Lesson 1: Pronunciation

Letter Pronunciation As in the English word....
a ah father
e eh bet
i ee beet
o oh pole
u oo pool
ă uh but
î, â ew Two letters, but same sound. Not an English sound.
ț ts Pittsburg
ș sh shower
c ch before an "i" or "e" beach
ch k bike
g j before an "i" or "e" juice
gh g bag

IMPORTANT NOTE: Any Romanian word starting with "e" is pronounced with an English "y" sound at the beginning.
Example: "este" is pronounced as yes-teh

Diphthongs

Note: You don't have to memorize these if you can remember just to put the two vowel sounds together to make the diphthong sound.

Example:

i (ee) + e (eh) = ie (yeh)
o (oh) + a (ah) = oa (wah)



Sound Clips

Below are sound clips of the numbers 1-10. This will teach you the basic numbers and give you an idea of the Romanian pronunciation and accent. We're providing these pretty much just because we had them on file, and we figured why not?

1 through 5

6 through 10

  1. unu
  2. doi
  3. trei
  4. patru
  5. cinci
  6. șase
  7. șapte
  8. opt
  9. noua
  10. zece



Main Page Lesson 2: Subject Pronouns