If you’re learning Romanian, one thing you’re going to want to learn early on are the days of the week, months, and seasons. After all, they’ll help you make plans with your Romanian-speaking friends! Keep reading to learn these, as well as a host of words referring to times of day so you can really narrow things down.
Table of contents
Months in Romanian
All the Romanian months of the year as they are currently used are originally derived from Latin, having passed through Byzantine Greek and Old Church Slavonic to get to Romanian. They look pretty similar to English and French, don’t they?
| English | Romanian |
|---|---|
| January | ianuarie |
| February | februarie |
| March | martie |
| April | aprilie |
| May | mai |
| June | iunie |
| July | iulie |
| August | august |
| September | septembrie |
| October | octombrie |
| November | noiembrie |
| December | decembrie |
Did you know that there are actually two different ways to say the months of the year in Romanian? Romanian also has traditional month names, some of which are still derived from Latin, but look very different. Learn more about these Romanian month names here.
Days of the week in Romanian
What about days of the week? Well, if you know any French or Italian, you might notice the similarities! It’s not surprising, considering that Romanian is most closely related to Italian, being a Romance language itself.
| English | Romanian |
|---|---|
| Monday | luni |
| Tuesday | marţi |
| Wednesday | miercuri |
| Thursday | joi |
| Friday | vineri |
| Saturday | sâmbătă |
| Sunday | duminică |
Like with the months, most of the Romanian days of the week are directly derived from Latin:
- luni – from Latin Lunae
- marţi – from Latin Martis
- miercuri – from Latin Mercuriī
- joi – from Latin Iovis/Jovis (Jovis is the more recent spelling.)
- vineri – from Latin Veneris
The word for ‘Saturday’, sâmbătă, actually originally comes from Hebrew. The Hebrew word שַׁבָּת (shabát) means ‘Sabbath’ or ‘Shabbat’ and was passed into Ancient Greek as σάββατον (sábbaton). The Romans took this term into Latin, where it became sabbatum, and then *sambata in Vulgar Latin.
However, the Romanian term could also have come from the possible Proto-Slavic word *sǫbota, or may have at least been influenced by it.
Duminică also comes from Latin, deriving from the Late Latin word Dominica. Dominica is found in Late Latin as a Christian replacement for the pagan diēs Sōlis, which means ‘day of the sun-god Sol’ – or, ‘Sunday’. The Latin diēs Dominica literally means ‘day of the Lord’.
Seasons in Romanian
Now, let’s learn the words for different seasons in Romanian. At time of writing, it’s almost spring in the UK, though it still very much feels like winter. Which word would you use for the season where you are?
| Romanian | English |
|---|---|
| primăvară | spring |
| vară | summer |
| toamnă | autumn |
| iarnă | winter |
All of the Romanian terms for seasons derive from Latin. Interestingly, vară comes from the Latin word vēr, which means ‘spring’ – so what’s the difference between vară and primăvară?
Well, primă comes from prīma, which itself is a derivation of prīmus, meaning ‘first’. So, primăvară literally means ‘first spring’ and vară means ‘spring’.
The term for ‘winter’, iarnă, comes from the Latin hībernā. This is an ellipsis of the phrase hībernum tempus, which literally means ‘wintry time’.
Other Romanian time phrases
Here is some more vocabulary you might find useful if you want to talk about when things are happening.
| English | Romanian | Notes |
|---|---|---|
| day | ziua | |
| night | noaptea | |
| week | săptămâna | |
| month | luna | |
| year | anul | |
| day before yesterday | alaltăieri | alaltă (‘the other’) + ieri (‘yesterday’) |
| yesterday | ieri | |
| today | azi | |
| tomorrow | mâine | |
| day after tomorrow | poimâine | poi (alternative form of apoi, meaning ‘then’, ‘afterwards’) + mâine (‘tomorrow’) |
| morning | dimineaţa | |
| afternoon | după-amiaza | după (‘after’) + amiaza (‘noon’) |
| evening | seara |
All of these terms are, again, derived from Latin, even though they might not look like it at first glance!
If you want to learn to tell the time, you’ll of course have to learn your numbers in Romanian first. Give it a try and see how well you do!
Did you enjoy learning about how to say days of the week, months, and seasons in Romanian? Don’t forget to let us know.
All the Romanian words and phrases in this post can be found in the Calendar topic on our app. Learn Romanian with uTalk and you’ll learn a total of around 2,500 useful words and phrases that are helpful for any occasion. Play games, score points, and, most importantly, have fun.
Happy language learning!