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Romanian Alphabet

alfabetul limbii române

The Romanian alphabet has 31 letters: the 26 Latin letters plus ă, â, î, ș and ț. Spelling is largely phonetic; k, q, w and y appear only in loanwords and foreign names.

Tap a letter to hear it; the small ▶ plays the example word. Practice mode hides names and sounds until you tap a card.

The 31 letters

a
/a/like a in “father”
apăwater
ă
/ə/like a in “about”
casăhouse
â din a
/ɨ/no English equivalent; like ă, but with the tongue higher
never starts or ends a word
pâinebread
be
/b/like b in “bed”
băiatboy
ce
/k/like k in “kite”; like ch in “cheese” before e, i
cartebook
de
/d/like d in “dog”
drumroad
e
/e/like e in “bed”
elevpupil
ef
/f/like f in “fun”
floareflower
ge
/ɡ/like g in “go”; like j in “jam” before e, i
gurămouth
haș
/h/like h in “hat”
hartămap
i
/i/like ee in “see”
inimăheart
î din i
/ɨ/the same sound as â
written î at the start and end of a word
înghețatăice cream
je
/ʒ/like s in “measure”
jocgame
ca
/k/like k in “kite”
only in loanwords
kilogramkilogram
el
/l/like l in “lemon”
lunămoon
em
/m/like m in “man”
masătable
en
/n/like n in “net”
nasnose
o
/o/like o in “more”, but short
omperson, man
pe
/p/like p in “pen”
pisicăcat
chiu
/k/like k in “kite”
only in foreign names and words
er
/r/a rolled or tapped r, as in Spanish “pero”
râuriver
es
/s/like s in “sun”
soaresun
șe
/ʃ/like sh in “ship”
comma below, not a cedilla (ş)
școalăschool
te
/t/like t in “top”
tatăfather
țe
/ts/like ts in “cats”
comma below, not a cedilla (ţ)
țarăcountry
u
/u/like oo in “food”
urecheear
ve
/v/like v in “van”
varăsummer
dublu ve
/w, v/like w in “water” or v in “van”, as in the source word
only in loanwords
weekendweekend
ics
/ks, ɡz/like x in “box” or in “exam”
taxitaxi
i grec
/i, j/like ee in “see” or y in “yes”
only in loanwords
yogayoga
zet
/z/like z in “zoo”
ziday

Letter combinations

C and g are hard (k, g) before a, o, u and consonants, but soft (ch, j) before e and i. To keep them hard before e and i, Romanian adds an h: che, chi, ghe, ghi.

Cece
/tʃe/like che in “chess”
cersky
Cici
/tʃi/like chee in “cheese”
cireașăcherry
Cheche
/ke/like ke in “kettle”
cheiekey
Chichi
/ki/like kee in “keep”
chitarăguitar
Gege
/dʒe/like je in “jet”
geantăbag
Gigi
/dʒi/like gee in “jeep”
girafăgiraffe
Gheghe
/ɡe/like ge in “get”
gheațăice
Ghighi
/ɡi/like gee in “geese”
ghidguide

Things to know

Comma, not cedilla

Ș and ț have a comma below the letter. Older computers and fonts only had ş and ţ with a cedilla, and they are still common online, but the correct letters are ș and ț.

 and î are the same sound

 and î both stand for a vowel with no English equivalent, pronounced like ă but with the tongue higher. Î is written at the start and end of a word (înghețată, a urî), â inside it (pâine, România).

The silent final i

An unstressed i at the end of a word after a consonant is barely pronounced; it only softens the consonant: lupi (wolves) sounds almost like “lup’”, pomi (trees) like “pom’”.

Diphthongs ea and oa

Ea and oa are glides, pronounced in one syllable: seară (evening) sounds like “syara”, and soare (sun) like “swa-re”.

E that sounds like ye

At the start of a few very common words e is pronounced ye: el (he), ea (she), este (is), eu (I).

Letters for loanwords

K, q, w and y are part of the alphabet but are used only in borrowed words and foreign names, such as kilogram, weekend and yoga. Native words spell the same sounds with c, v and i.

Keep learning Romanian

Romanian word lists → Numbers Colors Greetings English → Romanian dictionary Romanian → English dictionary

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Audio is synthetic speech generated with Google Cloud Text-to-Speech (Chirp 3: HD voices). Letter inventory checked against Unicode CLDR.