Romanian Discussion Group

[stabthecake]

i'm going to reply at super speed so please ask more questions if I don't explain this well enough..

Bănăţean means someone from Banat (a male) - female would be Bănăţeancă...

"Cum eşti?" means how are you - literally (smart, stupid, tall, short, fat, thin...), but even using it in this sense is pretty awkward. "Ce faci?" means "How are you?/What's up?"

[stabthecake]

the computer didn't show me duko's reply until after I posted...
Good job, duko!

[parousia]

2) I'm not sure about this, but I think that in English you cannot say:
She told me that I'm not right

Well...I think you could say it, but you'd be changing the meaning a bit. It's true, if you're simply recounting what happened in the past, you would normally say: "She told me that I wasn't right" (or more likely "She told me that I was wrong"). But I can imagine a situation where you might say "She told me that I'm not right" (or "She told me that I'm wrong")in a conversation to underline the fact that you're still maintaining a position (even though you've been told that it's wrong).

Example:

Jo: What do you think is the answer?
Bob: I think it's X.
Jo: Did you ask Mary?
Bob: I asked her yesterday. She told me that I'm not right (/that I'm wrong). [Of course, it would also be OK to say "She told me that I was not right/was wrong"]

This is kinda tricky

In Ro you can safely use the present tense for the second verb, to stress the fact that the two actions happened at the same time:
Mi-a spus (past) că nu am dreptate (present).
Basicaly with the first verb you move the point of reference to the past, and then compare the time of the second action with that point in time.

Da! Am citit ceva asemănător ieri în cartea mea românească [Yes! I read something similar yesterday in my Romanian book]:

"In English the tense of the verb in certain types of subordinate clause may be conditioned by the tense of the verb in the main clause (e.g. 'he says he will come' as against 'he said he would come'). This is not generally the case in Romanian: the tnese of the verb in a subordinate clause (one beginning with să or că, for instance) has greater independence, being conditioned almost solely by the situation." (Romanian: A Complete Course for Beginners by M.Murrell and V. Stefănescu-Drăgăneşti)

It gives as an example:

m-aţi întrebat ce fac aici - you asked me what I'm doing here/ what I was doing here

parousia

[parousia]

the computer didn't show me duko's reply until after I posted...
Good job, duko!

Nu-ţi face griji! Am nevoie că mă repetă această chestie de multe date. [Don't worry! I need this stuff repeated to me many times.]

parousia
Vă rog, corectaţi-mă dacă vedeţi vreo greşeală.

[stabthecake]

Mersi, parousia, that makes me feel better
Does anyone know of a good way to buy Romanian CDs in America (either over the internet or from Romanian American stores)? It's been very hard trying to find some high quality stuff for some friends from Venezuela...

-+> ioana

[parousia]

Servus, Ioana

Pe când "surfing" pe internet, am găsit astă site:

http://www.elibco.ro/show.php?s=muzicanou&m=2&ms=2

ATENŢIE: n-am folosit niciodată astă site, aşa nu ştiu dacă e de încredere. Dar, am vrut să te ajut, aşa...

[While surfing on the internet, I found this site... BEWARE: I've never used this site, so I don't know how reliable they are. But I wanted to help you so...]

Cel puţin, sper că te distrezi bine cercetând situl. [At least I hope you have fun looking at the site.]

parousia
Vă rog, corectaţi-mă dacă vedeţi vreo greşeală.

[duko]

Surfing the internet = a naviga pe internet.

Pe când navigam pe internet, am găsit acest site / am găsit site-ul acesta.

As a rule of thumb when adapting foreign word to Romanian, they receive the neutral gender:
un site / două site-uri. (situri?)

Very good, Parousia.
When you translate the English "so" in this context, use "aşa că".

n-am folosit niciodată acest site, aşa că nu ştiu dacă e de încredere.
Dar, am vrut să te ajut, aşa că...

Oh, an you can also use "deci".

have to go

[parousia]

Mulţumesc foarte mult, duko!

Ce-aş face fără tine?

parousia

[stabthecake]

mulţam, parousia - I haven't been able to take a very good look at it yet but I glanced over the site and it looks perfect - thank you !

-+> ioana

[duko]

Ce-aş face fără tine?

Yet another thing you'll have to learn by heart: "What would I do" translates indeed as "Ce-aş face" as in
En: I don't know what would I do if I caught the thief
Ro: Nu ştiu ce-aş face dacă l-aş prinde pe hoţ.

