Nationality and Relational Adjectives | Romanian Grammar

In English, Romanian, English and French are capitalized and serve as noun, adjective, and language name all at once. Romanian splits this work differently and, crucially, writes all of these words in lowercase. A nationality word like român is an agreeing adjective (un scriitor român), the noun for a person (un român = "a Romanian"), and — in its feminine form — the language name (limba română, or just română). Sitting alongside it is a second, related word built with the suffix -esc (românesc), which is the "relational" adjective meaning "of/pertaining to Romania, Romanian-style." Untangling these is the goal of this page.

Nationality adjectives agree like normal adjectives

Nationality words are ordinary four-form adjectives: they take feminine and plural endings to match their noun.

Nationality	Masc. sg.	Fem. sg.	Masc. pl.	Fem. pl.
Romanian	român	română	români	române
English	englez	engleză	englezi	engleze
French	francez	franceză	francezi	franceze
German	german	germană	germani	germane
American	american	americană	americani	americane
Italian	italian	italiană	italieni	italiene

Are un prieten francez și o colegă engleză.

He has a French friend and an English colleague.

Studenții germani au plecat ieri.

The German students left yesterday.

Citesc multe romane americane.

I read a lot of American novels.

The same word is also the noun and the language name

This is where Romanian is economical. The very same form does three jobs:

Adjective: un scriitor român — "a Romanian writer."
Noun (a person): un român, o româncă, niște români — "a Romanian (man/woman), some Romanians." (Note the feminine person noun is often a separate word: o nemțoaică "a German woman," o englezoaică "an Englishwoman" — a noun-formation topic of its own.)
Language name: (limba) română — "(the) Romanian (language)," using the feminine singular form, because limbă ("language") is feminine.

El e român, dar locuiește în Spania.

He's Romanian, but he lives in Spain. (predicate adjective)

Sunt patru români la masa de lângă noi.

There are four Romanians at the table next to us. (noun)

Învăț română de doi ani.

I've been learning Romanian for two years. (language)

When you talk about speaking or learning a language, you use the bare feminine form — română, engleză, franceză — typically without the article:

Vorbești engleză?

Do you speak English?

Vorbim franceză acasă.

We speak French at home.

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The language name is the feminine singular of the nationality adjective: română, engleză, franceză, germană, italiană. This is because the understood head noun is limba ("the language," feminine). So "he speaks Romanian" is vorbește română — literally "he speaks [the] Romanian [language]."

Everything is lowercase

English capitalizes nationalities and languages; Romanian does not. Român, englez, română, franceză are all written lowercase, exactly like any other adjective. The only time you capitalize is at the start of a sentence or in a proper name (the country — România, Anglia, Franța — is capitalized, but the adjective and language are not).

Ea este româncă, soțul ei este italian.

She is Romanian, her husband is Italian. (both lowercase)

În România se vorbește română.

In Romania, Romanian is spoken. (country capitalized, language lowercase)

💡

Resist the English habit of capitalizing Român / Engleză / Franceză mid-sentence. In Romanian these are common adjectives and stay lowercase. Only the country name (România) and sentence-initial position justify a capital.

The -esc relational adjective

Alongside român there is a second adjective, românesc, built with the productive suffix -esc. This is the relational adjective: it means "pertaining to Romania, of the Romanian kind, Romanian-style," and it attaches to things and concepts rather than to people's nationality. Its forms are românesc / românească / românești / românești.

	Masc. sg.	Fem. sg.	Plural (both genders)
Romanian-style	românesc	românească	românești

Use românesc for products, customs, food, traditions — the things that are characteristically Romanian:

Îmi place mâncarea românească.

I like Romanian food.

Au cumpărat un covor românesc, lucrat manual.

They bought a Romanian rug, handmade.

Obiceiurile românești de Crăciun sunt foarte vechi.

Romanian Christmas customs are very old.

The two adjectives are not interchangeable. You generally say un scriitor român (a Romanian writer — a person, so the nationality adjective) but literatura românească (Romanian literature — a body of work/tradition, so the relational adjective). The same -esc pattern produces other relational adjectives that have nothing to do with nationality: oraș → orășenesc ("urban, of the town"), țară → țărănesc ("rural, peasant-style"), copil → copilăresc ("childish, childlike").

Duce un trai orășenesc, cu cafenele și teatre.

He leads an urban lifestyle, with cafés and theaters.

Mi-e dor de mâncarea țărănească a bunicii.

I miss my grandmother's country-style cooking.

român vs românesc — the dividing line

	român (nationality)	românesc (relational)
Applies to	people, nationality, the language	things, customs, products, traditions
"a Romanian writer"	un scriitor român ✓	—
"Romanian cuisine"	—	bucătăria românească ✓
"the Romanian language"	(limba) română ✓	—
Forms	român/română/români/române	românesc/românească/românești

There is gray area — steagul românesc (the Romanian flag) and poporul român (the Romanian people) both occur — and you'll meet fixed collocations on each side. But the rule of thumb holds: people and the language take român; characteristic things and styles take românesc.

Common Mistakes

Capitalizing the nationality or language, English-style:

❌ Vorbesc puțin Română și Engleză.

Incorrect — languages are lowercase: română, engleză.

✅ Vorbesc puțin română și engleză.

I speak a little Romanian and English.

Using the masculine român as the language name instead of the feminine română:

❌ Învăț român la școală.

Incorrect — the language is feminine: română. (român alone reads as 'a Romanian man'.)

✅ Învăț română la școală.

I study Romanian at school.

Picking românesc for a person's nationality:

❌ El este un scriitor românesc.

Incorrect — a person's nationality takes român, not the relational -esc.

✅ El este un scriitor român.

He is a Romanian writer.

Picking român for a characteristic thing where the relational adjective is needed:

❌ Ne place mâncarea română.

Incorrect — for food/cuisine use românească, the relational form.

✅ Ne place mâncarea românească.

We like Romanian food.

Failing to agree the nationality adjective with a feminine noun:

❌ o profesoară german

Incorrect — must agree: germană (feminine singular).

✅ o profesoară germană

a German teacher (female)

Key Takeaways

Nationality words are lowercase agreeing adjectives: român/română/români/române.
The feminine singular doubles as the language name: vorbesc română, engleză, franceză.
The same form is also the noun for a person: un român, niște francezi.
The -esc suffix builds the relational adjective (românesc = Romanian-style), used for things and customs, not for people or the language.
Never capitalize the adjective or language; only the country (România) is capitalized.

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