Learn about shopping at an open air market
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Asia: Hi everyone, and welcome back to RomanianPod101.com. This is Absolute Beginner Season 1 Lesson 3 - Are Romanian Watermelons Expensive? Asia Here. |
| Mihai: Bună. I'm Mihai. |
| Asia: In this lesson, you’ll learn numbers and how to communicate about prices. The conversation takes place at an open air market. |
| Mihai: It's between Masanobu and a salesperson. |
| Asia: The speakers are strangers in a customer service context, therefore, they will speak formal Romanian. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Masanobu: Bună ziua, vreau să cumpăr un pepene verde. Cât costă unul? |
| Vânzător: Acesta de trei kilograme costă trei lei. |
| Masanobu: Cât este aceasta în euro? |
| Vânzător: Înseamnă cam șaizeci de cenți euro. |
| Masanobu: Oh, așa de ieftin?! |
| Vânzător: Da, în România pepenii verzi sunt foarte ieftini. |
| Asia: Listen to the conversation one time slowly. |
| Masanobu: Bună ziua, vreau să cumpăr un pepene verde. Cât costă unul? |
| Vânzător: Acesta de trei kilograme costă trei lei. |
| Masanobu: Cât este aceasta în euro? |
| Vânzător: Înseamnă cam șaizeci de cenți euro. |
| Masanobu: Oh, așa de ieftin?! |
| Vânzător: Da, în România pepenii verzi sunt foarte ieftini. |
| Asia: Listen to the conversation with the English translation. |
| Masanobu: Hello, I'd like to buy a watermelon. How much is one? |
| Salesperson: This 3 kilogram one is 3 lei. |
| Masanobu: How much is that in euro? |
| Salesperson: That means about 60 euro-cents. |
| Masanobu: Wow, so cheap?! |
| Salesperson: Yes, watermelons are very cheap in Romania. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Asia: Wow, that really is cheap! I’m as surprised as Masanobu! Other than cheap watermelons, what is shopping like in Romania? |
| Mihai: Things started to change a lot in the late 90s and the beginning of the 2000s after Romanian changed from a socialist republic into a democracy. |
| Asia: How did it change? |
| Mihai: Before, the most common places to shop were open air markets, local shops, and department stores. |
| Asia: Today, the most popular places are supermarkets. |
| Mihai: The largest ones are known as hypermarkets. |
| Asia: Okay. Are sales staff in Romania chatty? Do they like to make small talk? |
| Mihai: It’s quite common, but usually with younger staff. |
| Asia: I noticed in the conversation that the Romanian currency isn’t the Euro, despite Romania being in the European Union. |
| Mihai: That’s right. The switch to the Euro has been delayed a few times and is still several years away. |
| Asia: So what is the currency in Romania? |
| Mihai: It’s the leu, which literally means “lion.” Don’t worry, there are no lions in Romania! The name comes from an old Dutch currency. |
| Asia: Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Asia: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is... |
| Mihai: bun [natural native speed] |
| Asia: good |
| Mihai: bun[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mihai: bun [natural native speed] |
| Asia: Next we have... |
| Mihai: zi [natural native speed] |
| Asia: day |
| Mihai: zi[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mihai: zi [natural native speed] |
| Asia: Next we have... |
| Mihai: să [natural native speed] |
| Asia: to |
| Mihai: să[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mihai: să [natural native speed] |
| Asia: Next we have... |
| Mihai: a cumpăra [natural native speed] |
| Asia: to buy |
| Mihai: a cumpăra[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mihai: a cumpăra [natural native speed] |
| Asia: Next we have... |
| Mihai: pepene verde [natural native speed] |
| Asia: watermelon |
| Mihai: pepene verde[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mihai: pepene verde [natural native speed] |
| Asia: Next we have... |
| Mihai: a costa [natural native speed] |
| Asia: to cost |
| Mihai: a costa[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mihai: a costa [natural native speed] |
| Asia: Next we have... |
| Mihai: ieftin [natural native speed] |
| Asia: cheap |
| Mihai: ieftin[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mihai: ieftin [natural native speed] |
| Asia: Next we have... |
| Mihai: a însemna [natural native speed] |
| Asia: to mean, to signify |
| Mihai: a însemna[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mihai: a însemna [natural native speed] |
| Asia: And lastly... |
| Mihai: foarte [natural native speed] |
| Asia: very |
| Mihai: foarte[slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mihai: foarte [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Asia: Let's have a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first word is... |
| Mihai: Bună ziua! |
| Asia: meaning "Hello!" What can you tell us about this? |
| Mihai: The first word bună is an adjective and means "good." Ziua is a noun and means "day" in English. |
| Asia: So this is a greeting used during the daytime. |
| Mihai: Yes, you can use it from noon until the sun sets. |
| Asia: And this is formal, right? |
| Mihai: Yes. You should use it in formal situations, with people older than you or with teachers, supervisors, people like that. |
| Asia: Can you give us an example using this phrase? |
| Mihai: Sure. For example, you can say, E frumos să dai bună ziua. |
| Asia: ...which means "It's nice to say hello." |
| Asia: Okay, what's the next phrase? |
| Mihai: Cât costă? |
| Asia: meaning "How much is it?" What can you tell us about this phrase? |
| Mihai: The first word cât is an adverb. It means "how much." |
| Asia: The second word sounds very similar to the English “cost.” |
| Mihai: It does, doesn’t it? It comes from the verb a costa, which does mean “to cost.” |
| Asia: So you can use this phrase to ask for the price of something. |
| Mihai: Right. |
| Asia: Can you give us an example? |
| Mihai: Sure. For example, you can say, Nu știu cât costă cartea aceasta. |
| Asia: ...which means "I don't know how much this book costs." |
| Asia: Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Asia: In this lesson, you'll learn about numbers and communicating about prices. |
| Asia: Let’s start by looking at cardinal numbers. These are numbers that express an amount or a quantity. |
| Mihai: Cardinal numbers are always placed before the noun they are counting, just like in English. |
| Asia: Numbers in Romanian are pretty straightforward, but the number “one” has a few rules. |
| Mihai: We use unu when the cardinal is used to express the number itself, without determining any noun. |
| Asia: So if we just want to say “the number one,” we use that. |
| Mihai: We use un to express the quantity of a noun. |
| Asia: So “one book” or “one table.” |
| Mihai: The numbers one and two also have both masculine and feminine forms. |
| Asia: Which one you use depends on the gender of the noun. |
| Mihai: The other numbers from three to ten only have one variation, so none of these rules apply. |
| Asia: What are the numbers from three to ten? |
| Mihai: Trei, patru, cinci, șase, șapte, opt, nouă, zece. |
| Asia: How do we use these numbers to talk about prices? |
| Mihai: You just put the number before the currency. You can also use costă to say “it costs.” |
| Asia: How do we say ”It costs 2 lei?” |
| Mihai: Costă doi lei. You can also use costă to ask how much something is. |
| Asia: For example, “how much does the bread cost?” |
| Mihai: Cât costă pâinea? Another useful question might be Cât înseamnă în euro? |
| Asia: “How much is it in Euros?” Yes, that might come in handy! |
| Mihai: We said in the last lesson that the difference in formal and informal speech in Romanian is mainly vocabulary, not grammar. |
| Asia: That’s right. Shall we look at some more examples of this? |
| Mihai: Sure. In the dialogue we had the word acesta. |
| Asia: This is the formal word for the male “this.” |
| Mihai: The informal version is ăsta. |
| Asia: We’ve already discussed the formal and informal versions of “hello,” but there are a few more words in the lesson notes, so check them out! |
Outro |
| Asia: 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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