Latin2   Latin10   Unicode

Before you have a look to the Romanian alphabet you should know that Romanian language is phonetic. The letters are read in the same way any time. We don't have two or more ways to write a word, just one. Romanian language is a Latin language (like Italian, French, Spanish, Portuguese, etc.) And to please one of my friend I would like to tell you that in Romanian we do not have any accents on the letters. We do have letters with diacritics, instead.

This is the Romanian alphabet compared with the English (or French) one:

A Ă Â B C D E F G H I Î J K L M N O P   R S Ș T Ț U V   X   Z
a ă â b c d e f g h i î j k l m n o p   r s ș t ț u v   x   z

A     B C D E F G H I   J K L M N O P Q R S   T   U V W X Y Z
a     b c d e f g h i   j k l m n o p q r s   t   u v w x y z

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There are:
  • 8 vowels: a, ă, â, e, i, î, o, u.
  • 20 consonants: b, c, d, f, g, h, j, k, l, m, n, p, r, s, ș, t, ț, v, x, z.
  • No semi-vowels.


    • Explanations:

    A, a - is basically the same as in any other Latin language. It is different from English, where it will be pronounced like “ei” in Romanian.
    Ă, ă - doesn't have correspondent in English or in an other language. The sound is close to “e” from seven, (sevăn), farmer (farmăr), daughter (dotăr), brother (bradăr), etc. In between the brackets is the Romanian pronunciation for those words. The capital letter has no much use unless one write with capitals only. Just two words start with ă: ăsta - this one (masculine) and ăla - that one (masculine), but acesta or celălalt is used for the same meaning. This letter, typographically it is called a breve. It is character no. 103 (hexadecimal) in Unicode (or 102 as capital letter).
    Â, â - doesn't have correspondent in English. It cannot be explain. You have to ask a Romanian how this is pronounced. In Russian language this sound is represented by: ы. The Russians replace this letter in their transcriptions with “y”. In Turkish is represented by “dot less i”: ı. The capital letter has no use, unless one write only with capital letters... Typographically it is called a circumflex. It is character no. E2 (hexadecimal) in Unicode (or C2 as capital letter).
    B, b - is the same as in any language.
    C, c - is the same as C, c and/or K, k. It is pronounced different in “ce”, “ci”, “che”, “chi”. See after.
    D, d - is the same as in any language. Some time the English “th” sounds as “d”.
    E, e - is basically the same as in any other Latin language. The English one will be “i”.
    F, f - is the same as in any language, as well as the sound “ph” from English or French. Also similar with Dutch or German “v”. Doesn't make ligatures with i, l or c.
    G, g - is the same as in many languages. Exception: Dutch, Flemish, German, etc. The pronunciation is changed in “ge”, “gi”, “ghe”, “ghi”. See after.
    H, h - it is quiet different. It is similar with “j” from Spanish, or with “g” from Flemish. It cannot follow an other consonant or be preceded by one, exception is “che”, “chi”, “ghe”, “ghi” and words which start with “hr”. It is similar with the hard “h” from French (the one they pronounce...).
    I, i - is basically the same as in any other Latin language. Different from English, which would be “ai” in Romanian.
    Î, î - the same sound as Â, â (see above). It is used if it is the first or the last character in a word. Otherwise â is used (“întâi” - first). If a word is composed by two words and the second started with î, then it is not changed in â after concatenation (“reîncadrări” - re-framing). Those are the new rules. Before only î was used. Â was used only in the words from the family of the word Romanian (român). I do not apply the new rules because I am stubborn. But for official documents I would have to. Typographically it is called i circumflex. It is character no. EE (hexadecimal) in Unicode (or CE as capital letter).
    J, j - it is not a semi-vowel! It is a consonant. The sound is close to “ge”, and not as “i”.
    K, k - we have this letter in the alphabet just for kg and km or for the kilo- prefix. It is the newest letter introduced in the Romanian alphabet. We use “c” instead (in this way: ka=ca, ke=che, ki=chi, ko=co, ku=cu).
    L, l - is the same as in any language.
    M, m - is the same as in any language.
    N, n - is the same as in any language. It can't precede “p” or “b”, “m” has to be used instead: “înpreună” is wrong, “împreună” is used instead (with the meaning of together). One exception is allowed: “Istanbul”.
    O, o - is basically the same as in any other Latin language.
    P, p - is the same as in any language. It can't be follow by “h”.
    Q, q - is a new letter in the Romanian alphabet. There are no Romanian words containg it.
    R, r - is close to any other language, but still different. The Spanish “r” is the closest one.
    S, s - is the same as in any language. Sound also the same as in “ce” or “ss”. It is never read as “z”! It can't be follow by “h”.
    Ș, ș - in English it sound as “sh”. In French it sound as “ch”. In Portuguese sound as “x”. In German sounds as “sch”. Typographically it is called s comma below (and not s cedilla). It is character no. 219 (hexadecimal) in Unicode (or 218 as capital letter) and not character no. 15F (hexadecimal) (or 15E as capital letter).
    T, t - is the same as in any language. Some times the English “d” sound also as “t”. It can't be follow by “h”.
    Ț, ț - in English or French it sound as “ts”. In Dutch is the “t” in the words finishing with “atie”. In German sound as “tz” or as “c” alone. Typographically it is called t comma below (and not t cedilla). It is character no. 21B (hexadecimal) in Unicode (or 21A as capital letter) and not character no. 163 (hexadecimal) (or 162 as capital letter).
    U, u - is quit similar as in any other Latin language. In fact is as the “ou” in French or as “oe” in Dutch. It is not read as “iu”. The English “w” will be transcripted to “u”, since this one is the closest sound.
    V, v - is basically the same as in any other language. Similar with “w” from Dutch or German.
    W, w - is a new letter in the Romanian alphabet. There are no Romanian words containg it.
    X, x - it is a composition of “c” (or “k” if you wish) and “s” or “g” and “z”. Therefore it is pronounced sometimes as “cs” (“ks”) and sometime as “gz”. It is not very used. One of the most Romanian famous poet was writing his name without “x”, but with it's components: Alecsandri. This letter is also new to Romanian language, it was introduced before “k”.
    Y, y - is a new letter in the Romanian alphabet. There are no Romanian words containg it.
    Z, z - is the same as in any language. But not close to the Italian “pizza” or so.

