Learn Romanian for Free with Natives at PBC Languages
Where English speakers actually struggle with Romanian, where they gain speed, and the false friends that trip everyone up. Practice with natives, free.
Create your free accountNo card needed. Exchanges between members are always free.
The sounds that give English speakers the most trouble are ă, â and î — three vowels with no real English equivalent, all close to a flat 'uh' but pronounced in slightly different places in the mouth. 'Pâine' (bread) and 'câine' (dog) differ only by that nasal â, and mixing them up is a classic beginner mistake. Add ș (sh) and ț (ts), plus stress that isn't marked in writing and has to be memorized word by word, and the first few weeks are mostly about retraining your mouth, not your grammar.
Once you get past pronunciation, Romanian starts setting traps with words that look almost English. 'Actual' means current or present-day, not real. 'Eventual' means possibly, not final. 'Librărie' is a bookstore, not a library. On top of that, English speakers tend to calque structures that don't work in Romanian: you can't bolt 'the' onto the front of a noun like in English, because Romanian attaches the article to the end of the word instead — 'un bărbat' (a man) becomes 'bărbatul' (the man). Adjectives also usually come after the noun, not before, so 'casă frumoasă' is 'beautiful house', word for word backwards from English.
What moves fast: Romanian uses the Latin alphabet, so there's no new script to decode like with Russian or Bulgarian, and in the 19th century it deliberately re-Latinized much of its vocabulary through French, so words like 'informație', 'important' and 'telefon' are nearly free vocabulary from day one. Present-tense verb conjugation is also fairly regular for most -a and -i verbs, which means you can start building real sentences before you've tackled the parts of the grammar — noun cases, three genders — that take longer.
Words you will actually hear
| Here | Elsewhere | What it means |
|---|---|---|
| librărie | library | False friend: it means bookstore. A library is 'bibliotecă'. |
| actual | actual | False friend: it means current or present-day, not 'real' or 'genuine'. |
| eventual | eventual | False friend: it means possibly or potentially, not 'final' or 'resulting'. |
| a asista | to assist | False friend: it means to attend or witness something. To help is 'a ajuta'. |
| cameră | camera | False friend: it means room. A photo camera is 'aparat foto'. |
| rest | rest | False friend: it means change (money handed back), not relaxation. Rest is 'odihnă'. |
| magazin | magazine | False friend: it means shop or store. A magazine (publication) is 'revistă'. |
| informație | information | Helpful cognate: nearly identical spelling and meaning, works right away. |
| important | important | Helpful cognate: spelled the same, same meaning, no adjustment needed. |
| telefon | telephone | Helpful cognate: recognizable instantly, part of Romanian's French-derived vocabulary layer. |
How it works here
-
Sign up and say your level
Two minutes. If you do not know your level, we place you in the first class.
-
Pick a class or an exchange
Classes are led by a native teacher. An exchange is with another member: half the time in their language, half in yours.
-
Join by video, nothing to install
From your phone or your computer. If you cannot make it, cancel and get your place back.
Questions about this
How long does it take an English speaker to hold a real conversation in Romanian?
There's no fixed number, but Romanian's declensions and grammatical genders take longer to settle than the vocabulary does. What speeds things up noticeably is talking to natives early, since it forces you to handle the sounds and word order in real time instead of just recognizing them on a page.
Is the one-to-one exchange actually free?
Yes. You spend half an hour in Romanian and half an hour in your own language with another member, so both sides are getting something out of it — nobody's paying for the other person's time. The native-led group classes are a separate part of the community.
What level do I need before doing an exchange?
You can start an exchange as a beginner if you're comfortable with basic phrases, but exchanges get more useful from A2 onward, once you can build simple sentences on your own. Group classes with native teachers are a better fit if you're starting from zero.
How exactly is the half hour and half hour split?
You agree on it with your partner before you start — usually a clean switch at the midpoint, using a timer so neither language eats into the other's time. Some pairs alternate by topic instead of by clock, but splitting the time evenly is what keeps the exchange fair for both people.
Keep looking around
Start this week
A free account, a free first group class, and exchanges that never cost anything.
