A well-managed conversation does not jump between subjects without warning — it announces when it is leaving the current topic and announces again when it is returning. English does a lot of this work with a small kit of phrases: by the way, speaking of which, on another note, anyway, back to what I was saying. Romanian has an equally precise kit, and the interesting thing is that several of its markers do double duty: they not only flag a digression, they encode whether the digression is connected to the current topic or a clean break from it, and whether you are leaving or re-entering. This page covers the markers that open a tangent (apropo, apropo de, în altă ordine de idei, schimbând subiectul) and the ones that close it again (ca să revin, revenind la). Learning them is what lets you steer a conversation gracefully instead of derailing it.
apropo (de): the linked tangent
apropo ("by the way, speaking of which") is the most frequent topic-shift marker in everyday Romanian, and its defining feature is that it does two jobs at once. It introduces a new point and it presents that point as triggered by something just said — "this reminds me." It is borrowed from French à propos, and it is register-neutral, equally at home in casual chat and in a polite work email.
Apropo, ai vorbit cu Andrei despre weekend?
By the way, did you talk to Andrei about the weekend?
Apropo, era să uit — îți datorez douăzeci de lei.
By the way, I almost forgot — I owe you twenty lei.
When the trigger is explicit — "speaking of X specifically" — Romanian uses apropo de + the thing that prompted the tangent. This is where the linking force of the marker is clearest: apropo de names the bridge between the old topic and the new one.
Apropo de vacanță, ți-ai făcut deja bagajul?
Speaking of the holiday, have you packed yet?
Apropo de Andrei, l-am văzut ieri la spital — sper că nu e nimic grav.
Speaking of Andrei, I saw him at the hospital yesterday — I hope it's nothing serious.
în altă ordine de idei: the clean break
în altă ordine de idei (literally "in another order of ideas", i.e. "on another note, on a different subject") signals the opposite of apropo: it announces that you are deliberately leaving the current thread for something unrelated. It is slightly more formal and deliberate than apropo — you reach for it in writing, in meetings, and in conversation when you want to mark the shift as conscious rather than associative.
În altă ordine de idei, ai aflat ceva despre concediu?
On another note, did you find out anything about the leave?
Proiectul e închis, mulțumesc tuturor. În altă ordine de idei, vineri avem ședința de echipă.
The project is closed, thanks everyone. On a separate note, on Friday we have the team meeting. (formal/neutral)
A blunter, more conversational version of the same clean break is schimbând subiectul ("changing the subject"), which openly names what you are doing. It is honest and a little abrupt — useful precisely when you want to flag that yes, you are pivoting on purpose.
Schimbând subiectul, tu ce mai faci? Nu te-am mai văzut de luni de zile.
Changing the subject — how are you doing? I haven't seen you in months.
ca să revin / revenind la: closing the digression
This is the half of the system English handles loosely with "anyway" or "back to what I was saying," and where Romanian is genuinely more explicit. After a tangent, you announce the return to the main thread. ca să revin ("to get back / to return") and revenind la ("getting back to / returning to") explicitly close the digression and reopen the topic you left.
…dar asta e altă poveste. Ca să revin, spuneai că pleci mâine?
…but that's another story. To get back to it — you were saying you're leaving tomorrow?
Revenind la propunerea ta, cred că e o idee bună, dar avem nevoie de buget.
Getting back to your proposal, I think it's a good idea, but we need a budget.
Revenind la ce ziceam, n-am terminat de povestit ce s-a întâmplat la nuntă.
Coming back to what I was saying, I didn't finish telling you what happened at the wedding.
There is a nice symmetry worth noticing. The opening markers and the closing markers form matched brackets around a digression: you open with apropo or în altă ordine de idei, and you close with ca să revin or revenind la. A polished speaker uses both ends of the bracket, so the listener always knows whether the current sentence belongs to the main line or to the parenthesis.
| Marker | Function | Linked to current topic? | Register |
|---|---|---|---|
| apropo | open a tangent ("by the way") | yes — associative | neutral |
| apropo de… | open a tangent on a named thing | yes — explicit bridge | neutral |
| în altă ordine de idei | open an unrelated point | no — clean break | neutral/formal |
| schimbând subiectul | openly pivot subjects | no — clean break | informal/blunt |
| ca să revin | close the digression, return | — | neutral |
| revenind la… | return to a named topic | — | neutral/formal |
The deeper logic: politeness of structure
Why does Romanian bother with explicit return markers when English mostly shrugs and says "anyway"? Because a topic shift makes a small demand on the listener: they have to drop the mental thread they were holding and pick up a new one. Marking the shift — and especially marking the return — is a courtesy. It tells the listener "you can let go of this thread now" or "pick the old thread back up; I haven't forgotten it." This is what we might call politeness of structure: the speaker takes responsibility for the listener's orientation. English speakers learning Romanian tend to under-mark the return, leaving digressions hanging open, which sounds disorganized rather than rude — but it does mark you as a non-native manager of the conversational floor.
