How to learn Romanian by reading

Romanian is a Romance language, descended from the Latin spoken in the Roman provinces along the lower Danube, Dacia among them, and a reader who knows Italian, Spanish or French will recognize much of it: casă (house), apă (water), frate (brother). But Romanian grew up apart from its relatives, among Slavic, Hungarian, Greek and Turkish neighbors, and it has features no other major Romance language has. That mix is what makes it so interesting to read.

Romanian is spoken in Romania and Moldova, and its literature includes the poet Mihai Eminescu, the storyteller Ion Creangă, Liviu Rebreanu’s novels and, today, Mircea Cărtărescu.

What makes Romanian hard to read

• Five extra letters. Ă, â, î, ș and ț. Â and î are the same sound, written î at the start and end of words and â inside them: înțelege (“understands”), român (“Romanian”). Ș and ț are “sh” and “ts,” properly written with a comma below, not a cedilla.
• The article on the end. Lup is “wolf,” lupul “the wolf”; casă is “house,” casa “the house”; casele is “the houses.” It’s a Balkan feature, shared with Bulgarian and Albanian, and a surprise to readers of other Romance languages.
• Cases. Romanian keeps two case forms from Latin, plus a vocative. The genitive-dative changes the ending: casa, but casei, “of the house”; băiatul, but băiatului, “of the boy.” The little words al, a, ai and ale also mark possession: un prieten al lui Ion, “a friend of Ion’s.”
• Three genders. Besides masculine and feminine, Romanian has neuter nouns that behave as masculine in the singular and feminine in the plural: un scaun, “a chair,” but două scaune, “two chairs.”
• The subjunctive instead of the infinitive. “I want to read” is vreau să citesc, literally “I want that I read.”
• Pronouns doubled. L-am văzut pe Ion means “I saw Ion,” literally “him-I-have seen Ion.” The extra pronoun is required, and pronouns cluster with hyphens: i-a spus, “he told him.”
• A literary past. Older and more literary narration uses the simple perfect (făcu, zise, plecă), which in everyday speech survives mainly in the region of Oltenia. Everyday Romanian says a făcut, a zis, a plecat.
• Calling people. Romanian has a vocative for addressing someone directly: Ion becomes Ioane, Maria becomes Mario, and domn, “gentleman,” becomes domnule, “sir.” Polite conversation uses dumneavoastră, a long word for “you” that you’ll meet in every formal scene.
• Words from the neighbors. Slavic gave Romanian da (“yes”), a iubi (“to love”) and nevoie (“need”), and Turkish, Greek and Hungarian added more.

Romanian reading at each level

What the CEFR levels mean for Romanian text:

• A2, elementary. Short sentences in the present and the compound past (a mers, “he went”), definite articles on the end of nouns, simple genitives such as castelul contelui, and everyday vocabulary.
• B1, intermediate. The genitive-dative, the subjunctive with să, doubled pronouns, the imperfect for background, and the future in its forms (voi merge, o să merg).
• B2, upper intermediate. The simple perfect and pluperfect of literary narration, the conditional and presumptive moods (o fi plecat, “he may have left”), and a richer vocabulary.
• C1, advanced. Close to the original, lightly condensed. C2 is the complete novel.

CEFR levels explained covers the scale in general.

Dracula at A2 and at B2

Bram Stoker’s novel opens with Jonathan Harker’s trip into Transylvania, today part of Romania. Two moments, written for this page:

A2

Jonathan Harker este un tânăr avocat englez. Merge în Transilvania, la castelul contelui Dracula. Drumul trece prin munți înalți și păduri întunecate.

Jonathan Harker is a young English lawyer. He is traveling to Transylvania, to Count Dracula’s castle. The road runs through high mountains and dark forests.

B2

La Bistrița, soția hangiului l-a implorat pe Harker să nu-și continue drumul și, fără să-i spună ce îl așteaptă, i-a pus la gât un crucifix.

In Bistrița, the innkeeper’s wife begged Harker not to go any further and, without telling him what awaited him, hung a crucifix around his neck.

The A2 text shows articles on the end (castelul, drumul) and the genitive contelui, “of the count.” Un tânăr avocat puts the adjective before the noun, a common order in written narrative, although Romanian adjectives usually follow the noun (un avocat tânăr). The B2 sentence uses a doubled pronoun (l-a implorat pe Harker), two subjunctives (să nu-și continue, fără să-i spună) and the dative pronoun i in i-a pus, “put on him.” It also shows how Romanian attaches small pronouns to the words around them with hyphens: nu-și, să-i, i-a.

Building a Romanian reading habit

1. Start with the audio on. Let the narrator read a section while you follow the highlight across the page. You’ll hear ă and î, the vowels other Romance languages lack, and the way hyphenated pronouns run together.
2. Reread on your own. Return to the same pages without the narration. Endings like -ul, -ului and -ei become easy to spot.
3. Use your other Romance languages, carefully. If you know French or Italian, let them help with vocabulary, but tap when a familiar-looking word doesn’t fit the sentence.
4. Collect the literary tenses. When you meet zise or plecă, note the everyday form. They’re few, and they recur.

Stephen Krashen argued that we acquire language by understanding messages slightly beyond our current level (Krashen 1982, Principles and Practice in Second Language Acquisition). Romanian is a good example of why that works: much of a page may already be readable through Latin roots, and the new grammar arrives in context, where its meaning is clear. More in comprehensible input, extensive reading and reading while listening.

Classics to start with

• Dracula begins in Transylvania, with Harker passing through Bistrița and the Borgo Pass on his way to the castle. A gripping read at B1 or B2.
• The Count of Monte Cristo is a long, satisfying revenge story for B2.
• Around the World in Eighty Days has short chapters and a clear goal, ideal at A2 and B1.
• Journey to the Center of the Earth is a straightforward adventure with a small cast, a natural A2 read.
• Treasure Island is fast and full of dialogue, a good first novel.

How Lexo helps with Romanian

Tap a word and a card shows what it means in that sentence, its base form and its part of speech, so contelui leads back to conte and zise to a zice. Phrases and idioms are explained as a whole, every sentence has a translation into English, and words you want to keep go into your Words list.

Every word can be played on its own, which helps with ă and î, two vowels Spanish and Italian lack, and the whole book is narrated, with different voices for different characters and the text highlighted word by word as it’s read. Sentence-by-sentence mode shows one sentence at a time with its audio and translation.

You choose the level for each book, so Dracula can be an A2 adventure this year and a C1 one later. If you’re the first to ask for a book in Romanian at your level, Lexo writes the edition for you: chapter 1 is ready in a few minutes, the rest follows while you read, and you keep a dated “First edition” mark. Books download for offline reading, and there’s no account to create.

Romanian’s Romance relatives are Italian, Spanish, French and Portuguese; its Balkan neighbor Albanian also puts the article on the end.

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