LESSON NOTES Basic Bootcamp S1 #1 Self Introductions and Basic Greetings in Formal Romanian CONTENTS 2 Romanian 2 English 2 Vocabulary 2 Sample Sentences 3 Grammar 5 Cultural Insight # 1 COPYRIGHT © 2016 INNOVATIVE LANGUAGE LEARNING. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. ROMANIAN 1. Recepţionist: Bună ziua , Doamnă. Mă numesc Paul Iordache. 2. D-na Popescu: Îmi pare bine, Domnule. Mă numesc Popescu Georgiana. 3. Recepţionist: Îmi pare bine, Doamnă. ENGLISH 1. Receptionist: Hello, madam. I'm Paul Iordache. 2. Mrs. Popescu: Nice to meet you, sir. I'm Popescu Georgiana. 3. Receptionist: Nice to meet you, Madam. VOCABULARY Romanian English Class bună ziua hello, good day adjective +noun Doamnă madam, lady noun Mă numesc… My name is… verb îmi pare bine nice to meet you phrasal verb, phrase SAMPLE SENTENCES Bună ziua Domnule Bună ziua Doamnă "Hello, sir." "Hello, madam." ROMANIANPOD101.COM BASIC BOOTCAMP S1 #1 - SELF INTRODUCTIONS AND BASIC GREETINGS IN FORMAL ROMANIAN 2 Mă numesc Nicoleta. Îmi pare bine să vă întâlnesc. "My name is Nicoleta." "I'm pleased to meet you." Bună tuturor! Îmi pare bine. "Hi everyone! Nice to meet you." GRAMMAR T he Focus of T his Lesson Is Introducing Yourself and Basic Greetings in Formal Romanian Bună ziua, Doamnă. "Hello, madam." Bine aţi venit ("Welcome") to the Romanian language basics. Introducing yourself is inevitable in any situation, but is actually quite easy! Let's start with the phrase bună ziua! Bună ziua ("Hello"/"Good day") For a more classical and frequent greeting, use bună ziua, which literally means "good day," but basically means "hello." You can use bună ziua anytime during the daytime, in any circumstance; whether you are speaking to a friend, an elderly person, or an unknown person in an informal or formal situation, use buna ziua. It the safest and most respectable way of greeting a person while in Romania. In the evening and when night is approaching, use bună seara, meaning "good evening." Like bună ziua, bună seara is the most common and safest way to greet someone in the evening. The only difference is that you can use also bună seara for farewells, as well at the end of the day. Note that a title can follow both bună ziua and bună seara to be a bit more proper. For example: Romanian English Bună ziua "Hello,"/ "Good day" Bună ziua Domnule "Hello, sir"/"Good day, sir" ROMANIANPOD101.COM BASIC BOOTCAMP S1 #1 - SELF INTRODUCTIONS AND BASIC GREETINGS IN FORMAL ROMANIAN 3 Bună ziua Doamnă "Hello, madam"/"Good day, madam" Greeting or Farewell in the Evening or at Night Romanian English Bună seara "Hello"/"Good evening" Bună seara Domnule "Hello"/"Good-bye, sir" Bună seara Doamnă "Hello"/"Good-bye, ma'am" Stating a Name After someone formally greets you at your hotel, someone will certainly ask you about your identity. In many other situations, social or otherwise, to get to know someone or introduce yourself, you will ask or hear the most frequent question: "What is your name?" To answer: 1. Use the reflexive verb a se numi conjugated in the correct form. 2. You can omit the personal pronoun eu, meaning "I" in English, which is only used for emphasis. Conjugating the Verb a se numi ("to be named") The verb a se numi means "to be named," and we translate it with the verb "to be" in English when stating a name (as shown in the dialogue translation). The infinitive verb a se numi has the reflexive pronoun se in front, telling us it is a reflexive verb. The presence of the reflexive pronoun se in the infinitive form is what makes it distinctive. This tells us that this verb (like others with the same feature) is a "reflexive verb," which we call in Romanian verb reflexiv. The reflexive pronoun se is the reflexive part of the verb. This lets us know to refer to the information following the verb a se numi—in other words, a name, back to the subject of the sentence. When conjugating a reflexive verb, you should follow two steps: First you need to replace the reflexive pronoun se with the appropriate reflexive pronoun and put it in front of the conjugated verb. Then change the verb form according to the subject of the sentence. ROMANIANPOD101.COM BASIC BOOTCAMP S1 #1 - SELF INTRODUCTIONS AND BASIC GREETINGS IN FORMAL ROMANIAN 4 Changing the Reflexive Part of the Verb a se numi In the sentence (eu) mă numesc Paul, the pronoun is eu, which is first person singular. As the verb a se numi is a reflexive verb or verb reflexiv, the reflexive pronoun se becomes mă, and we put it before the conjugated verb. You will then have (eu) mă numesc. Be aware that you only Conjugating the Verb a se numi After changing the reflexive pronoun se into the reflexive personal pronoun mă, which we put in front of