Romanian vowels throughout Romanian Alphabet is actually a sound that is certainly pronounced by with your mouth (when it comes to nasal vowels, the use of your nose) without obstruction of the lips, tongue, or throat.You will find certainly many standard rules to be aware of every time pronouncing Romanian vowels. Learn More
) |
a | in between the 'a' in "father" |
Hear the sound for a | |
e | in between 'e' of "dress" and 'a' of "face". However, it is not a diphthong like the vowel in "face" is in most accents of English. When the word begins with an 'e' and it is a form of "a fi" (to be) or a pronoun it is like 'ye' in "yell" |
Hear the sound for e | |
i | like 'ee' in "beep" when in the middle or start of a word. When at the end, it is barely sounded - for example, in the word Bucureşti, it is pronounced Boo-KOO-resht with a very short and slight i - never pronounce it as Boo-KOO-reshtee. The terminal "i" causes a slight "softening" of the preceding consonant. (If this is too hard, don't pronounce the i at all.) The few Romanian words with a very strong terminal "i" sound are spelled with a double "i" ("ii"). |
Hear the sound for i | |
o | like 'o' in "chlorine", rounded, fairly short sound |
Hear the sound for o | |
u | like 'oo' in "broom", but much shorter |
Hear the sound for u | |
ă | like 'a' in "digital". This sound is usually mispronounced (people tend to pronounce it like 'u' in 'cup', but in fact, this sound is frequently found in English.) When seeing ă always think of the sound in the rather than in bra. Similar to French 'e' in word 'je'. |
Hear the sound for ă | |
â, î | no precise English equivalent - it's best to hear it being spoken. â and î are the same sound in Romanian. î is used at the beginning and at the end of words, â in all other cases. The closest American English sound is the ""oo"" in "book", but it's a bit shifted toward a "soft 'i'", as in "it". Similar to French 'u' in word 'rue'. |
Hear the sound for â, î |
Click on the links below to see a number of useful Romanian travel words which are organized by category. For each travel word or phrase in Romanian, there’ll be the English interpretation.
Leave a Reply
You must be logged in to post a comment.