Street Conversation V
After my first ever interview, I went on to do a small prank, probably the only one. Let me know how you’d rate it on a scale from 1 to 10.
Sergiu: Scuzaţi-mă. Nu aveţi un meniu?
Excuse me. Do you have a menu? (In Romanian we sometimes ask ‘Don’t you have a menu?’)
Square girl: Nu am…sau ce fel de* meniu?
I don’t…or what kind of menu?
Sergiu: Un meniu pentru…
A menu for….(Here I just didn’t know what to say anymore)
*Ce fel de (what kind of) is a nifty expression when you want to ask someone to explain themselves further.
Ce (what) is what you ask when you didn’t hear something right and you want to be rude about it.
Fel (kind) is a word with all kinds of meanings. However, it’s better just to focus on the first meaning of every word when you are a beginner.
De (of) is surprisingly the most frequent word used in the Romanian language according to some ancient studies.
Grammar V
Verbs
Today we get to see two more verbs in action: a scuza (to excuse) and a ruga (to beg).
| Scuz | I excuse |
| Scuzi | You excuse |
| Scuză | He, she excuses |
| Scuzăm | We excuse |
| Scuzați | You excuse |
| Scuză | They excuse |
Excuse me can be said in two ways:
Scuză-mă! when you are talking in an informal way.
Scuzați-mă! when you are talking in a polite way.
The fifth row in all of our verb conjugation tables also include the polite form with dumneavoastră replacing tu and voi.
For instance, if I’m talking to my teacher and I am going to ask him if he’s Hungarian, I won’t say (tu) eşti maghiar? I will say (dumneavoastră) sunteţi maghiar? Since we don’t explicitly say dumneavoastră, it would sound like we are talking to multiple persons. This is what being polite is all about. Seeing double, when you’re talking to someone in higher rank 😛
Dumneavoastră comes from Domnia voastră (your highness/gentlemanship). Domnia comes from Domn which means “gentleman” or “Mr”.
Domnul (The gentleman) is another way of saying Dumnezeu (God).
| Rog | I beg |
| Rogi | You beg |
| Roagă | He, she begs |
| Rugăm | We beg |
| Rugați | You beg |
| Roagă | They beg |
Dialogue V
Sergiu: Scuzați-mă, aveți un meniu? (watch out, as this is the polite form, you could guess this out of context because there are only 2 people in this dialogue)
Excuse me, do you have a menu?
Daniela: Da. O clipă, vă rog. (observe vă is used instead of te)
Yes. One moment, please.
Sergiu: Ok. (we pronounce “ok” almost just like in English)
Ok.
Key Vocabulary V
A avea – To have
Nu – No
Sau – Or
Ce fel de? – What kind of?
Pentru – For
Un – A (masculine form)
Meniu – Menu
O – A (feminine form)
Clipă – Moment
Vă rog – Please (literally I beg you)
Supă – Soup
Nouns ending in ă are going to automatically be feminine nouns unless we say otherwise. That means they will use o instead of un.
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A Ruga, such a beautiful verb/word. Only Romanian uses this word, among the other Romance Languages, directly from the Latin “rogare”. Even in Italian, this word becomes “pregare”.
Rogo, Rogare, Rogavi, Rogatus, verb ( Ist conjugation).
Rogo
Rogas
Rogat
Rogamus
Rogatis
Rogant
” Rogat frater, ne abeas longius.” (Vai de mine, Demea, El roagă frate așa că nu să aibă lung)
In portuguese we also use it.
Spanish too uses the verb “rogar” to mean ask or plead, although it’s more formal than “pedir”.
I was wondering why for Hungarian in this example, is “maghiar” and not “ungur”
It’s the same thing, the only difference is that “maghiar” comes from Hungarian and “ungur” is a Slavic word.
In English “rogue” means a beggar (and a cheat)) rom.: derbedeu.
The English word ‘interrogation’ has the same Latin origin.
About ‘rogue’ linguists are not certain. It might be Celtic or twisted Latin