Language/Romanian/Pronunciation/Alphabet-and-Pronunciation

Romanian Alphabet & Pronunciation

Hello Romanian learners,

In today's lesson, you will learn how to write the different letters of the Romanian alphabet, how to pronounce these letters whether it is through the International Phonetic Alphabet (IPA), or through a video with the pronunciation of the letters by a native speaker.

You will also find at the end of this lesson a virtual keyboard to be able to type each special character of this language.

Romanian Alphabet & English Pronunciation

Vowels

• a is pronounced similar to the "a" in "rather"
• e is pronounced similar to the "a" in "crate”
• i is usually pronounced similar to the "ee" in "meet”
• o is pronounced similar to the 'o' in "chore"
• u is pronounced similar to the 'oo' in "room",
• ă is pronounced similar to the 'a' in "aloud”
• â and î are both pronounced similar to the "i" in "twirl". However, î only appears at the beginning of the word while â appears everywhere else in the word. 

Consonants

• ş is pronounced similar to the 'sh' in "rush"
• ţ is pronounced similar to the 'ts' in "sports"
• c (ce) proceeded by an i or e, is pronounced similar to the 'ch' in "cheer", otherwise like the 'c' in "cry".
• ch solely appears preceding i or e, is pronounced similar to the 'c' in "cry”.
• g (ghe/ge) when followed by i or e, pronounced similar to the 'j' in "jar", otherwise like the 'g' in "goose”.
• gh solely appears preceding an i or e and is pronounced similar to the 'g' in " goose”. 

Diphthongs

• oi is pronounced similar to the 'oy' in "joy".
• ea is pronounced similar to the 'a' in " crate " followed by the 'a' in "rather".
• ai is pronounced similar to the 'i' in "ride".
• ei is pronounced similar to the 'a' in "lane".
• au is pronounced similar to the 'ou' in "south".
• ău is pronounced similar to the 'a' in "amount" proceeded by the 'oo' in "loot”.
• ăi is pronounced similar to the 'a' in " amount " proceeded by the 'ee' in "meet”.
• âi is pronounced similar to the Romanian 'â' or 'î' proceeded by the 'ee' in "meet”.
• îi is pronounced similar to the "i" in "like".

Alphabet & IPA Pronunciation

Letter	Name	IPA
A, a	a	/a/
Ă, ă	ă	/ə/
Â, â	î / î din a	/ɨ/
B, b	be / bî	/b/
C, c	ce / cî	/k/
		/tʃ/
D, d	de / dî	/d/
E, e	e	/e/
		/e̯/
		/je/
F, f	ef / fe / fî	/f/
G, g	ge / ghe / gî	/ɡ/
		/dʒ/
H, h	haș / ha / hî	/h/, /ç/, /x/
		∅
I, i	i	/i/
		/j/
		/ʲ/
Î, î	î / î din i	/ɨ/
J, j	je / jî	/ʒ/
K, k	ca / capa	/k/
L, l	el / le / lî	/l/
M, m	em / me / mî	/m/
N, n	en / ne / nî	/n/
O, o	o	/o/
		/o̯/
P, p	pe / pî	/p/
Q, q	kü / chiu	/k/
R, r	er / re / rî	/r/
S, s	es / se / sî	/s/
Ș, ș	șe / șî	/ʃ/
T, t	te / tî	/t/
Ț, ț	țe / țî	/ts/
U, u	u	/u/
		/w/
V, v	ve / vî	/v/
W, w	dublu ve / dublu vî	/v/
		/w/
		/u/
X, x	ics	/ks/
		/ɡz/
Y, y	igrec / i grec	/j/
		/i/
Z, z	ze / zet / zed / zî	/z/

Phonology

Vowels

There are seven monophthongs in Romanian:

	Front	Central	Back
Close	i ⟨i⟩	ɨ ⟨î/â⟩	u ⟨u⟩
Mid	e ⟨e⟩	ə ⟨ă⟩	o ⟨o⟩
Open		a ⟨a⟩

Consonants

Romanian has 20 phonemic consonants:

		Labial	Dental		Alveolar	Post- alveolar	Velar	Glottal
			central	sibilant
Nasal		m ⟨m⟩			n ⟨n⟩
Plosive/ Affricate	voiceless	p ⟨p⟩	t ⟨t⟩	t͡s ⟨ț⟩		t͡ʃ ⟨c⟩	k ⟨c/ch/k⟩
	voiced	b ⟨b⟩	d ⟨d⟩			d͡ʒ ⟨g⟩	ɡ ⟨g/gh⟩
Fricative	voiceless	f ⟨f⟩		s ⟨s⟩		ʃ ⟨ș⟩		h ⟨h⟩
	voiced	v ⟨v⟩		z ⟨z⟩		ʒ ⟨j⟩
Trill					r ⟨r⟩
Approximant					l ⟨l⟩	j ⟨i⟩	w ⟨u⟩

Romanian Online Virtual Keyboard