For no particular reason, when used in a rhetorical question the verb to do (a face) becomes reflexive: Ce m-aş face fără tine?.
And another example, present tense this time
En: We ran out of gas, what do we do?
Ro: Ce ne facem? s-a terminat benzina.

spor,
Duko

[parousia]

Bună ziua la toţi!

E toamnă! Anotimpul meu preferat. Dar e şi mai destul de cald aici în Nou Mexico. Însă, dimineaţă e răcoros; de exemplu, acum (la 3:42) temperatura e 15 C. Frunze pe pomi ("honey locusts") au început să se schimbă culoarea. Mă intreb dacă e deja rece la Transilvania....

[It's fall! My favorite season. But it's still rather warm here in New Mexico. However, it's cool in the mornings; for example, now (at 3:42 A.M.) the temperature is 15 C. The leaves on some trees (honey locusts) have begun to change colors. I wonder if it is already cold in Transylvania...]

Întrebari de azi:

It seems that there are a few different ways to express "there is/there are" ("il y a" in French) in Romanian. You can use "a fi" in the third person "este" (sg.) and "sunt" (pl.), for example, "Este un pom." I've also heard the verb "a se afla" used in this sense (though I'm not sure I heard correctly...), particularly on the radio. Also, there's "a exista" which verb seems to be used more often than its counterpart "There exists" in English...

Are there instances where one verb is preferred over another in usage? I would particularly like to see some examples of "a se afla".

Mulţumesc în avans!

parousia
Vă rog, corectaţi-mă dacă vedeţi vreo greşeală.

[dapyx]

Bună ziua la toţi!

E toamnă! Anotimpul meu preferat. Dar e şi mai destul de cald aici în Nou<b>l</b> Mexico. Însă, dimineaţ<s>ă</s><b>a</b> e <s>răcoros</s> <b>răcoare</b>; de exemplu, acum (la 3:42) temperatura e 15 C. Frunze<b>le</b> <s>pe</s> <b>din</b> pomi ("honey locusts") au început să <s>se schimbă</s> <b>îşi schimbe</b> culoarea. Mă intreb dacă e deja rece la Transilvania....

[It's fall! My favorite season. But it's still rather warm here in New Mexico. However, it's cool in the mornings; for example, now (at 3:42 A.M.) the temperature is 15 C. The leaves on some trees (honey locusts) have begun to change colors. I wonder if it is already cold in Transylvania...]

Întrebari<b>le</b> de azi:

It seems that there are a few different ways to express "there is/there are" ("il y a" in French) in Romanian. You can use "a fi" in the third person "este" (sg.) and "sunt" (pl.), for example, "Este un pom." I've also heard the verb "a se afla" used in this sense (though I'm not sure I heard correctly...), particularly on the radio. Also, there's "a exista" which verb seems to be used more often than its counterpart "There exists" in English...

Are there instances where one verb is preferred over another in usage? I would particularly like to see some examples of "a se afla".

Mulţumesc în avans!

"Se află" is usually used with the meaning "is located" (or "can be found") and it can always be replaced with "este"/"sunt".

After a search on google, I found it in these contexts:

* în partea stângă, se află numele secţiunii = in the left side can be found the name of the section
* Mladici nu se află in Serbia = Mladici is not located in Serbia
* Nedved nu se află pe lista fotbaliştilor care... = Nedved is not on the list of the football players that...
* Biserica-cetate se află pe un deal în partea de nord a satului = The fortified church can be found on a hill on the northern side of the village
* Uranus se află la peste 2,8 miliarde km de Soare = Uranus is at over 2.8 billion kilometers from the Sun.

[parousia]

After a search on google, I found it in these contexts:

Sunt jenată... Am putut şi eu cauta pe Google. Însă, explicaţiea ta şi traducerea ta exemplurilor sunt de foarte ajutor. Mersi dapyx! Şi, mersi pentru corectarile de la scriere mea.

[I'm embarassed... I also could've searched on Google. However, your explanation and translation of the examples are very helpful. Thanks dapyx! Also, thanks for the corrections to my writing.]

parousia

[dapyx]

Sunt jenată... Am putut

Aş fi putut = "I could've", but I didn't do it
Am putut = "I was able to", and I did it

Aş fi putut să alerg 20 de mile. = I could have ran 20 miles. (but I didn't)
Am putut să alerg 20 de mile. = I was able to run 20 miles. (and I did it)

so, here should have been used "Aş fi putut"

şi eu căuta pe Google. Însă, explicaţi<s>e</s>a ta şi traducerea ta exempl<s>urilor</s>elor sunt </i>de foarte ajutor</i>.

