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How to pronounce eu, ea, el, este, eşti, etc in Romanian?

canasta
Salut,

I am a beginner in Romanian language. I know that Romanian is a phonetic language. But I am confused about how to pronounce eu, ea, el, este, eşti, etc... in Romanian. Should I pronounce them like yeu, yea, yel, yeste, yeshti, etc ... or should I pronounce them like the way they're written? I have listened to both of the pronunciations. Why do some Romanian pronounce them in one way, and some other in another way? But the most important question is: which way is the right one?


Mulţumesc
1

For learning: Romanian
Base language: English
Category: Uncategorized

  • Asked by canasta 6 month(s) ago
  • 3 answer(s)
  • 1128 view(s)

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Jura
0
The Romanian (Român) language is quite phonetic and uses accents on some vowels and on some consonants.

Letters not listed are pronounced approximately as in English.
--Dick Oakes



A, a - a as in father
Ă, ă - a as in around
Â, â - i as in girl (see Î)
E, e - e as in let
I, i - i as in machine
Î, î - i as in girl
O, o - o as in note; also o as in gone
U, u - u as in duke

C, c - c as in cello (ch) when before E or I, otherwise c as in cat
Ch, ch - ch as in chaos (k)
G, g - g as in germ (j) when before E or I, otherwise g as in go
Gh, gh - gh as in ghost (g)
J, j - z as in azure (zh)
Ş, ş - s as in sugar
Ţ, ţ - tz as in quartz (ts)
Jura
0
The Romanian language has many dipthongs (and tripthongs), which are pronounced separately but in rapid succession. The weaker vowel almost becomes semiconsonantal. Examples are:

ai - ai as in kaiser
au - au as in sauerkraut
ău - a as in about combined with u as in flute
ea - ea as in bread
ei - ei as in seine
eu - eu as in feud
ia - ya as in yacht
ie - ye as in yes
io - yo as in yoke
iu - yu as in yule
îi - i as in hike
îu - similar to eu in feud
oa - wa as in wash
oi - oi as in spheroid
ou - ou as in dough
uă - wu as in wuther
eai - yi as in yikes
eau - yow as in yowl
ieu - ieu as in lieu
Jura
0
The letter i at the end of a word is silent unless preceded by another letter i.

Other letter combinations are:

Ci, ci - chi as in chief
Ce, ce - che as in chess
Chi, chi - chi as in Chianti
Ghe, ghe - ghe as in ghetto
Ghi, ghi - gee as in geese
Ge, ge - ge as in genesis
Gi, gi - gi as in giraff