    Besides this we have few combinations that we read a bit different:

  • “ce” and “ci” we read as the Italians does. “ce” = che, “ci” = chi. Example: cer (ski) = cher.
  • “ge” and “gi” we read this way: “ge” = dje, “gi” = dji. Example: gem (magiun) = djem.
  • “che” and “chi” we read as: “che” = ke and “chi” = ki or qui. Example: chel (bold) = kel.
  • “ghe” and “ghi”. Those are more difficult to explain. Example: ghem (game) = game, ghitara (guitar) = guitara.

    • The “ch” and “gh” from “che”, “chi”, “ghe” and “ghi” are considered as one letter. As the Dutch “ij”, but only when one should used as initials.

    The letters we do not have in the alphabet but already some people consider it as part of it:

  • “q”. We use “că” instead of “que” and “chi” instead of “qui”, for instance.
  • “w”. We don't have semi-consonant. We do have a sound a bit close to “w” in oameni (people) = wameni.
  • “y”. We use “i”. We say “Iugoslavia” and not Yugoslavia (or Jugoslavia) as I can see on the internet in some Romanian documents.

    • However those letters are allowed for names, specially for those Romanian citizens who have a nationality different that Romanian.

    Since Romanian is phonetic, we don't use double letters. There are few exceptions:

  • “cc”: accelerat, accent, accident, etc. (The first one is read as “k” and the second one as “ch”.)
  • “nn”: by composing a word which starts with “n” with the preposition “în” we get this double letter: înnourat (cloudy), înnoptat (to get darker).
  • “oo”: only in “alcool” (alcohol).
  • “ii” or “iii”: fiii (the sons), copiii (the kids). This is more complex to explain. The first “i” is from the root of the word. The second is because it is plural and the last one because is with the article. For instance:
    a kid = un copil, the kid = copilul, some kids = niște copii, the kids = copiii.
    a tree = un copac, the tree = copacul, some trees = niște copaci, the trees = copacii.
    a son = un fiu, the son = fiul, some sons = niște fii, the sons = fiii.
    a house = o casă, the house = casa, some houses = niște case, the houses = casele.

    • Copiii is read as co-pi-ii.

    Diphthongs (two vowels in a row in a same syllable):
    ai - as the French “aille” or as the English “I”.
    au - normal (not as “o”), as the French “aou” and the Dutch “aoe”.
    ea - we read it as “ia”. (Last “a” from Maria.)
    ei - we read it as “iei”.
    eu - we read it as “ieu” or as “io”.
    ia - normal
    ie - normal
    ii - normal (a longer i)
    io - normal
    iu - normal
    oa - we read it as “wa”
    oi - normal
    ou - normal

    Triphthongs:
    iau - normal

    Just for fun, see how we spell in Romanian the English alphabet:
    A = ei, B = bi, C = si, D = di, E = i, F = ef, G = gi, H = eici, I = ai, J = gei, K = chei, L = el, M = em, N = en, O = o, P = pi, Q = chiu, R = ar, S = es, T = ti, U = iu, V = vi, W = dabăl iu, X = ecs, Z = zet.

