Romanian for English speakers
English isn't a Romance language, but it borrowed thousands of words from French and Latin: of the 2,264 everyday words in Cognata, 971 have a cognate between English and Romanian. Start from those, and keep the false friends in sight.
- share a source
- 43%
- distant cognates
- 3%
- to learn fresh
- 54%
2,264 words compared
Words you already know
Everyday words whose English and Romanian forms come from the same source.
False friends to watch
magazin (Romanian) means “shop, store” · magazine (English) means “periodical; ammunition store”
Both go back to Arabic makhāzin 'storehouses', through Italian magazzino and French magasin. Romanian took the French 'shop'; English kept 'storehouse' (still in a gun's magazine) and made a 'storehouse of information' of it, the periodical.
librărie (Romanian) means “bookshop” · library (English) means “place to borrow books”
Romanian borrowed French librairie 'bookshop'; English took Old French librairie earlier, when it still meant a collection of books. Both go back to Latin LIBRĀRIUS 'of books'.
merge (Romanian) means “to go, walk; to work, function” · merge (English) means “to combine, join”
Both from Latin MERGERE 'to dip, plunge'. Romanian inherited it and moved from 'plunge on' to plain 'go' (merg acasă 'I'm going home'; merge 'it works'); English borrowed it as a legal 'sink into, absorb', hence 'combine'.
blând (Romanian) means “gentle, mild, kind” · bland (English) means “dull, tasteless”
Both from Latin BLANDUM 'smooth, soft-spoken, flattering'. Romanian inherited it as a virtue (un om blând 'a gentle person'); English borrowed it from books as 'mild, soothing', which faded to 'insipid'.
nervos (Romanian) means “irritable, angry” · nervous (English) means “anxious, jittery”
Both from Latin NERVŌSUM 'sinewy' by way of French nerveux. In Romanian, e nervos pe mine means 'he's annoyed with me', not that he is anxious about meeting me.
Words to learn fresh
Common words where Romanian went its own way.