Berlitz Language: Romanian Phrase Book & Dictionary (Berlitz Phrasebooks)

To be honest, the back of the Rough Guide to Romania has a better basic phrasebook in it. The Berlitz is quite hard to find yoir way around, for basic things like 'please', 'thank you', 'my name is' etc. This has been the case with other Berlitz hrasenooks I've bought, so I won't be doing this again.

The word for thank you was inside the front cover and that’s virtually the only word I used. Almost everyone spoke pretty good English which encouraged my laziness and saved my awkwardness! Book is a nice size for handbag though, I carried it everywhere

My fiancee is a Romanian and she has said that there are phrases in this book that have been literally translated but would not be interpreted in Romania period. Or if they were it would be re-phrased to match the context. Overall it is not a great phrase book but the basics are correct. Use with caution.

I think the opening few pages should be the most essential things to know - i.e. a list of the most common phrases you'd use, simple greeting etc, before going into specific themes. I didn't see the phrase for "good morning"! I don't think Border Control should be at the beginning! Bit out of date - i.e. does anyone really use travellers cheques any more?

This will be a good "tool" for my trip to Romania. I like that it has all the phrases I should need and is small enough to tuck into a backpack pocket or handbag.

Happy with this book and my Romanian friend doesn't have to struggle all the time in English - I can speak/write basic Romanian and she is very happy that I'm trying. It's good fun.

Decent dictionary and also excellent phrase book.

Great little book, very clear and easy to understand.

Excellent book. Only wish this one also had the CD like many of the other languages. Perhaps it is available and I just missed it. As noted in another comment, it is great having the same Berlitz Phrasebooks for French, Spanish and Italian at my side so I can compare the four Romance languages and how they have developed differently.

Good book really

There aren't very many Romanian language resources out there, so this is your best option. I got a ton of use out of this phrasebook while I was in Romania. It's small enough to carry around in pretty much any purse or even a deep pocket. Not all the translations are perfect, but you will at least be able to get your point across. The book is sorted into categories and situations you might run into, which is useful. For example, there was a transportation section which helped when I was trying to buy a train ticket at the window. While many Romanians speak excellent English, everyone I spoke to was very happy I was at least trying to speak a little Romanian. I did also run into a few locals who didn't speak any English so this was a very helpful tool.

This is an excellent phrase book that does not always display word for word interpretations of Romanian expressions and also does not always teach the reader the proper phonics for the Romanian language. The reader needs to understand that a book cannot do these things because some of the Romanian expressions, vowels, and consonants do not exist in the English language. Having taken three vacations in Romania and a couple of basic CD language courses, I still find this Berlitz Romanian phrase book an outstanding source of basic Romanian expressions that a tourist can use in Romania. I have memorized the useful sayings in this book, and I highly recommend it for English-speaking tourists going to one of the most beautiful countries on Earth.

I'll start of by saying that this little phrase book is littered with information and phrases and is quite useful. However, it's not without its mistakes.For instance, there were a lot of words that were missing the Romanian specific ț (T-comma), thus changing the pronounciation of the word which would make you look like a fool if trying to say it. For example, cunoştintă instead of cunoştinţă was a mistake they made. It made me feel uneasy as to what else they could have gotten wrong in the book, so I always had to double before hand the things that I would actually intend to say to make sure that I wouldn't make a mistake. Also, some of the phrases were a little different than what you would hear a native Romanian speaker use or say. All in all it's the best phrase book out there for the Romanian language, and a must have if travelling to Romania.

Great little phrase book which is useful for translating on your own. I wouldn't depend on it for translations, though. As was mentioned earlier, it is missing some important things, sometimes omitting "ț". The biggest offender, though, was the phonetic translation for "ă". It's supposed to be roughly "uh", but they describe the sound as "er". This is way too far from the actual sound to be of any use. I'm using the book for it's dictionary in the back, and for the phrases, which are very useful. Otherwise, I say stick to other books such as Complete Romanian published by Teach Yourself, and get the one with the CDs. Listening to the sounds will be very useful when first learning the language.

Book was just great on our trip to Romania -- home of Vlad and Dracula, and our great friends. I was able to learn a few useful words and phrases on the plane to Bucharest. Thanks!

Easy to use and the small size fit perfectly in my backpack. My Romanian translators were critical of the pronunciation "key" and disagreed with the way the book explained the vowel sounds. Otherwise, it was very helpful and I would recommend it to others who take the same mission trip as I do to Romania.

Easy to use and understand.

Great book! The phrases amd color break down make it so easy to find what you need

I love the size and the overall topics it covers. I like to have something in hand when I travel to another country and this turned out to be useful, just like the Lonely Planet phrase books I've previously used.

Our Romanian guide could not understand our attempts at simple things, luckily his English was excellent. In trying to help us he asked to see the book and explained our problems. The book was written clumsily with many errors.

Was very helpful and I highly recommend if don't speak good romanian

Its a phrase book! I just wish there had been a tape of CD to help with pronunciation.

the book was great - compact and yet gave me enough info to handle basic conversation in Romanian - will give me just enoughfor a trip and the categorization quickens the lookup of words /hrases