Learn all you need to know about greetings in Romanian
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Intro |
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| Antoni: Which greetings depend on the time of day in Romanian? |
| Anna: And can they be replaced with time-neutral greetings? |
| Antoni: At RomanianPod101.com, we hear these questions often. Let's imagine that Sasha Lee returns home from a party around 5:00 a.m. Her father, Mark Lee, who is already preparing for work, greets her by saying, "Good morning!" |
| Mark Lee: Bună dimineața! |
| Dialogue |
| Mark Lee: Bună dimineața! |
| Sasha Lee: Noapte bună… |
| Antoni: Once more with the English translation. |
| Mark Lee: Bună dimineața! |
| Antoni: "Good morning!" |
| Sasha Lee: Noapte bună… |
| Antoni: "Goodnight..." |
Lesson focus |
| Antoni: In today's lesson, we are going to learn about the three "time of day" greetings used by Romanians in everyday conversation. These greetings are a generic way of saying "hello," but be sure to use the greeting that best corresponds to the time of day, or |
| Anna: ora din zi. |
| Antoni: Romanians will typically start conversations using the following major times of day with their greetings: |
| Anna: Bună dimineața! |
| Antoni: which is "good morning," and is used from any time after midnight to around 10:00 or 11:00 a.m. |
| Anna: Bună ziua! |
| Antoni: is "good day" in English, and is appropriate at any time of day until nighttime. The last one is |
| Anna: Bună seara! |
| Antoni: meaning "good evening." This last greeting is used from when it's dark until about midnight. But what about the way that Sasha Lee greeted Mark? |
| Anna: Noapte bună… |
| Antoni: And what if we wanted to use a time-neutral greeting? |
| [Recall 1] |
| Antoni: Let's return to our opening dialogue, and see what else we can learn from it. |
| Do you remember how Mark Lee said "Good morning!?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Anna as Mark Lee: Bună dimineața! |
| Antoni: Here, Mark is saying "good morning" because that is when Sasha Lee returned home. Another way would be to simply say |
| Anna: Bună, |
| Antoni: which is like saying "hello" in English, but keep in mind that this is a conversation between a father and a daughter. This greeting is considered to be informal, and it may be inappropriate for use in a formal situation. A good practice would be to stick to the full greeting for the time of day in more formal situations, such as when you approach a shop assistant for help with a purchase, or when you order food in a restaurant. |
| As you know, we don't only say "hello" when we meet someone for the first time. We usually continue by saying, "Nice to meet you." You can introduce yourself to your new Romanian acquaintance in a similar way by saying, |
| Anna: Bună ziua! Mă bucur să te cunosc. |
| Antoni: When you greet them with, "Good day! Glad to meet you," you will surely make a good impression and will have paved the way for a conversation. |
| Usually, when we meet with friends, we will say, "How are you?" as part of our greeting. You can ask your friend how they are with the question, |
| Anna: Ce mai faci? |
| Antoni: While this literally means, "What are you doing?," Romanian people know it to mean "How are you?" like when someone says, |
| Anna: Hei, ce faci? |
| Antoni: which is, "Hey, how are you?" |
| [Recall 2] |
| Antoni: Now, let's take a look at our second sentence. |
| Do you remember how Sasha Lee said "Goodnight...?" |
| (pause 4 seconds) |
| Anna as Sasha Lee: Noapte bună... |
| Antoni: Yes, Sasha Lee says, "Goodnight.," which may seem strange when Mark greeted her with "Good morning." but, when you say, |
| Anna: Noapte bună, |
| Antoni: you are also implying that you are going to bed now. Sasha Lee's party continued into the early hours of the morning, and arriving home at 5:00 a.m. must have left her exhausted! If Sasha Lee simply wanted to say "goodbye" to her father, she would have said, |
| Anna: La revedere. |
| Antoni: This is the formal way to say "goodbye" in Romanian, and remains the standard farewell greeting, no matter the time of day. If she wanted to say "goodbye" informally, however, she might have chosen to say, |
| Anna: Pa, |
| Antoni: but it is unlikely that she would have done so because it is an informal greeting most commonly used among peers. Sasha Lee would probably not say "goodbye" to her father in this manner, as it would not be respectful. Politeness is highly valued in Romania, and correctly greeting whomever you meet will help ensure that you have a better experience in the country, or among native speakers. |
| [Summary] |
| Antoni: In today's lesson, we learned about time-specific and time-neutral greetings in Romanian. We also distinguished between those you'd use in a formal setting, and those that are appropriate in an informal scenario. Now that you've got a good understanding of the basics, let's highlight two more aspects of Romanian greetings. |
| Cultural Insight/Expansion |
| Romanians consider addressing a person by their title and position to be good etiquette. For example, if you wanted to greet your teacher, you would say, |
| Anna: Bună dimineața, domnule profesor! |
| Antoni: which means, "good morning, mister teacher." If the teacher were female, you would greet her by saying, |
| Anna: Bună dimineața, doamnă profesoară! |
| Antoni: Furthermore, as with many other languages, how Romanians greet one another depends on the geographic region they're from. For instance, if you are traveling in the southern regions, near Bucharest, a local might greet you by saying, |
| Anna: Bună. |
| Antoni: This way of saying "hello" is already familiar, but if you travel west towards the Banat region, you will hear a different greeting: |
| Anna: Ciau. |
| Antoni: You'd be right if you thought it sounded a lot like Italian, as Romanian and Italian share the same Latin roots. While exploring the Transylvania region, you might hear people enthusiastically greeting one another with the word, |
| Anna: Servus. |
| Antoni: While this sounds like it must also originate from Latin, this "hello" actually comes from German. Romania is home to a small Hungarian-speaking population who specifically use this greeting. |
| Our last stop takes us northeast, towards the Moldavia region. Here, it is more common for Romanians to greet one another by saying, |
| Anna: Salut. |
| Antoni: Yes, it's similar to saying "Hi!" in French. Romanians in this part of the country switch between this greeting and the one we covered earlier, which is |
| Anna: Bună. |
| Antoni: We can add one more item to our list of informal greetings and it applies to speaking on the phone. A Romanian speaker will usually answer the phone by saying, |
| Anna: Alo, |
| Antoni: which is exactly the same as saying "hello" in English. When you are ready to say "goodbye," you can end your conversation with |
| Anna: Pa, |
| Antoni: but remember that this is an informal greeting and, when in doubt, you can always safely use the formal greeting, |
| Anna: La revedere. |
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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