Dialogue

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Vocabulary

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Lesson Notes

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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 this lesson we’ll cover another extremely important phrase: "Do you speak English?" Using this phrase is important for many reasons. For one, if the party you’re speaking to doesn’t understand English, at least they’ll be able to understand what you’re asking. Furthermore, it shows a lot of respect on your part, because you’ve made an effort to learn even a little bit of the language. For these reasons and many more, we’re going to cover this very important phrase.
BODY
In Romanian, "Do you speak English?" is
Vorbiți engleza?
Let’s break it down:
(slow) Vor-biți en-gle-za?
Once more:
Vorbiți engleza?
Vorbiți is a form of the verb a vorbi which in English is translated as “to speak” or “to talk.”
(slow) Vor-biți.
Vorbiți.
The word “English" is
engleza
Let’s break it down:
(slow) en-gle-za
engleza
This phrase that we just learned is formal. Use it with people that you don’t know or with people who are older than you.
To young people, of course, you can feel free to use the informal version. You can say:
Vorbeşti engleza?
As you may have noticed, the difference between the two expressions Vorbiţi engleza? and Vorbeşti engleza? is small, but you have to pay attention because it completely changes the formality level.
Let’s break this informal phrase down:
(slow) Vor-beşti en-gle-za?
Once more:
Vorbeşti engleza?
Now for a change, let's try different languages that are frequently taught in Romanian schools.
“Do you speak French?" is
Vorbești franceza?
The word for “French" is
franceza.
Let’s break it down:
(slow) fran-ce-za.
franceza.
The whole phrase is:
(slow) Vorbești franceza?
Vorbești franceza?
Now let’s try with German.
Vorbești germana?
The word germana means “German.”
When you ask the question “Do you speak English” in Romanian, there is a big possibility that you will get the answer in Romanian.
Here are few ways of answering this question.
“Yes, I speak English” would be
Da, vorbesc engleza.
Let’s hear that slowly now:
(slow) Da, vor-besc en-gle-za.
And one more time at natural native speed:
Da, vorbesc engleza.
The first word, da, means “yes.”
(slow) Da.
Da.
After this comes vorbesc, which is a conjugated form of the verb translated in English as “to speak”.
Finally, we have engleza, which means English.
(slow) En-gle-za.
Engleza.
All together, that’s
(slow) Da , vor-besc en-gle-za.
Da, vorbesc engleza.
This phrase could be made shorter, just by saying “Yes”:
Da.
If the answer is negative, Romanian people could say “No, I don’t speak English”:
Nu, nu vorbesc engleza.
Let’s break it down by syllable:
(slow) Nu, nu vor-besc en-gle-za.
And again at natural native speed:
Nu, nu vorbesc engleza.
The first word, nu, means “no”.
(slow) Nu.
Nu.
Next we have nu vorbesc, which is our form for “don’t speak”.
And finally the word engleza which means “English.”
All together, that’s
(slow) Nu, nu vor-besc en-gle-za.
Nu, nu vorbesc engleza.
Sometimes, people will answer only with “no”, which in Romanian is:
Nu.
(slow) Nu.
Nu.
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.
“Do you speak English?” (formal)
(3 sec) Vorbiți engleza?
(slow) Vor-biți en-gle-za?
Vorbiți engleza?
“Do you speak English?” (informal)
(3 sec) Vorbeşti engleza?
(slow) Vor-beşti en-gle-za?
Vorbeşti engleza?
“Do you speak French?” (informal)
(3 sec) Vorbeşti franceza?
(slow) Vor-bești fran-ce-za?
Vorbeşti franceza?
“Do you speak German?” (informal)
(3 sec) Vorbeşti germana?
(slow) Vor-beşti ger-ma-na?
Vorbeşti germana?
“Yes, I speak English.”
(3 sec) Da, vor-besc en-gle-za.
(slow) Da, vor-besc en-gle-za.
Da vorbesc engleza.
“No, I don’t speak English .”
(3 sec) Nu, nu vorbesc engleza.
(slow) Nu, nu vor-besc en-gle-za.
Nu, nu vorbesc engleza.

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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