Five extra letters, and two that change their sound
Romanian is written very nearly as it is said. Learn the seven vowel sounds, the five letters English does not have, and why c and g soften in front of an e or an i.
Romanian lessons
Learn to read Romanian.
We’ll start with the sounds, then the words and the endings that do the most work in a sentence.
Then you can read a whole fable and see how much of it you follow.
13 core chapters · 3 optional references · Free, at your own pace
Starting from scratch
Start with the sounds, then read your first words and go on to sentences. The cards below let you try a greeting or look at the extra letters first.
Start with the sounds →Try saying helloA first hello
Five letters English
A first hello
in Romanian.
Start with hello, then say who you are. The pronunciation and English sit beside every line.
Try the lesson A reading-first approachFive letters English
does not have.
Romanian is written very nearly as it is said. Learn ă, â, î, ș and ț, and what c and g do in front of an e.
See how the letters workChapter 1 of 16 · Explore the Romanian path
Start here · Chapter 1 of 16
How this path works
See how the Romanian, the respelling and the English fit together, and how to attempt a word before you reveal it. The same three lines run through every chapter.
≈ 1 min of reading · Practise at your own pace
What’s in this chapter
- It starts from no Romanian and ends with a short fable whose pronunciation and English begin hidden.
- You attempt a word before revealing how it sounds or what it means.
- In KAH-suh, the CAPITAL piece is the one you lean on and “uh” is ă.
- Three sections are lookups: search them, do not memorise them.
This is short preparation for reading a book, not a grammar course: how Romanian spelling turns into sound, where the pieces of a sentence sit, and enough recurring words to get through a first page with help.
The house is small.
Casa este mică.
KAH-sah YES-teh MEE-kuh
The middle line is the respelling. Five conventions run through every one: hyphens cut the word into pieces, the CAPITAL piece is the one you lean on, “uh” is ă, “ih” is â or î, and a bracketed letter — LOO-p(y) — is barely sounded. At checkpoints it stays hidden until you reveal it.
Four animals walk the path — Mina the mouse, Tobi the rabbit, Tika the bird, Dara the fox — from the collection it ends by handing you. The promise: by the last reading you will read this in Romanian, with the English hidden — “One day Mina the mouse saw a rabbit in the wood. ‘Good day,’ said Mina. ‘Where are you going?’”
How to use a checkpoint
Look at the Romanian first and try it out loud. Then reveal.
- casă
Two pieces, and you lean on the first. The ă is a relaxed “uh”.
Show answer +Hide answer −
casăKAH-suh “house”. Say “KAH-suh”.
The chapters
What do you want to work on?
If you’re starting from scratch, follow the chapters in order. Otherwise, pick the bit you need. You can skip the reference pages and come back to them.
First sentences: greeting people and saying who you are
Say hello, thank you and goodbye, then give your name. Learn how am, are and is change with the person, so you can tell who a sentence is about.
Words like big and small, and where they sit
Six everyday describing words, and the two things a book expects you to know about them: they come after the thing they describe, and their ending copies it.
Have, want, must — and the little word să
Say what you have, where you are going, and what you want or must do. Where English says “to” before a second verb, Romanian says să.
First reading with help: a bird loses its tree
Read Tika and Dara one line at a time. The pronunciation and the English stay visible while you practise finding the verb and working out who did what.
Come back to these chapters whenever you need them.All Romanian chapters ↗