"very helpful = either "de mare ajutor" or "foarte folositoare"

Mersi dapyx! Şi, mersi pentru corectarile de la scriere<b>a</b> mea.

Nici o problemă.

[parousia]

Servus la toţi!

Apropo, ce înseamnă "servus" exact? Nu l-am putut găsi în dicţionar...

Învăţ pronumi nedefinite acum. Am vreo dificultate să spun "the other(s)" pe româneşte.

[I'm studying indefinite pronouns now. I'm having difficulty saying "the other(s)" in Romanian.]

De exemplu:

If I want to say: "I wrote to Angela and Dora, but I didn't write to the others."

Would I say: " Lor am scris Angelei şi Dorei, dar nu lor am scris altora" ?

And here I don't mean just "others" but "the others." I have a group of friends – Angela, Dora, Ion, Alexandru, and Corina. I mean that I didn't write to the others (Ion, Alexandru, and Corina).

Another example: "After her departure, the others resumed the discussion."

După plecarea ei, alţii au continuat discuţiea. (<--- but doesn't this say "others continued the discussion" instead of "the others"??)

I hope this isn't too confusing...

parousia
Vă rog, dacă vedeţi greşeli, corectaţi-mă.

[dapyx]

Servus la toţi!

Apropo, ce înseamnă "servus" exact? Nu l-am putut găsi în dicţionar...

Este o formă regională de salut. (Echivalenta cu "hi")
http://dexonline.ro/search.php?cuv=servus

Învăţ pronum<s>i</s><b>ele</b> nedefinite acum. Am <s>vreo</s> <b>o</b> dificultate să spun "the other(s)" pe româneşte.

[I'm studying indefinite pronouns now. I'm having difficulty saying "the other(s)" in Romanian.]

De exemplu:

If I want to say: "I wrote to Angela and Dora, but I didn't write to the others."

Would I say: " Lor am scris Angelei şi Dorei, dar nu lor am scris altora" ?

Am scris Angelei si Dorei, dar nu am scris celorlalţi.

And here I don't mean just "others" but "the others." I have a group of friends – Angela, Dora, Ion, Alexandru, and Corina. I mean that I didn't write to the others (Ion, Alexandru, and Corina).

Another example: "After her departure, the others resumed the discussion."

După plecarea ei, alţii au continuat discuţiea. (<--- but doesn't this say "others continued the discussion" instead of "the others"??)

După plecarea ei, ceilalţi au continuat discuţia.

I hope this isn't too confusing...

(m sg / f sg / m pl / f pl)

* cel / cea / cei / cele = "the one"/"the ones"

e.g: cel alb = "the white one"

* alt / altă / alţi / alte = "another", "other"/"others"

altă dată = "another time";
altă pisică = "other cat"

* celălalt / cealalaltă / ceilalalţi / celelalte = "the other"

cealalaltă pisică = "the other cat"

I hope it's clear.

[parousia]

Da! E foarte clar! Mulţumesc! Mai ales pentru link-ul la dicţionar românesc. E foarte folositor. L-am salvat în dosarul meu favorite. Fără îndoială, are nişte cuvânte că celalt n-are.

[Yes! It's very clear! Thank you! Especially for the link to the Romanian dictionary. It will be very useful. I saved it in my favorites folder. No doubt, it will have some words that the other one doesn't.]

[duko]

Dapyx, good that you're here. I'm currently in Ro, with very limited internet access. I'm gonna be back on monday.

[parousia]

Salut duko!

Da, mă întrebam unde eşti (...unde erai ?? ). E mişto că eşti în România acum. Sper că petreci foarte bine. Cum e vremea? Nu prea rece sper. Citesc despre România puţin, şi am citit că mult de apă minerală se află în România. Şi am citit că Români nu beau nimic cu masă şi dacă vrea să bea ceva cu masă trebuie să roage. Aşa este?

[Yes, I was wondering where you were. It's cool that you're in Romania now. I hope you're having a great time. How is the weather? Not too cold I hope. I've been reading a little about Romania, and I read that there's a lot of mineral water there. I also read that Romanians don't drink anything with their meals, and if one wants to drink something with a meal, one has to ask for it. Is this true?]

And yes dapyx has been "holding down the fort." (<-- Do you know this English expression? )

pa pa

parousia
Vă rog, dacă vedeţi greşeli, corectaţi-mă.

[Guest]

What is the Moldovan accent like?

mulţumesc