Describing the World Around You

When you start to learn Romanian, one of the most enjoyable steps is discovering how to describe people, places, and everyday items. From telling someone that a dress is beautiful to saying that your friend is funny, adjectives are the tools that bring color and personality to your language skills. Early in the Romanian learning journey, students explore the basic structure and use of adjectives — essential elements for building meaningful, expressive sentences.

What Are Romanian Adjectives?

Adjectives in Romanian function similarly to their English counterparts: they describe or qualify nouns. However, Romanian adjectives must agree with the noun they describe in both gender (masculine or feminine) and number (singular or plural). This agreement is crucial, and mastering it early builds a solid grammatical foundation.

For instance:

• un băiat frumos (a handsome boy) – masculine singular

• o fată frumoasă (a beautiful girl) – feminine singular

• băieți frumoși (handsome boys) – masculine plural

• fete frumoase (beautiful girls) – feminine plural

Notice how the adjective “frumos” changes its ending based on the gender and number of the noun it describes.

Practical Adjectives You’ll Use Often

In one of the beginner units, learners are introduced to common and useful adjectives to describe both people and objects. These include:

• inteligent / inteligentă – intelligent

• frumos / frumoasă – beautiful

• urât / urâtă – ugly

• înalt / înaltă – tall

• scund / scundă – short

• tânăr / tânără – young

• bătrân / bătrână – old

• slab / slabă – thin

• gras / grasă – overweight

These adjectives are flexible and widely applicable, helping learners form sentences like:

• Mama mea este inteligentă. (My mother is intelligent.)

• Cartea este frumoasă. (The book is beautiful.)

• Băiatul este înalt. (The boy is tall.)

Describing Objects in Romanian

Describing things is just as important as describing people. Romanian allows for rich, nuanced descriptions of objects using adjectives. For example:

• O masă rotundă (a round table)

• Un telefon vechi (an old phone)

• O carte interesantă (an interesting book)

Again, remember to match the adjective’s ending with the noun’s gender and number. Over time, this becomes intuitive through practice and exposure.

Word Order and Sentence Structure

In Romanian, the adjective typically follows the noun, although there are exceptions. For example:

• O fată frumoasă (a beautiful girl) – adjective follows

• Marea Neagră (the Black Sea) – fixed order

Learning when and how to place adjectives correctly comes with practice, and the lessons provide plenty of structured exercises for that purpose.

Practice Makes Perfect

Students are encouraged to engage with visual materials and describe what they see: people in photos, objects around them, or scenes from everyday life. This applied practice reinforces grammar rules and helps solidify new vocabulary. For example, describing an image of a family might yield sentences like:

• Tatăl este bătrân, dar puternic. (The father is old, but strong.)

• Fetița poartă o rochie roșie. (The girl is wearing a red dress.)

Start Using Romanian Adjectives Today

Learning how to use adjectives in Romanian is a powerful step in expressing your thoughts clearly and vividly. It not only builds your vocabulary but also strengthens your grammatical accuracy. Through structured exercises, dialogues, and creative tasks, you’ll become confident in your ability to describe the world around you.

Join Our Romanian Lessons and Learn More

If you’re eager to describe your world in Romanian and want to improve your speaking and writing fluency, our Romanian lessons at Punto Iberica are designed just for you. Whether you’re a complete beginner or building on what you already know, we’ll guide you step by step — with clarity, creativity, and cultural insight. Let’s speak Romanian together!

For additional grammar explanations, check out our recommended grammar resources.

Editorial Note: This content was created with AI assistance based on our team’s original ideas and pedagogical goals. It was carefully curated, edited, and finalized by a human to ensure quality and accuracy.
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