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 and 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. 🎹

After mastering the Romanian alphabet and pronunciation, you might want to explore other aspects of the language. Feel free to check out our lessons on Romanian Grammar: Plural Nouns, Romanian Vocabulary - Body, and Romanian Vocabulary Basic Romanian Vocabulary Family and Relationships to further enhance your Romanian language skills. Happy learning! 😊

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