Stai puțin, apropo de bani — mi-ai trimis factura? Bun. Ca să revin, deci pleci la șase?
Hold on, speaking of money — did you send me the invoice? Good. To get back to it, so you're leaving at six?
Common Mistakes
English speakers transfer their loose habits here: using apropo for unrelated jumps, forgetting to close digressions, and confusing the structure-marker apropo with the borrowed-back English noun "a propos."
Using apropo to launch a totally unrelated topic:
❌ Vorbeam despre film. Apropo, trebuie să-mi repar mașina.
Mismatched — apropo claims a connection, but the car is unrelated to the film. Use a clean-break marker: …În altă ordine de idei, trebuie să-mi repar mașina.
✅ Vorbeam despre film. În altă ordine de idei, trebuie să-mi repar mașina.
We were talking about the film. On another note, I need to get my car fixed.
Leaving a digression open with no return marker:
❌ Spuneai că pleci — apropo, ai văzut prețurile la benzină? — Deci, la ce oră?
Disorienting — the jump back to 'what time' has no return signal. Close the digression first: …Ca să revin, deci la ce oră?
✅ Spuneai că pleci — apropo, ai văzut prețurile la benzină? Oricum. Ca să revin, deci la ce oră?
You were saying you're leaving — by the way, have you seen petrol prices? Anyway. To get back to it, so what time?
Writing à propos with French/English spelling in Romanian text:
❌ A propos, ai timp mâine?
Wrong orthography — in Romanian it is one word: apropo.
✅ Apropo, ai timp mâine?
By the way, do you have time tomorrow?
Using apropo de without an actual connecting trigger, as a bare "incidentally":
❌ Apropo de, hai să mâncăm.
Ungrammatical — apropo de must be followed by the thing referred to. For a bare aside use apropo on its own: Apropo, hai să mâncăm.
✅ Apropo, hai să mâncăm.
By the way, let's eat.
Key Takeaways
- Topic-shift markers are traffic signals: they warn the listener that the subject is changing, so the change feels signalled rather than abrupt.
- apropo (de) opens a linked tangent — it claims the new point was triggered by what came before ("speaking of which"); apropo de X names the bridge.
- în altă ordine de idei and schimbând subiectul open an unrelated point — a clean, conscious break.
- ca să revin and revenind la explicitly close the digression and return to the main thread — the half English usually leaves to a vague "anyway."
- The opening and closing markers form matched brackets around a digression; a polished speaker uses both ends so the listener always knows which thread they are on.
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Start learning Romanian→Related Topics
- Discourse Markers: OverviewB1 — A survey of the words that organize talk rather than carry meaning — additive (în plus, de asemenea), contrastive (totuși, însă, pe de altă parte), causal/consecutive (deci, prin urmare, așadar), reformulative (adică, cu alte cuvinte), exemplifying (de exemplu, bunăoară), and interactional fillers (păi, mă rog, gen). The casual fillers vs the formal connectors are a sharp register signal.
- Concession Markers (oricum, în fine, mă rog)B1 — The conversational tools for conceding a point and moving on: oricum (anyway — the preceding doesn't change the outcome), în fine (anyway / well, finally — wrapping up), mă rog (well / whatever — resigned acceptance), and în orice caz (in any case). These dismiss, summarize, or concede with a force English spreads across anyway, whatever, well, and in any case — and they are everywhere in real speech.
- Opening and Closing Markers (păi, deci, în concluzie)B1 — The markers that manage the conversational floor: openers (Păi…, Deci…, Uite ce e…, Stai să-ți zic) that launch a turn while buying thinking time, and closers (În concluzie, Pe scurt, Una peste alta, În fine, Așadar) that wrap things up. These turn-management tools are what separate fluent, well-paced speech from abrupt, choppy delivery — and learners need them to sound natural rather than blunt.
- Organizing Discourse and Turn-TakingB2 — The etiquette of managing a Romanian conversation: opening and closing exchanges gracefully, holding the floor (păi, deci, stai să-ți zic), interrupting politely (Scuze că te întrerup, Doar o secundă), changing topic without whiplash (Apropo de asta, În altă ordine de idei), and structuring a narration (Întâi…, Apoi…, La final). The discourse-marker pages supply these as forms; here the focus is the social choreography of taking and yielding the floor.
- Colloquial and Informal RegisterB1 — Casual spoken Romanian is not 'broken' standard — it is a coherent system with its own future (o să vin), its own demonstratives (ăsta, asta, ăla), its own conditional (the double imperfect: dacă știam, veneam), dropped final -l (omu', băiatu'), and a rich stock of fillers and intensifiers (păi, deci, mă, bă, gen, super, mișto). This page shows the markers of informal register, when they fit (friends, family, chat) and when they grate (a formal email), so a learner produces casual Romanian for the people who expect it — not a stiff textbook standard.