Romanian language: clearing confusion with similar words: my mother, apples with honey

Problem
I see a romanian word which looks like something else. I get confused.

Answer
List all the similar looking words, look up translations and learn them. If either of the two pairs is easy to remember, this sorts you out. By process of elimination, of you know the word for a, the alternative must be b.

I confused the words for apple and honey and my and mother.

Romanian - English
cu - with (like the Latin cum)
mama - mother
m e l e - my
mere - apple (Angela's memory aid: a mere apple a day keeps the doctor away.)
m i e r e - honey
vin - wine (like the French vin ordinaire) Remember that Romanian simplified. No extra e. W condensed into a v.)
vino - come
vino cu - come with

English - Romanian
and - cu
apple - m e r e (a mere apple a day keeps the doctor away)
apple with honey - m e r e  cu  m i e r e (Add honey to apple, add the letter i)
come - vino
come with - vino cu
honey - miere
Mother - mama (like the Italian Mama Mia, but with a bowl over the second a)
my - mele
wine - vin

Tips
Pronunciation
It is easier to remember the accent if you recognize a short and often used word. Mama in Romanian has a short last vowel, as in murmur . Think MUH - MER. So the bowl on top of the a can mean an er sound.

Websites
www.duolingo.com
http://romaniatourism.com

Angela Lansbury, travel writer and photographer, teacher of English and other languages. Please bookmark and share links to your favourite posts.