Romanian Pronunciation Guide

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The Romanian (Român) language is quite phonetic and uses accents on some vowels and on some consonants.

Letters not listed are pronounced approximately as in English.
--Dick Oakes

 


A, a   - a as in father
Ă, ă   - a as in around
Â, â   - i as in girl (see Î)
E, e   - e as in let
I, i   - i as in machine
Î, î   - i as in girl
O, o   - o as in note; also o as in gone
U, u   - u as in duke
 
C, c   - c as in cello (ch) when before E or I, otherwise c as in cat
Ch, ch   - ch as in chaos (k)
G, g   - g as in germ (j) when before E or I, otherwise g as in go
Gh, gh   - gh as in ghost (g)
J, j   - z as in azure (zh)
Ş, ş   - s as in sugar
Ţ, ţ   - tz as in quartz (ts)
 
The Romanian language has many dipthongs (and tripthongs), which are pronounced separately but in rapid succession. The weaker vowel almost becomes semiconsonantal. Examples are:
 
ai   - ai as in kaiser
au   - au as in sauerkraut
ău   - a as in about combined with u as in flute
ea   - ea as in bread
ei   - ei as in seine
eu   - eu as in feud
ia   - ya as in yacht
ie   - ye as in yes
io   - yo as in yoke
iu   - yu as in yule
îi   - i as in hike
îu   - similar to eu in feud
oa   - wa as in wash
oi   - oi as in spheroid
ou   - ou as in dough
  - wu as in wuther
eai   - yi as in yikes
eau   - yow as in yowl
ieu   - ieu as in lieu
 
The letter i at the end of a word is silent unless preceded by another letter i.
 
Other letter combinations are:
 
Ci, ci   - chi as in chief
Ce, ce   - che as in chess
Chi, chi   - chi as in Chianti
Ghe, ghe   - ghe as in ghetto
Ghi, ghi   - gee as in geese
Ge, ge   - ge as in genesis
Gi, gi   - gi as in giraff