Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Notes

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Becky: Hi everyone, and welcome back to RomanianPod101.com. This is Absolute Beginner, Season 1, Lesson 10 - Talking Sports in Romanian. Becky Here.
Mihai: Bună. I'm Mihai.
Becky: In this lesson, you’ll learn about expressing preferences and useful adverbs. The conversation takes place at a stadium.
Mihai: It's between Masanobu and Mihai.
Becky: The speakers are friends; therefore, they’ll speak informal Romanian. Okay, let's listen to the conversation.
DIALOGUE
Masanobu: Mă bucur că vedem astăzi meciul de fotbal împreună.
Mihai: Și eu mă bucur.
Masanobu: La noi baseball-ul este mai popular decât fotbalul, dar eu prefer fotbalul.
Mihai: Și ce alte sporturi îți plac?
Masanobu: Îmi place să merg pe bicicletă. Ție?
Mihai: Mie îmi place și ping-pong-ul.
Masanobu: Ce înseamnă ping-pong?
Mihai: Ah, tenis de masă.
Becky: Listen to the conversation one time slowly.
Masanobu: Mă bucur că vedem astăzi meciul de fotbal împreună.
Mihai: Și eu mă bucur.
Masanobu: La noi baseball-ul este mai popular decât fotbalul, dar eu prefer fotbalul.
Mihai: Și ce alte sporturi îți plac?
Masanobu: Îmi place să merg pe bicicletă. Ție?
Mihai: Mie îmi place și ping-pong-ul.
Masanobu: Ce înseamnă ping-pong?
Mihai: Ah, tenis de masă.
Becky: Listen to the conversation with the English translation.
Masanobu: I'm glad today we're watching the soccer game together.
Mihai: I'm glad too.
Masanobu: Baseball is more popular in my country, but I prefer soccer.
Mihai: What other sports do you like?
Masanobu: I like riding bicycles. You?
Mihai: I also like ping pong.
Masanobu: What does ping pong mean?
Mihai: Oh, table tennis.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Becky: In this lesson, Masanobu and Mihai have gone to watch a soccer game together.
Mihai: I hope their team wins!
Becky: Me too! Is watching soccer a popular pastime in Romania?
Mihai: Well, soccer is the most popular sport in Romania.
Becky: Really? Is it called soccer in Romania?
Mihai: No, like a large part of the world, it’s called fotbal.
Becky: Okay. Exactly how popular is soccer in Romania?
Mihai: If you buy a newspaper and turn to the sports section, it’ll mainly all be soccer.
Becky: Do other sports get covered?
Mihai: Maybe on the last page of the sports section, in a “Miscellaneous Sports” part.
Becky: Other than soccer, what other sports are popular?
Mihai: Tennis is popular, as there are a couple of famous Romanian tennis players. For example, Țiriac and Năstase.
Becky: Okay, now onto the vocab.
VOCAB LIST
Becky: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is...
Mihai: a se bucura [natural native speed]
Becky: to be glad
Mihai: a se bucura[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Mihai: a se bucura [natural native speed]
Becky: Next we have...
Mihai: astăzi [natural native speed]
Becky: today
Mihai: astăzi[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Mihai: astăzi [natural native speed]
Becky: Next we have...
Mihai: împreună [natural native speed]
Becky: together
Mihai: împreună[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Mihai: împreună [natural native speed]
Becky: Next we have...
Mihai: mai [natural native speed]
Becky: more
Mihai: mai[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Mihai: mai [natural native speed]
Becky: Next we have...
Mihai: decât [natural native speed]
Becky: than
Mihai: decât[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Mihai: decât [natural native speed]
Becky: Next we have...
Mihai: fotbal [natural native speed]
Becky: soccer
Mihai: fotbal[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Mihai: fotbal [natural native speed]
Becky: Next we have...
Mihai: sport [natural native speed]
Becky: sport
Mihai: sport[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Mihai: sport [natural native speed]
Becky: Next we have...
Mihai: bicicletă [natural native speed]
Becky: bicycle
Mihai: bicicletă[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Mihai: bicicletă [natural native speed]
Becky: Next we have...
Mihai: a (îi) plăcea [natural native speed]
Becky: to like
Mihai: a (îi) plăcea[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Mihai: a (îi) plăcea [natural native speed]
Becky: And last...
Mihai: a merge [natural native speed]
Becky: to walk / to ride
Mihai: a merge[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Mihai: a merge [natural native speed]
KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES
Becky: Let's have a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first word is...
Mihai: Mă bucur că...
Becky: meaning "I'm glad that…." This phrase has three words. Can you break it down for us?
Mihai: Mă means "myself." Bucur is the first person singular for a bucura.
Becky: This means “to rejoice.” And the last word?
Mihai: că is the conjunction “that.”
Becky: It’s literally “I rejoice myself that…” but we translate it as “I’m glad that…”
Mihai: You can use this in formal and informal speech, but it’s best avoided with superiors, such as teachers or supervisors.
Becky: Can you give us an example using this phrase?
Mihai: Sure. For example, you can say, Mă bucur că pot să exersez limba română cu tine.
Becky: ...which means "I'm glad I can practice Romanian with you."
Becky: Okay, what's the next phrase?
Mihai: Ce înseamnă...?
Becky: meaning "What does...mean?"
Becky: What can you tell us about this question?
Mihai: Ce means “what.” înseamnă is the 3rd person singular for a însemna.
Becky: This means “to mean.”
Mihai: You can use this to ask what something means.
Becky: This may come in handy as a Romanian learner.
Mihai: Yes, but it sounds a little childish coming from a native speaker, as it’s direct.
Becky: Can you give us an example using this phrase?
Mihai: Sure. For example, you can say, Ce înseamnă acest cuvânt?
Becky: ...which means "What does this word mean?"
Becky: Okay, now onto the lesson focus.

