Learn about indefinite articles
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Dana: Hi everyone, and welcome back to RomanianPod101.com. This is Intermediate Season 1 Lesson 10 - Getting the Inside Scoop on Romanian Tourist Spots. Dana Here. |
| Mihai: Bună. I'm Mihai. |
| Dana: In this lesson, you’ll learn about articles. The conversation takes place on an airplane. |
| Mihai: It's between Bogdan and a passenger. |
| Dana: The speakers are strangers, therefore, they will speak both formal and informal Romanian. Okay, let's listen to the conversation. |
| DIALOGUE |
| Pasageră: Nu vă supărați, este liber locul acesta? |
| Bogdan: Da. Vă rog, poftiți. Îl eliberez imediat. Îmi cer scuze că am pus o revistă acolo. Am crezut că va rămâne neocupat și de aceea. De asemenea, dacă doriți, vă pot da locul de lângă geam. |
| Pasageră: Nu, mulțumesc, nu este nevoie. Sunteți drăguț. Veniți cum cumva din Ardeal? |
| Bogdan: Da. Cum v-ați dat seama? |
| Pasageră: Îmi cer scuze, n-am vrut să fiu intruzivă. Vă tradează accentul. Și în plus, chiar merg acolo pentru două săptămâni de vacanță în curând și mă gândeam că m-ați putea ajuta cu niște recomandări. |
| Bogdan: A, ce frumos! Cu cel mai mare drag. Cam ce orașe ați vrea să vizitați? |
| Pasageră: Am înțeles că Brașovul și Clujul sunt opțiuni bune conform unor site-uri web pentru turiști. E adevărat? |
| Bogdan: Da, sunt cele mai mari orașe ale regiunii. Ambele au multe de oferit turiștilor. Aș recomanda Brașovul mai ales iarna, dacă vă place schiul. |
| Pasageră: Da? Ce bine. Prietenii cu care mai merg se vor bucura foarte mult de această veste. |
| Bogdan: Vă pot da adresa unei pensiuni pe care am mai recomandat-o unor turiști străini și s-au bucurat foarte mult de experiență. |
| Dana: Listen to the conversation with the English translation |
| Passenger: Excuse me, is this place free? |
| Bogdan: Yes. Please, sit. I'll clear it immediately. I apologize for putting a magazine over there. I thought it would remain unoccupied and that's why I did it. Also, if you want, I can give you the seat near the window. |
| Passenger: No, thanks, there is no need for that. You are nice. Are you from Ardeal? |
| Bogdan: Yes. How did you figure it out? |
| Passenger: I'm sorry, I didn't mean to be intrusive. You have been betrayed by your accent. Actually, I will go there for two weeks of vacation soon, and I was thinking that maybe you could help me with some recommendations. |
| Bogdan: Oh, how nice! With the greatest pleasure. Which cities would you like to visit? |
| Passenger: I understood that Brasov and Cluj are good choices according to some websites for tourists. Is that true? |
| Bogdan: Yes, they are the largest cities in the region. Both have plenty to offer to tourists. I would recommend Brasov, especially in winter if you like skiing. |
| Passenger: Really? That's good. The friends I am going with will enjoy this news very much. |
| Bogdan: I can give you the address of a guesthouse that I have recommended to foreign tourists before, and who really enjoyed the experience. |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Mihai: Have you heard about agro-tourism? |
| Dana: I think that’s the combination of tourism and agriculture, right? |
| Mihai: Yes, and it is getting popular in Romania these days. More and more tourists come to see how people get by with farming and how they live more quietly than people in the city. |
| Dana: So what activities can tourists enjoy with agro-tourism? |
| Mihai: Eating at nearby farms, sailing on the Danube, visiting the Danube Delta, fishing with the locals and so on. |
| Dana: I see. Where can we join this program? |
| Mihai: Well, the main attractions in Romania are the Monastery Route—for those who want to discover local specialties in terms of culture, spirituality, cuisine, and tradition—and the wineries in Southern Romania, where tourists learn about old winemaking techniques and enjoy a great selection of wines. |
| Dana: And people also visit the Maramures region, right? |
| Mihai: Yes, it is known for its rich and untouched nature and culture, so many travelers visit there too. |
| Dana: Good to know. Okay, now onto the vocab. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Dana: Let’s take a look at the vocabulary from this lesson. The first word is... |
| Mihai: a elibera [natural native speed] |
| Dana: to release |
| Mihai: a elibera [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mihai: a elibera [natural native speed] |
| Dana: Next we have... |
| Mihai: imediat [natural native speed] |
| Dana: immediately |
| Mihai: imediat [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mihai: imediat [natural native speed] |
| Dana: Next we have... |
| Mihai: aceea [natural native speed] |
| Dana: that |
| Mihai: aceea [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mihai: aceea [natural native speed] |
| Dana: Next we have... |
| Mihai: drăguț [natural native speed] |
| Dana: nice |
| Mihai: drăguț [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mihai: drăguț [natural native speed] |
| Dana: Next we have... |
| Mihai: a-și da seamă [natural native speed] |
| Dana: to figure it out |
