Dialogue

Vocabulary

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Lesson Notes

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Lesson Transcript

INTRODUCTION
Asia: Hi everyone, and welcome back to RomanianPod101.com. This is Absolute Beginner Season 1 Lesson 8 - Going on a Shopping Trip in Romania. Asia Here.
Mihai: Bună. I'm Mihai.
Asia: In this lesson, you’ll learn about gender in Romanian. The conversation takes place at a shopping mall.
Mihai: It's between Masanobu and Andreea.
Asia: The speakers are friends; therefore, they will speak informal Romanian. Okay, let's listen to the conversation.
DIALOGUE
Masanobu: Astăzi vreau să-mi cumpăr o cămașă roșie, verde, galbenă.
Andreea: Deci vrei să cumperi trei cămăși?
Masanobu: Nu, doar una.
Andreea: Nu înțeleg. Deci ce culoare cauți?
Masanobu: Toate culorile. Vreau o cămașă pentru excursia din Delta Dunării.
Andreea: Ah, acum înțeleg. Vrei ceva colorat, pentru vară.
Masanobu: Da, asta vreau să spun.
Asia: Listen to the conversation one time slowly.
Masanobu: Astăzi vreau să-mi cumpăr o cămașă roșie, verde, galbenă.
Andreea: Deci vrei să cumperi trei cămăși?
Masanobu: Nu, doar una.
Andreea: Nu înțeleg. Deci ce culoare cauți?
Masanobu: Toate culorile. Vreau o cămașă pentru excursia din Delta Dunării.
Andreea: Ah, acum înțeleg. Vrei ceva colorat, pentru vară.
Masanobu: Da, asta vreau să spun.
Asia: Listen to the conversation with the English translation.
Masanobu: Today I want to buy a red, green, and yellow shirt.
Andreea: So you want to buy three shirts?
Masanobu: No, only one.
Andreea: I don't understand. So what color are you looking for?
Masanobu: All of them. I want a shirt for the trip to the Danube Delta.
Andreea: Oh, now I understand. You want something colorful for the summer.
Masanobu: Yes, that's what I mean.
POST CONVERSATION BANTER
Asia: There was a little miscommunication at the start of the conversation, but things were smoothed out by the end.
Mihai: Yeah, it all went well! I hope Masanobu found a shirt.
Asia: As the conversation was about shopping, let’s talk about shopping. And since I’m hungry, let’s talk about food shopping!
Mihai: Okay! You should have eaten before we started recording.
Asia: I know… Is there a staple food in Romania?
Mihai: Originally, it was bread. Every meal would be accompanied by bread.
Asia: What’s the staple food now?
Mihai: Now it’s mămăligă
Asia: That’s “polenta” in English.
Mihai: It’s made of cornmeal and has a consistency close to wheat bread.
Asia: Sounds good! Is there a common drink in Romania?
Mihai: țuică is popular. This is a brandy-like drink made from plums. It’s about 40% alcohol.
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: a vrea [natural native speed]
Asia: to want
Mihai: a vrea[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Mihai: a vrea [natural native speed]
Asia: Next we have...
Mihai: cămașă [natural native speed]
Asia: shirt
Mihai: cămașă[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Mihai: cămașă [natural native speed]
Asia: Next we have...
Mihai: doar [natural native speed]
Asia: only
Mihai: doar[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Mihai: doar [natural native speed]
Asia: Next we have...
Mihai: roșu [natural native speed]
Asia: red
Mihai: roșu[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Mihai: roșu [natural native speed]
Asia: Next we have...
Mihai: verde [natural native speed]
Asia: green
Mihai: verde[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Mihai: verde [natural native speed]
Asia: Next we have...
Mihai: galben [natural native speed]
Asia: yellow
Mihai: galben[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Mihai: galben [natural native speed]
Asia: Next we have...
Mihai: a înțelege [natural native speed]
Asia: to understand
Mihai: a înțelege[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Mihai: a înțelege [natural native speed]
Asia: Next we have...
Mihai: pentru [natural native speed]
Asia: for
Mihai: pentru[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Mihai: pentru [natural native speed]
Asia: And lastly...
Mihai: colorat [natural native speed]
Asia: colorful
Mihai: colorat[slowly - broken down by syllable]
Mihai: colorat [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: Vreau să cumpăr
Asia: meaning "I want to buy." What can you tell us about this phrase?
Mihai: The structure of this phrase is the same as the English version. First is vreau, meaning “I want.”
Asia: The middle word is a conjunction meaning “to.”
Mihai: Right, that’s să. Finally is cumpăr, meaning “I buy.”
Asia: So you can use this when you want to buy something.
Mihai: Yes, it’s something you can say to salespeople.
Asia: Can you give us an example using this phrase?
Mihai: Sure. For example, you can say, Vreau să cumpăr o casă la mare.
Asia: ...which means "I want to buy a house at the seaside."
Asia: Okay, what's the next word?
Mihai: doar una
Asia: meaning "only one.” Let’s break this down.
Mihai: First is doar, which is an adverb meaning "only."
Asia: What’s the second word?
Mihai: una, a feminine pronoun, and it means "one."
Asia: When can you use this phrase?
Mihai: In any situation when you want to talk about “only one.”
Asia: Can you give us an example using this word?
Mihai: Sure. For example, you can say, "Am doar una."
Asia: ...which means "I only have one."
Asia: Okay, now onto the lesson focus.

Lesson focus

Asia: In this lesson, you'll learn about gender in Romanian.
Asia: We’ve heard a few mentions of gender so far, but we haven’t really touched on it yet.
Mihai: Yes, Romanian is one of those languages where nouns have a gender.
Asia: Is there a pattern to which nouns are masculine and which are feminine?
Mihai: The patterns are based on the ending sounds of the words, but there’s no absolute rule.
Asia: So the best idea is to try and remember each noun individually?
Mihai: To begin with, yes. As you learn more Romanian and become more proficient, you’ll be able to tell instinctively.
Asia: To help with that though, let’s look at some of the patterns.
Mihai: Okay. Nouns ending in a consonant or in the vowel or semivowel u are almost always masculine. Such as domn.
Asia: This means “mister” or “gentleman.”
Mihai: Nouns ending in ă and stressed a are feminine.
Asia: Let’s have some examples of those.
Mihai: fată and tejghea.
Asia: “Girl” and “bar counter,” respectively.
Mihai: Nouns ending in e are also generally feminine, such as librărie.
Asia: “Bookstore.” Some nouns are neutral, right?
Mihai: Yes, but there’s no third declension for this gender. There are some words that are masculine in singular form, but feminine in plural form.
Asia: And these are the nouns that are called neuter nouns in Romanian. Let’s hear an example.
Mihai: oraș is masculine in singular, and orașe is the feminine plural.
Asia: Those words mean “city” and “cities.”
Mihai: Finally, the gender of the noun affects adjectives. The basic form of adjectives are masculine. To make them feminine, you add ă for singular and e for plural.
Asia: Let’s work through an example using the adjective for “warm.”
Mihai: The basic masculine form is cald. The feminine singular is caldă.
Asia: What about the plurals?
Mihai: The masculine is calzi and the feminine calde.
Asia: Okay, thank you for the examples!

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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