Romanian for Catalan speakers
You already know more Romanian than you think. Of the 2,264 everyday words in Cognata, 1,312 have a Catalan cognate — the same word, reshaped by centuries of speech. Start from those, learn the regular changes that link the two languages, and keep the false friends in sight.
Sets your pairing to Catalan → Romanian and opens the cognates.
- share a source
- 58%
- inherited on both sides
- 12%
- to learn fresh
- 42%
2,264 words compared
Words you already know
Everyday words whose Catalan and Romanian forms come from the same source.
The sound laws between them
Regular changes that turn a Catalan word into its Romanian cognate — learn one and it pays out across hundreds of words.
- Stressed short E breaks into iee [ɛ] (no diphthong); i next to a palatal (llit)ie; ia before a or ă (piatră); fused with a preceding d, t (zece, țară)PETRAMpedrapiatră
- Stressed short O breaks into ue / uo / euo [ɔ] (no diphthong)o; oa [o̯a] when a or e follows (poartă, moarte)NOVUMnounou
- French stressed free A becomes ea (kept)a (kept); â before n (câine)MAREmarmare
- French fronts long U to [y]u [u] (kept)u [u] (kept)LŪNAMllunalună
- AU becomes ooau (kept); ău unstressedAURUMoraur
- French vowel + nasal becomes a nasal voweloral vowel; final n after the stress lost (pa, vi)vowel + n kept; vowel raised before n (pâine, mână, timp)PĀNEMpapâine
- Spanish initial F- becomes h- (silent)f- keptf- keptFĪLIUM (fr. from nom. FĪLIUS)fillfiu
- Voiceless stops between vowels softenb (v) d g; p t c again at the end of a word (amic, agut)kept (p t c)VĪTAMvidavită
- C before E and Is (c, ç); between vowels lost, or u at the end (veí, deu)tʃ (c)CAELUMcelcer
- French CA becomes chaca keptca kept (câ-, că- in Romanian spelling)CABALLUMcavallcal
- Initial I- (J-) and G before E, Ij, g [ʒ]j [ʒ] (joc); g [dʒ] before e, i (ger)IOCUMjocjoc
- B and V merge in Spanishmerged as in Spanish (Central Catalan); v kept in Balearic and parts of Valenciav kept; B and V between vowels often lost (cal)VĪNUMvivin
- L before a consonant becomes ul kept (altre, falç)l kept (alt, cald)ALTERUMaltrealt
- CTit, t (the i absorbed by the vowel: nit, fet)ptNOCTEMnitnoapte
- L + yodll [ʎ]i [j] (the l lost)FOLIAMfullafoaie
- C'L inside a wordll [ʎ]chi, che [kʲ]OCULUMullochi
- CL-, PL-, FL- at the start of a wordcl- pl- fl- (kept)CL- → che-, chi- [kʲ]; PL-, FL- keptCLĀVEMclaucheie
- NN, GN and N + yodny [ɲ], also from NN (any)NI → i (vie); GN → mn (pumn); NN → n (an)ANNUManyan
- S + consonant at the start of a wordes-s- (kept)STELLAMestrellastea
- French loses S before a consonant (^)s kepts keptCOSTAMcostacoastă
- Italian assimilates clusterssimplified: pt → t, mn → n; x → ix [ʃ]pt and mn kept (șapte, somn); x → s, psSEPTEMsetșapte
- Final vowelsdropped except -a (said [ə]); -e kept after clusters-a → -ă, -e kept; -o (-U) dropped after a single consonantLUPUMlloplup
- Plurals: -s or -i-s, -es (from the accusative)-i, -e (like Italian); -uri for many neutersLUPŌS (acc.) / LUPĪ (nom.)llopslupi
- -TĀTEM: -dad, -té, -tà-tat-tateCĪVITĀTEMciutatcetate
- -TIŌNEM: learned -ción, inherited -zón-ció (learned); inherited -ó (raó, tió)-țiune (learned); inherited -ciune (tăciune)RATIŌNEMraórațiune (learned)
- -ĀRIUM: -ero, -ier, -aio-er, -era-ar, -are (căldare)CALDĀRIAMcalderacăldare
- Single L between vowels: lost in Portuguese, r in Romanianl keptr (cer, fir, sare)FĪLUMfilfir
- Portuguese loses single N between vowelsn kept; lost where it became final (mà; see final-n)n kept; a before it raised to â (lână, mână)LĀNAMllanalână
- Romanian turns velars into labialsit/t, ix [ʃ], ny; qu, gupt, ps, mn; p, b (labial)OCTŌvuitopt
- Romanian T, D, S before i become ț, z, șt, d, s keptț [ts], z, ș [ʃ]DĪCEREdirzice
- Catalan drops -n at the end of a wordlost (pa, vi); back in the plural (pans, vins)n kept (pâine, vin)PĀNEMpapâine
False friends to watch
No classic traps between these two in Cognata yet — but every word page flags the ones it knows.
Words to learn fresh
Common words where Romanian went its own way.