| Mihai: a-și da seamă [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mihai: a-și da seamă [natural native speed] |
| Dana: Next we have... |
| Mihai: a trăda [natural native speed] |
| Dana: to betray |
| Mihai: a trăda [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mihai: a trăda [natural native speed] |
| Dana: Next we have... |
| Mihai: chiar [natural native speed] |
| Dana: even |
| Mihai: chiar [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mihai: chiar [natural native speed] |
| Dana: Next we have... |
| Mihai: drag [natural native speed] |
| Dana: pleasure |
| Mihai: drag [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mihai: drag [natural native speed] |
| Dana: Next we have... |
| Mihai: asemenea [natural native speed] |
| Dana: also |
| Mihai: asemenea [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mihai: asemenea [natural native speed] |
| Dana: And last... |
| Mihai: pensiune [natural native speed] |
| Dana: guesthouse |
| Mihai: pensiune [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Mihai: pensiune [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCAB AND PHRASES |
| Dana: Let's have a closer look at the usage of some of the words and phrases from this lesson. The first word is... |
| Mihai: de asemenea |
| Dana: meaning "also" |
| Mihai: This is an adverbial phrase made out of the preposition de meaning "of." It has the modal adverb asemenea meaning "also." It literally translates to "of also" and means "also." |
| Dana: You can use it as a figure of speech to indicate that the speaker wants to add something about the subject of its speech. |
| Mihai: For example, Am fost, de asemenea și la gară să îl iau pe Marcel și de aceea am întârziat la serviciu. |
| Dana: It means "I was also at the train station to take Marcel and that's why I was late to work." |
| Dana: Okay, what's the next phrase? |
| Mihai: a-și da seama |
| Dana: meaning "to figure it out" |
| Mihai: It’s a verbal phrase composed of the pronominal reflexive verb a da meaning "to give oneself" and the feminine singular noun seama "judgement" in articulated form. |
| Dana: The literal translation would be "to give oneself effort" and means "to do her best” or “to do his best.” |
| Mihai: You can use it to indicate that the subject of the action calculated a certain problem and got to the right answer for it. |
| Dana: Can you give us an example using this word? |
| Mihai: Sure. For example, you can say... Și-a dat seama cum să ajungă la adresa dorită după ce a pornit GPS-ul. |
| Dana: ... which means "He figured out how to get to the desired address after he started the GPS." |
| Dana: Okay, now onto the lesson focus. |
Lesson focus |
|---|
| Dana: In this lesson, you'll learn how to use articles. First, we’ll see how to use definite or indefinite articles. |
| Mihai: When formulating a definite article, you need to remember some rules. First, add -l to words ending in -ă or -u. |
| Dana: What about the ones ending with -i or -o? |
| Mihai: You need to add -ul to them. And to the masculine or neutral words ending in singular -e, you need to add -le. |
| Dana: When the noun has an -i from the singular form and one from the plural, which one should we use? |
| Mihai: In that case, you need to use -iii. Also you can add definite articles to the adjective only when they are placed in front of the adjective. For example, vechiul stilou. Meaning "the old pen." |
| Dana: Ok. Now, let’s move onto the genitives. |
| Mihai: Some common genitives are… ai, a, ale. Using them you can give the meaning "of." |
| Dana: For example, let’s use the masculine singular word for "gentleman." |
| Mihai: In Romanian, it is domnului. To mean "of the gentleman" you need to add the article al and say al domnului |
| Dana: It means "of the gentleman." Like other grammatical rules, it is important to use the right articles depending on its gender or singular/plural forms. We have the chart showing the proper article for each case in our lesson notes, so make sure to check them out. Next one is adjective. |
| Mihai: That’s right. They work like "the" in Romanian, as in "the airplane." For example, the word mare is singular and masculine. By adding the article cel here, you can say cel mare which means "the big" or "the big one." |
| Dana: The demonstrative or adjective has multiple functions. First, it changes the function of the adjective to that of a noun. |
| Mihai: For example...cel frumos which means "the beautiful one." |
| Dana: It sometimes connects the adjective with a precedent noun, for example… |
| Mihai: Mihai cel isteț meaning "Mihai the smart one." |
| Dana: It is a part of the relative superlative comparison degree structure for adjectives and adverbs. For example… |
| Mihai: cel mai reușit proiect meaning "the most successful project." |
| Dana: And the final feature is that it transforms numerals to nouns in specific structures, for example… |
| Mihai: Cele trei au rămas acasă, meaning "The three people stayed home." |
| Dana: It might be complicated to remember all these articles at once, so make sure to check out the charts and extra explanations in the lesson notes. |
Outro |
| Dana: 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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