dumneata? |
| Antoni: And do you remember how Petre Pavel says "I'm fine, thank you?" |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Anna as Petre Pavel: Sunt bine, mulțumesc. |
| Antoni: Listen again and repeat. |
| Anna as Petre Pavel: Sunt bine, mulțumesc. |
| [Beep. Pause 5 seconds.] |
| Anna as Petre Pavel: Sunt bine, mulțumesc. |
| Cultural Insight/Expansion (Optional) |
| Antoni: The polite pronouns are vestiges of the old way of addressing royalty in Romanian. If, for example, you wanted to say "Your Majesty" long ago, you would have said |
| Anna: Domnia Ta or Domnia Voastră |
| Antoni: when addressing a single sovereign. If you were addressing more than one member of the royal family, you would have said |
| Anna: Domniile Voastre, |
| Antoni: So, no matter if it's a single sovereign or more, the possessive pronoun was used in the plural form, thus being more polite. And if you were to talk about a king in the third person, you would have said |
| Anna: Domnia Lui |
| Antoni: or "His Majesty." Of course, these days, there is no royal personage to address in this way, and the Romanian language is considerably less formal than it once was. While the use of formal pronouns is slowly dying out, they can still be used with people you don't know well or when children are addressing adults they are not very familiar with. Children might also use formal pronouns when talking to their teachers in order to show respect. |
| It is up to you to decide how formal and polite you want to be with someone. Most people will appreciate it if you are polite, but, on the other hand, it would seem strange to be too polite with someone you know very well. |
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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