Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Salut, and welcome to Romanian Survival Phrases, brought to you by RomanianPod101.com
This course is designed to equip you with the language skills and knowledge to enable you to get the most out of your visit to Romania. You'll be surprised at how far a little Romanian will go.
Now before we jump in, remember to stop by RomanianPod101.com.
There, you’ll find the accompanying PDF lesson notes and additional info in the post. If you stop by, be sure to leave us a comment.
In the previous lesson, we covered how to get bus and tram tickets in and outside cities and how to ask about the costs. In this lesson, we will continue teaching you some other phrases that will be helpful for your trips during your stay in Romania.
BODY
Let’s imagine a situation that happens all the time in Romanian bus stations. You decide to travel by bus from Cluj to Brașov. First of all, you will go to the information desk and make sure the bus schedule hasn’t changed. You can ask “At what hour will there be a bus to Brasov?” In Romanian, that is:
La ce oră este autobuz spre Brașov?
(slow) La ce o-ră es-te a-u-to-buz spre Bra-șov?
La ce oră este autobuz spre Brașov?
The first three words, la ce oră, are translated as “at what hour”.
(slow) La ce oră.
La ce oră.
Next we have este, which is a present form of the verb that means “to be”.
(slow) Es-te.
Este.
After that comes autobuz, the word for “bus”.
Spre may be translated in different ways, but in our sentence it means “at”
(slow) Spre.
Spre.
And the last word is the name of the city. In our case, Brașov.
The whole question is:
La ce oră este autobuz spre Brașov?
In English that will be literally translated as
“At what hour is a bus to Brașov?”
The next question you will need to ask is
De unde cumpăr bilete? In English, that is translated as “Where can I buy tickets?”
De unde is translated as “from where”
(slow) De un-de.
De unde.
Cumpăr is a present tense form of the verb that means “to buy”.
(slow) Cum-păr.
Cumpăr.
And last we have bilete which means “tickets”.
(slow)Bi-le-te.
Bilete.
Let’s hear the whole phrase one more time.
De unde cumpăr bilete?
Usually, the answer to this question will be:
De la șofer or Biletele le cumpărați de la șofer.
Let’s pick the second one and break it down.
(slow) Bi-le-te-le le cum-pă-rați de la șo-fer.
Biletele le cumpărați de la șofer.
Biletele means “the tickets”
(slow) Bi-le-te-le.
Biletele.
Le cumpărați has no literal translation but basically these two words mean “buy them”.
(slow) Le cum-pă-rați.
Le cumpărați.
Next we have de la which is translated as “from”.
(slow) De la.
De la.
And the last word șofer which means “driver”.
(slow) Șo-fer.
Șofer.
The whole sentence is translated as “You can buy the tickets from the driver”
When you get on the bus, make sure that the bus is the right one. For this, you will need to ask, “Is this bus going to Brasov?” Now the same phrase, but in Romanian:
Acest autobuz merge la Brașov?
Let’s break it down:
(slow) A-cest a-u-to-buz mer-ge la Bra-șov?
Acest autobuz merge la Brașov?
Acest is the masculine form for “this”. We already covered the word in our previous lessons.
Autobuz means “bus”.
Merge is the present form of the verb that is translated as “to walk”.
(slow) Mer-ge.
Merge.
And the last words, la Brașov, are translated as “to Brașov”.
The whole question once again is:
Acest autobuz merge la Brașov?
Now let’s learn how to buy a ticket for a far-away destination.
Un bilet până la Brașov vă rog. In English - “A ticket to Brașov please.”
(slow) Un bi-let pâ-nă la Bra-șov vă rog.
Un bilet până la Brașov vă rog.
You already know that un bilet means “one ticket.”
Next we have până la which can be translated as “until” or “to the”.
(slow) Pâ-nă la.
Până la.
Brașov is the name of the city.
And at the end we have the words vă rog, as usual.
The whole sentence is:
Un bilet până la Brașov vă rog.
When you are getting ready for a long trip, it is normal to be interested in how many hours it will take to reach the destination. All you have to do is ask the driver the following question.
Câte ore face până la Brașov? which is translated as “How many hours to Brașov?”
(slow) Câ-te o-re fa-ce pâ-nă la Bra-șov?
Câte means “how many”
(slow) Câ-te.
Câte.
The second word ore means ”hours”.
(slow) O-re
Ore.
Next we have face which is a present form of the verb that means “to make”
(slow) Fa-ce.
Fa-ce.
You are already familiar with the last three words. Până la Brașov means “to Brașov.”
All together we have: Câte ore face până la Brașov?
REVIEW
Okay, to close out this lesson, we'd like you to practice what you've just learned. I'll provide you with the English equivalent of the phrase and you're responsible for saying it aloud. You have a few seconds before I give you the answer, so mult noroc , which means "Good luck!" in Romanian.
“At what hour will there be a bus to Brasov?”
(3 sec) La ce oră este autobuz spre Brașov?
(slow) La ce o-ră es-te a-u-to-buz spre Bra-șov?
La ce oră este autobuz spre Brașov?
“Where can I buy tickets?”
(3 sec) De unde cumpăr bilete?
(slow) De un-de cum-păr bi-le-te?
De unde cumpăr bilete?
“You can buy the tickets from the driver.”
(3 sec) Biletele le cumpărați de la șofer.
(slow) Bi-le-te-le le cum-pă-ra-ți de la șo-fer.
Biletele le cumpărați de la șofer.
“Is this bus going to Brasov?”
(3 sec) Acest autobuz merge la Brașov?
(slow) A-cest a-u-to-buz mer-ge la Bra-șov?
Acest autobuz merge la Brașov?
“A ticket to Brasov please.”
(3 sec)Un bilet până la Brașov vă rog.
(slow) Un bi-let pâ-nă la Bra-șov vă rog.
Un bilet până la Brașov vă rog.
“How many hours to Brasov?”
(3 sec) Câte ore face până la Brașov?
(slow) Câ-te o-re fa-ce pâ-nă la Bra-șov?
Câte ore face până la Brașov?

Outro

All right, that's all for this lesson!
Remember to stop by RomanianPod101.com and pick up the accompanying PDF lesson notes.
If you stop by, be sure to leave us a comment.
Pa!

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