the verb, we must conjugate the verb. The verb a se numi is conjugated at the indicative present form. For example: Romanian "English" Mă numesc Georgiana. "My name is Georgiana." Mă numesc Georgiana Popescu. "My name is Georgiana Popescu." Te numeşti Paul Iordache "Your name is Paul Iordache" CULTURAL INSIGHT Romanian Given First Names In Romania names change in popularity over the years. A bunch of evergreen names for both boys and girls, in other words names that will never fall out of fashion, are names such as George, Andrei, and Alexandru for boys and Maria, Elena, and Alexandra for girls. Sometimes parents, with a creative flair, name their children after football players, pop singers, or even fictional TV characters, both Romanian and international. Nowadays baby names tend to be short and sometimes a bit unusual. Some Romanians prefer foreign names like Neil, Evan, Calvin, and Simon for boys, and Emma, Cora, Glory, and Greta for girls. More traditional parents sometimes give their children their own mother or father's name, although this practice is rather old-fashioned. Sometimes children would get only their middle name from their grandparents. Middle names are very common and very important in official documents. In Romania middle names are called second names and they can be used as first names if the person decides. So, for ROMANIANPOD101.COM BASIC BOOTCAMP S1 #1 - SELF INTRODUCTIONS AND BASIC GREETINGS IN FORMAL ROMANIAN 5 example, if a person's name is Claudia Diana, she is more likely to be called Claudia by her family and friends. But then she moves to another city where no one knows her, so she could decide to introduce her self as Diana because she likes it better. Then suddenly she is no longer Claudia. A lot of Romanian first names end in "escu" : Ionescu, Diaconescu, Georgescu. In which case it is very easy to guess the person is Romanian. The top three most popular Romanian first names are Popa, followed by Pop and Popescu. In Romania is also very common to have a first name which can be a family name as well. For example Bogdan Tudor or Vasile Marian. Some names can be very funny and make you think about the level of inspiration that some parents can have: Floarea Floare (which in English is translated as "the flower flower"), Codruţ Dumbravă (little forest grove), Nicolae Crăciun (Nicolas Christmas), Luminiţa Întuneric (the light dark). In cases like these, it is very common to ask which one of the two is the fist name. ROMANIANPOD101.COM BASIC BOOTCAMP S1 #1 - SELF INTRODUCTIONS AND BASIC GREETINGS IN FORMAL ROMANIAN 6 LESSON NOTES Basic Bootcamp S1 #2 Basic Romanian Phrases with the Verb a fi ("to be") CONTENTS 2 Romanian 2 English 2 Vocabulary 2 Sample Sentences 3 Grammar # 2 COPYRIGHT © 2015 INNOVATIVE LANGUAGE LEARNING. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. ROMANIAN 1. Julie: Bună, sunt Julie. Sunt franţuzoaică. 2. Paul: Bună, sunt Paul. Sunt american. ENGLISH 1. Julie: Hello, I am Julie. I am French. 2. Paul: Hello, I am Paul, I am American. VOCABULARY Romanian English Class Eu I personal pronoun I am (conjugated form of sunt a fi ) verb, conjugated francez French adjective american American noun SAMPLE SENTENCES Sunt îngrijorat. Sunt acasă. "I am worried." "I am home." Sunt român dar acum locuiesc Eu sunt Ana, noua ta colegă. în Spania. "I am Ana, your new collegue." "I am Romanian but now I live in Spain ." ROMANIANPOD101.COM BASIC BOOTCAMP S1 #2 - BASIC ROMANIAN PHRASES WITH THE VERB A FI ("TO BE") 2 Sunt f ranţuzoaică. Sunt american. "I am French." "I am American." Noul lui coleg este american. "His new collegue is American." GRAMMAR T he Focus of T his Lesson Is Forming Basic Romanian Simple sentences and using the Verb a fi ("to be"). In this lesson, you'll learn about forming basic Romanian sentences and understanding the construction of a simple phrase. The majority of Romanian simple phrases have the schema presented bellow. (Subject) + (predicate) + (complement) A: Word Order To build a simple phrase, you need to use three elements: The subject - which is a person, a thing, or a place performing the • action or receiving it The predicate - which is the action of the sentence, talks about the • subject and has a verb • The object - which we also call the complement Note: In Romanian grammar, a predicate can be nominal or verbal. • copulative verb + predicative noun= nominal predicate • Verb= verbal predicate. ROMANIANPOD101.COM BASIC BOOTCAMP S1 #2 - BASIC ROMANIAN PHRASES WITH THE VERB A FI ("TO BE") 3 B: Subject and Predicate In the sentences below, the subjects and predicates are highlighted. For example: Romanian "English" Subject Verb 1 - Maria "Marie eats an Maria mănâncă mănâncă un măr.