If you want to learn Romanian, the good news is that the US Foreign Service Institute ranks it among the easiest languages for English speakers, alongside Spanish, Italian and French. With steady practice, most learners can hold a simple everyday conversation within six to nine months, while real fluency usually takes around two years.
How many people speak Romanian?
Romanian is the native language of about 24 million people. Counting those who speak it as a second language, the total comes to roughly 28 million. Most speakers live in Romania (population around 19 million) and Moldova, where Romanian is the official language.
Large Romanian-speaking communities also live abroad, especially in Italy, Spain, Germany and the United Kingdom. In England and Wales, Romanian is now one of the most widely spoken languages after English. There are also long-established communities in Ukraine, particularly in Bukovina, and in Serbia. Romanian is one of the 24 official languages of the European Union.
What language family does Romanian belong to?
Romanian is an Indo-European language from the Romance group, alongside Italian, Spanish, French and Portuguese. Within that group it forms its own Eastern Romance branch. It developed from the Vulgar Latin spoken in the Roman province of Dacia.
For centuries it evolved cut off from the rest of the Romance world, surrounded by Slavic languages, Hungarian, Greek and Turkish, all of which left a mark on the vocabulary. “Oraș” (town) comes from Hungarian, “dușman” (enemy) from Turkish, and everyday words like “da” (yes) and “prieten” (friend) are Slavic. The grammar, however, stayed firmly Latin.
Is Romanian similar to English?
Not in structure, but you’ll recognize more words than you might expect. English absorbed thousands of Latin and French words, and so did Romanian, so “important”, “a vizita” (to visit), “universitate”, “informație” and “familie” are easy to guess.
Romanian’s closest relative is Italian: Italian speakers can often follow simple Romanian sentences without a dictionary.
| Romanian | English | Italian | Spanish |
|---|---|---|---|
| apă | water | acqua | agua |
| casă | house | casa | casa |
| a mânca | to eat | mangiare | comer |
| frumos | beautiful | bello | hermoso |
| prieten | friend | amico | amigo |
| familie | family | famiglia | familia |
The “prieten” row is a warning. Romanian often goes its own way with Slavic words, as with “a iubi” (to love) or “a citi” (to read), so even good Spanish or French won’t cover everything.
Does Romanian have dialects?
Yes. Linguists usually distinguish four main varieties:
- Daco-Romanian, standard Romanian as spoken in Romania and Moldova, and the one you learn in courses,
- Aromanian, spoken by communities in Greece, Albania and North Macedonia,
- Megleno-Romanian, now endangered, with a few thousand speakers,
- Istro-Romanian, spoken by only a small group on the Istrian peninsula in Croatia.
Some scholars treat the last three as separate languages. Learners only deal with the standard.
What about “Moldovan”? It is the same language, with differences mainly in accent and some vocabulary. In 2023 the Moldovan parliament replaced the term “Moldovan language” with “Romanian language” in its legislation. Learn Romanian and you can get by in both Bucharest and Chișinău.
Is Romanian hard to learn for English speakers?
Compared with most languages, no. Spelling is largely phonetic, so once you know the rules you can read words aloud correctly. Many basic words are familiar from Latin roots, and the basic word order (subject, verb, object) feels natural.
The difficulty comes after the first few weeks. English has almost no inflection left, while Romanian nouns change for gender and case, and verbs take a different ending for each person. That is where most of your effort will go.
How long does it take to learn Romanian?
According to the FSI, an English-speaking adult needs about 24 weeks, or roughly 600 hours of classroom instruction, to reach professional working proficiency in Romanian. That assumes full-time classes plus homework, so alongside a job it takes longer.
As a rough guide for an English speaker studying 30–45 minutes a day:
| Goal | Level | Estimated study time | In practice |
|---|---|---|---|
| Getting by while traveling | A1 | 80–120 hours | 2–4 months |
| Basic conversation on everyday topics | A2 | 180–280 hours | 6–9 months |
| Comfortable conversation, films with subtitles | B1–B2 | 450–650 hours | 1–1.5 years |
| Fluency | C1 | 750–1,000 hours | 2 years or more |
These are estimates, not promises. If you already speak Spanish, Italian, French or Portuguese, expect to move noticeably faster. Studying in bursts slows you down: by Thursday, much of a two-hour Saturday session has faded.
What do English speakers find hardest about Romanian?
