Once you can greet people and order a coffee, the next step is saying what you actually think. Opinions and feelings are what turn a transaction into a conversation. Romanian makes this easier than you'd expect, because a few set phrases carry most of the load.
How do you say what you like?
The workhorse here is “Îmi place.” Add a noun for a thing, or “să” plus a verb for an activity.
How do you give an opinion?
To state what you think, lead with “Eu cred că.” To pull an opinion out of someone, ask one of these.
How do you talk about how you feel?
Feeling words in Romanian usually change ending depending on whether the speaker is male or female. Here are the everyday ones.
Agreeing and reacting
You don't need long sentences to react. A short phrase does the job and keeps things friendly. The casual “de acord” works like “okay” or “agreed.”
A note on masculine and feminine endings
Many feeling words shift their ending based on the speaker's gender. A man says “fericit” and a woman says “fericită” for the same word, “happy.” The same goes for “trist” and “tristă” (sad), or “singur” and “singură” (alone). You don't have to think about this much at first. Just learn the form that applies to you, and recognize the other when you hear it. It becomes second nature with a little practice.
“Îmi place” and “Eu cred că” are two of the highest-value phrases in conversational Romanian. Build everything else around them.
Notice how often the same pieces repeat. Once you've got the openers, swapping in a new noun or verb gives you a fresh sentence without learning anything new. That's what makes these patterns worth drilling first.
In the Learn Romanian app you can hear each of these spoken by a native voice and repeat it back, all offline, so the patterns stick through real practice. It's free for your first 30 days.
