Learn Basic Romanian
Romanian Alphabet
Meet the Alphabet
Getting started with Romanian is easier than you might think. Its alphabet is based on the same Latin script used for English, so most of the letters will look familiar. The Romanian alphabet has 31 letters in total.
Here's the full alphabet. Notice that it includes most of the English letters, plus five special characters with diacritics, which are marks added to a letter.
| A a | Ă ă | Â â | B b | C c | D d |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| E e | F f | G g | H h | I i | Î î |
| J j | K k | L l | M m | N n | O o |
| P p | Q q | R r | S s | Ș ș | T t |
| Ț ț | U u | V v | W w | X x | Y y |
| Z z |
You might notice that the letters K, Q, W, and Y are included. While they are officially part of the alphabet, you'll almost exclusively find them in foreign words and names that have been adopted into Romanian, like "kilogram" or "watt".
The Special Characters
The key to Romanian pronunciation lies in mastering its five special letters: ă, â, î, ș, and ț. Once you know their sounds, reading Romanian becomes much more straightforward because it's a phonetic language. That means words are pronounced just as they are spelled.
| Letter | Pronunciation Guide |
|---|---|
| ă | Like the 'a' in sofa or the 'u' in up. |
| â | This sound doesn't exist in English. It's a short, central vowel sound, somewhat like the sound you make when you're thinking, "uh...". |
| î | Pronounced exactly the same as â. The spelling rule is simple: â is used inside words (e.g., România), while î is used at the beginning or end of words (e.g., în). |
| ș | Like the 'sh' in shoe. |
| ț | Like the 'ts' in cats or pizza. |
Let's look at some examples to see these letters in action.
apple
The 'ă' gives this word a soft, neutral vowel sound.
dog
Here, the 'â' has that unique central vowel sound.
fish
The 'ș' creates the familiar 'sh' sound.
boy
And the 'ț' ends this word with a sharp 'ts' sound.
Let's review these special characters before moving on.
How It Compares to English
The main difference between the English and Romanian alphabets comes down to those five special letters. Romanian adds ă, â, î, ș, and ț to create sounds that aren't represented by single letters in English.
Conversely, some letters common in English are very rare in Romanian. As mentioned, K, Q, W, and Y are reserved almost entirely for borrowed words. You won't find them in native Romanian vocabulary.
This makes the Romanian alphabet quite efficient. With a few exceptions, each letter corresponds to a single, consistent sound. This phonetic consistency is a big help for learners. Once you know the alphabet, you can confidently sound out most words you come across.
Ready to test your knowledge of the Romanian alphabet?
How many letters are in the Romanian alphabet?
Which of the following is NOT one of the five special letters with diacritics in the Romanian alphabet?
Great job. Getting comfortable with these letters is the first and most important step to reading and speaking Romanian.