How to Learn Romanian for Beginners: A Step-by-Step Guide

Romanian is the Romance language nobody expects: tucked away among Slavic neighbours, it quietly kept its Latin backbone, which makes it a cousin of Spanish, French, Italian and Portuguese. For an English speaker that’s great news — much of it is more familiar than it looks, the spelling is essentially phonetic, and if you already know another Romance language you’re halfway there. Here’s a clear path from zero to your first conversations.

Step 1: Learn the alphabet and five special letters first

Romanian uses the Latin alphabet plus five extra letters — and ten minutes up front pays off for months:

ă — a short, neutral “uh”, like the a in “sofa”.
â / î — the same tense “uh” made further back, just written differently by position.
ș — “sh”, as in shoe.
ț — “ts”, as in cats.

Because Romanian is spelled the way it’s spoken, once you know these you can read almost any word aloud correctly — no silent letters, no traps.

Step 2: Front-load high-frequency words

You don’t need a big vocabulary to start. A few hundred of the most common words carry most everyday situations, and thanks to the shared Latin roots, many will look familiar: familie (family), carte (book), apă (water), bun (good), noapte (night). Learn each with a picture and native audio rather than a translation, so recall is direct and durable. Grab the core list in 100 most common Romanian words.

Step 3: Speak real phrases from week one

Don’t wait until you “know grammar” to talk. Memorize ready-made phrases — bună, mulțumesc, cât costă? — and use them on day one. Romanians are delighted and encouraging when visitors try. Grab a travel-ready set in common Romanian phrases for travelers.

Step 4: Meet Romanian’s coolest feature — “the” as a suffix

Romanian does one thing no other Romance language does: it attaches the definite article to the end of the noun. “A man” is un om; “the man” is omul. Casă (house) → casa (the house); lup (wolf) → lupul (the wolf). It feels odd for a day, then becomes a fun party trick — and a perfect reason to learn nouns in context rather than in isolation.

Step 5: Take the grammar in small bites

Romanian nouns have gender — including a neuter that behaves as masculine in the singular and feminine in the plural — and there are some case changes. None of it is a wall; it’s the ordinary work of any language, spread over months. Romanian also picked up a layer of Slavic (and a few Hungarian, German and Turkish) loanwords, so not every word is guessable from Latin — meet them as they come, inside real sentences.

How long does it take?

Thanks to its Latin core and phonetic spelling, Romanian sits in the more accessible tier for English speakers — and noticeably faster if you already know a Romance language. As always, consistency beats intensity: short daily practice will have you holding simple conversations within a few months. For an honest look at the easy and tricky parts, read is Romanian hard to learn?

A simple first-month plan

Week 1: the alphabet and five special letters, greetings and numbers — out loud, with audio.
Week 2: food, travel and the most common verbs, plus nouns with their gender.
Week 3: the “the”-as-suffix pattern; start building short sentences.
Week 4: rehearse real phrases and review everything with spaced repetition.

The friendliest way in

The smoothest start combines the alphabet, frequency vocabulary, native audio and daily review in one place. Learn Romanian For Beginners opens with the alphabet and its sounds, then teaches 60+ everyday topics through pictures and native-speaker audio, with mini games — and daily and lifetime leaderboards — to keep your streak alive. The picture-first method is explained in learning vocabulary with pictures.

Download Learn Romanian For Beginners free on Google Play and start speaking Romanian this week.