Chapter 5 of 16 · Explore the Romanian path
Optional reference · Chapter 5 of 16
Look up a letter, or a pair of letters
Use this page when a word will not come apart in your mouth. Every letter is here with its sound and a real word, and so is every letter pair that surprises you.
≈ 4 min of reading · Practise at your own pace
What’s in this chapter
- Open this when a word will not come apart. The stories ahead do not need it.
- The Romanian alphabet is thirty-one letters: the English twenty-six plus ă â î ș ț.
- k, q, w and y turn up almost only in borrowed words.
- The last two blocks collect the spelling-is-not-the-sound cases in one place.
You do not need this section to finish the lesson. It is here for the moment a word will not come apart in your mouth — an unfamiliar letter pair, a spelling that refuses to match the sound you expect. Look up the row, then go straight back to where you were. Nothing in the two stories at the end depends on reading it.
Consonants that do not behave like English
Find the letter that stopped you. Each entry gives the sound it makes and a word where you can hear it.
- ck before a, o, u — but the ch of church before e and icopackoh-PAHK“tree”
- gg as in go before a, o, u — but j as in jam before e and imergeMEHR-jeh“he goes”
- ha real, breathed h, said wherever it is written on its ownOnly inside ch and gh does it go quiet, and there it is a wall, not a sound.hartăHAHR-tuh“map”
- jthe s of “measure” — never the j of jamThe French j, borrowed whole.joszhohs“down”
- rtapped — the tongue flicks once behind the top teethThe tt of an American “butter” — one flick, not a growl.mareMAH-reh“big”
- ss as in sit, always — it never goes to a z between vowelscasăKAH-suh“house”
- șsh as in shipșapteSHAHP-teh“seven”
- țts as in catsțarăTSAH-ruh“country”
- vv as in vanvulpeVOOL-peh“fox”
- xks, or gz between vowelsexemplueg-ZEM-ploo“example”
- zz as in zoozizee“day”
The four remaining letters — k, q, w, y — are counted in the alphabet but appear almost only in borrowed words and names, said roughly the way the lending language says them.
The vowels, including the two extra ones
The eight vowel letters in one place, each with the sound it carries and a word that uses it.
- aah, as in fatherapăAH-puh“water”
- ăuh — the relaxed vowel at the end of “sofa”pădurepuh-DOO-reh“wood”
- âih — tight and dark; written this way inside a wordvântvihnt“wind”
- eeh, as in bedverdeVEHR-deh“green”
- iee, as in machine — full in zi and gri, but barely sounded when it ends a word right after a consonant, as in lupizizee“day”
- îih — the same sound as â; written this way at the start or end of a wordînihn“in”
- ooh, as in morepotpot“I can”
- uoo, as in foodluploop“wolf”
Spelling on the left, sound on the right
A pair of letters is the usual reason a word will not come apart. Find the pair on the left and read its sound on the right.
Two spelling habits worth knowing
These two are about how Romanian is written rather than how it sounds. Both explain spellings that can look like mistakes and are not.