Gender and the article glued to the end of the word
Every Romanian noun is masculine, feminine or neuter, and gender affects articles and adjectives. On top of that, the definite article attaches to the end of the noun instead of coming before it. “Lup” is a wolf, “lupul” is the wolf. “Casă” is a house, “casa” is the house. Simple in principle, but the endings change with gender, number and case.
Cases
Romanian has five cases, though in practice the forms collapse into three groups: nominative with accusative, genitive with dative, and the vocative. English keeps traces of this in pronouns (he, him, his). In Romanian, case is marked mostly on the article, so “casa” (the house) becomes “casei” (of the house).
The neuter that switches sides
Neuter nouns behave like masculine nouns in the singular and like feminine nouns in the plural. So it’s “un scaun frumos” (a nice chair) but “două scaune frumoase” (two nice chairs), with feminine forms of the number and the adjective.
“Să” instead of the infinitive
Where English says “I want to eat”, Romanian says “vreau să mănânc”, literally “I want that I eat”. This subjunctive is everywhere in speech and has its own verb forms. At A2 level it is usually the biggest grammar hurdle.
Pronunciation and diacritics
The alphabet has five extra letters: ă, â, î, ș, ț. Two are easy: “ș” sounds like “sh” in “ship” and “ț” like “ts” in “cats”. “Ă” is also familiar, since it is the unstressed vowel in “about” or “sofa”, but in Romanian it can carry stress. The real newcomer is the sound written “â” or “î”: a vowel made in the middle of the mouth with unrounded lips, with no close match in English.
Romanian vowels are also pure, so “o” and “e” shouldn’t glide into the diphthongs of English “go” and “day”. “C” before “e” and “i” sounds like “ch” in “church”, while “ch” is a hard “k”. Stress has no fixed position, so you learn it with each word.
False friends
Some words look familiar but mean something else:
| Romanian | Means | Not |
|---|---|---|
| librărie | bookshop | library (“bibliotecă”) |
| magazin | shop, store | magazine (“revistă”) |
| actual | current, present-day | actual (“real”) |
| eventual | possibly, if needed | eventual (“final”) |
How can you learn Romanian and start speaking quickly?
A word list won’t get you through a conversation in a shop or at the doctor’s. You need to understand the other person, build an answer with the right article and verb form, and say it clearly. This goes fastest when you practice vocabulary, grammar and pronunciation together, in realistic situations, and review material before you forget it. That’s why 15–20 minutes a day beats an hour of catching up once a week.
This is how the Romanian: Fast Track course in SuperMemo is built. It’s a complete beginner course that takes you from zero to A1–A2 and prepares you for everyday situations while traveling or living in Romania: shops, restaurants, the doctor’s office, government offices. Each chapter is built around a dialogue or a short text, and more than 2,900 exercises train your listening and reading while teaching you to form your own sentences. Audio recordings help you get used to correct pronunciation, and in the mobile app speech recognition lets you check your own.
The topics cover what you actually need at the start: greetings and polite phrases, talking about family, work and hobbies, shopping at the market, ordering in a restaurant or café, phone calls, and visits to the doctor and the pharmacy. The SuperMemo method schedules reviews of both vocabulary and grammar, so you don’t spend time on what you already know. You can study in the app on iOS and Android or in your browser, with all instructions available in English. See all options on the Romanian courses in SuperMemo page.
Frequently asked questions about learning Romanian
Is Romanian easier than Spanish or French for English speakers?
The FSI puts all three in the same category. Romanian spelling is more phonetic than French, but its grammar, with cases and the suffixed article, takes more work than Spanish.
Can I learn Romanian if I already speak Spanish or Italian?
Yes, and you’ll have a clear head start, since much basic vocabulary and many verb patterns overlap. You’ll still need to learn the suffixed article, the cases and the many Slavic-origin words separately.
How long until I can have a conversation in Romanian?
Studying about half an hour a day, most English speakers reach simple everyday conversation (A2) in six to nine months. Fluency takes around two years of consistent work and real contact with the language.
Are Romanian and Moldovan the same language?
Yes. The differences come down to accent and some vocabulary. Since 2023, Moldovan law also uses the name “Romanian language”.
Where should I start learning Romanian?
Start with pronunciation, the 300–500 most common words and simple phrases for introducing yourself or ordering food. Pick up grammar step by step, from ready-made sentences rather than tables.
Ready to start from the basics? Try Romanian: Fast Track and study 15 minutes a day, with reviews timed to your memory. You’ll find every Romanian course on the Romanian courses page.