    Beside the letters we use “-” (dash) to connect two words if the first one finish with a vowel and the second one starts with a vowel, then the vowel from the second word is replaced with “-” and the words get together. For some pairs of words the separate variant it is no longer correct. This is very common in the cases when it is a reflexive verb at the past tens. Examples: “se au” changes into: “s-au”, “mă am” changes into “m-am”. It is not allowed to split the word at the end of a line in the place where this dash is. Also we make use of the apostrophe: “'” in the cases when a letter or a group of letters are accidentally missing. Example: “acu'” instead of “acum” (now) or “'neața” instead of “bună dimineața” (good morning). The apostrophe can be also in the middle of the word. We don't use the symbols: “&” (which we call “and” but doesn't mean “and” in Romanian, which is “și”), “#” (which is called “diez” (something from music) and doesn't have nothing to do with numbers, we use “nr.” for it), “@” (a with monkey tail), etc. The quotations are made as the doubled quotation in German (the first ones down and the last ones up: „example“) and/or as the doubled quotation in French (if two quotations are embedded): „example «example»“. Some people claim that the closing quotations should be ” rather than “.

    Initials:
    In Romanian we don't use initials instead of names. At school and in the army we have a custom (coming from Russian, I think) to put the initial of the father given name in between the family (last) name and the given (first) name. For instance my name in the army was: Ciobîcă M. Ionel Mugurel, because my father's given name is Mihai. His name in the army was: Ciobîcă I. Mihai, because my grand father's given name is Ion. If the given name was Gheorghe the initial will be “Gh.” and not “G.”! You noticed that the last name is the first and the first name is the last. That is why I prefer to say family name and given name instead of last name and first name. If somebody have more that one given name, then in the birth certificate they are linked with a dash. In mine is Ionel-Mugurel. Here in Holland they don't believe me that I have two given names. They registered me at the town hall as Ionel-mugurel (one name, one initial only). The family name they took as Ciobica, because the international birth certificate was written on a typewriter without Romanian letters! Otherwise my family name will be (over here): Ciob?c?.

    Numerals:
    0 - zero
    1 - unu (M), o or una (F), unu (N). First - întîi (M), întîia (F), întîi (N). The first - primul (M), prima (F), primul (N).
    2 - doi (M), două (F), două (N). The second - al doilea (M), a doua (F), al doilea (N).
    3 - trei. The third - al treilea (M), a treia (F), al treilea (N).
    4 - patru. The forth - al patrulea, a patra.
    5 - cinci. The fifth - al cincilea, a cincea.
    6 - șase. The sixth - al șaselea, a șasea.
    7 - șapte. The seventh - al șaptelea, a șaptea.
    8 - opt. The eight - al optulea, a opta.
    9 - nouă. The ninth - al nouălea, a noua.
    10 - zece. The tenth - al zecelea, a zecea.
    11 - unsprezece (unșpe). The nth - al nlea, a na.
    12 - doisprezece (doișpe)
    13 - treisprezece (treișpe)
    14 - patrusprezece (paisprezece, paișpe)
    15 - cincisprezece (cinșpe)
    16 - șasesprezece (șaisprezece, șaișpe)
    17 - șaptesprezece (șaptișpe)
    18 - optsprezece (optîșpe)
    19 - nouăsprezece (nouășpe)
    20 - douăzeci
    21 - douăzeci și unu
    30 - treizeci
    40 - patruzeci
    50 - cincizeci
    60 - șaizeci
    70 - șaptezeci
    80 - optzeci
    90 - nouăzeci
    99 - nouăzeci și nouă
    100 - o sută
    1000 - o mie
    10 000 - zece mii
    100 000 - o sută de mii
    1 000 000 - un milion
    1 000 000 000 - un miliard (un bilion)
    1 000 000 000 000 - un trilion (un biliard)
    0,1 - o zecime
    0,01 - o sutime
    0,001 - o miime
    0,0001 - o zecime de miime
    1 234 567 890,123 45 - un miliard, două sute treizeci și patru de milioane, cinci sute șaizeci și șapte de mii, opt sute nouăzeci virgulă o sută douăzeci și trei de miimi și patruzeci și cinci de sutimi de miimi

    Of course we use comma for the decimal dot as in most languages (only in English the dot is used, I think).
    Before the numbers was written with a dot for each group of three digits, like that: “1.234.567.890,123.45”. Now we use a small space instead “1 234 567 890,123 45”.

    Days of the week (we don't use capitals for it):
    Monday - luni
    Tuesday - marți
    Wednesday - miercuri
    Thursday - joi
    Friday - vineri
    Saturday - sîmbătă
    Sunday - duminică

    Months of the year(we don't use capitals for it):
    January - ianuarie
    February - februarie
    Mars - martie
    April - aprilie
    May - mai
    June - iunie
    July - iulie
    August - august
    September - septembrie
    October - octombrie
    November - noiembrie
    December - decembrie

    Contact: tgakic@chem.tue.nl

    find my CV here.