Lesson focus

Becky: In this lesson, you'll learn about expressing preferences and useful adverbs.
Becky: Let’s look at how we talk about the degree of something using “too.”
Mihai: In Romanian, we say prea. We heard this in the conversation.
Becky: Yes, we did! You can use this word with an adjective to say that something is too much. For example, “too late” or “too hot.”
Mihai: Yes. It can also be used in negative verbal structures in Romanian, to show the low degree or frequency of a verb.
Becky: Okay, let’s hear an example with an adjective first.
Mihai: Prea goes before the adjective. Deja este prea târziu.
Becky: “It’s already too late.” And now, a negative verb example.
Mihai: The pattern for this is nu, followed by prea, followed by the verb. Nu prea joc biliard.
Becky: “I don’t play billiards that much.”
Mihai: Nu prea îmi plac filmele de acțiune.
Becky: “I don’t like action movies that much.” We can also use “more” and “than” to talk about preferences in comparative sentences.
Mihai: Yes, we can. Mai means “more,” and decât means “than.”
Becky: How can we use those in a sentence?
Mihai: noun, plus verb, plus mai, plus an adjective, plus decât, and then a noun.
Becky: That might sound a little complicated, so let’s hear an example.
Mihai: Desertul este mai dulce decât carnea.
Becky: “Dessert is sweeter than meat.”
Mihai: Vara este mai caldă decât iarna.
Becky: “Summer is hotter than winter.” Now, let’s finish by briefly talking about neologisms - these are loanwords, words that originally come from other languages.
Mihai: In Romanian, they’re usually nouns or adjectives. When they’re nouns, they usually take masculine or neuter grammatical gender.
Becky: How do neologism adjectives behave?
Mihai: Unlike Romanian adjectives, they don’t change depending on the noun.
Becky: It’s important to remember that Romanian nouns can take a definite article, so it’s like saying “the noun.”
Mihai: Yes. These neologisms behave like traditional Romanian adjectives, but the article is connected to the noun with a hyphen after the noun.
Becky: You can see some examples of this in the lesson notes!

Outro

Becky: Okay, that’s all for this lesson. Thank you for listening, everyone, and we’ll see you next time! Bye!
Mihai: La revedere.

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