What Does Romanian Look Like? Sample Words & Features

Romanian is a Romance language (like Spanish, Italian, French, Portuguese) but with unique twists from its Balkan environment.

Everyday Phrases

Romance Family Resemblances

Unique Features

• Definite Article Suffix: casa (a house) → casa (the house); om (man) → omul (the man).
• Cases: Retains nominative/accusative and genitive/dative (unlike other Romance languages).
• Slavic Loanwords: ~15% of vocab (e.g., da = yes, drag = dear, nevoie = need, prieten = friend).
• Latin Alphabet + 5 Diacritics: ă, â, î, ș, ț.

Romanian is the closest living relative to Latin in grammar—but sounds like Italian spoken with a Slavic accent.