Neutral Romanian intensifies an adjective with foarte ("very") sitting politely in front of it: foarte frumos. But spoken Romanian is far more inventive — it has a whole arsenal of vivid, often postposed, idiomatic boosters that go well beyond foarte: frumoasă foc ("stunning"), bun de tot ("absolutely great"), urât nevoie mare ("seriously ugly"), frumos de pică ("gorgeous enough to faint"). These are the intensifiers that make speech sound alive and native — and every one of them is strongly colloquial. Drop a de pică into an academic essay and it clashes as badly as "this is dope" would in a doctoral thesis. This page is the practical slang-emphasis kit, register-labelled throughout. (For the neutral degree words, see intensifying adjectives and the foarte vs prea vs tare decision guide; for full Ce frumos! exclamatives, see exclamative degree.)
foc — "[adjective] fire", postposed and intense
foc (literally "fire") tacked after an adjective intensifies it to the maximum — "incredibly, blazingly." frumoasă foc is "drop-dead gorgeous," deșteaptă foc is "razor-sharp." The adjective agrees with its noun as usual; foc stays invariable and parked at the end. It's warm, admiring, and very spoken.
E o femeie frumoasă foc, întoarce toate privirile.
She's a stunning woman, she turns every head. (colloquial)
Băiatul ăsta e deștept foc, rezolvă orice problemă în câteva secunde.
This kid is razor-sharp, he solves any problem in seconds. (colloquial)
de tot — "totally, completely"
de tot (literally "of all") postposes after the adjective to mean "totally, utterly, completely." bun de tot is "absolutely great," prost de tot is "completely stupid." It can boost in either direction — praise or insult — and is among the most common spoken intensifiers.
Filmul a fost bun de tot, l-aș vedea din nou.
The film was absolutely great, I'd watch it again. (colloquial)
Gluma a fost proastă de tot, n-a râs nimeni.
The joke was utterly lame, nobody laughed. (colloquial)
nevoie mare — "seriously, badly [adjective]"
nevoie mare (literally "big need") follows the adjective for an emphatic, slightly comic "seriously, really, badly." urât nevoie mare is "seriously ugly," leneș nevoie mare is "lazy as anything." It often carries a teasing or exasperated tone.
Apartamentul era murdar nevoie mare când ne-am mutat.
The flat was seriously filthy when we moved in. (colloquial)
E încăpățânat nevoie mare, nu-l convingi cu nimic.
He's stubborn as anything, you can't talk him into anything. (colloquial)
de pică — "[adjective] enough to faint"
de pică (literally "[so] that it/he falls/drops") is one of the most vivid: the adjective is so extreme it could make you collapse. frumos de pică is "gorgeous enough to faint over," bun de pică of food is "so good it's to die for." The image is of something dropping (a pica "to fall") under the sheer force of the quality.
Era îmbrăcată elegant de pică la nuntă.
She was dressed so elegantly at the wedding it was breathtaking. (colloquial)
Mâncarea de la bunica e bună de pică.
Grandma's cooking is so good it's to die for. (colloquial)
groaznic de / teribil de — "terribly, awfully [adjective]"
Romanian, like English, recruits negative adverbs as positive boosters. groaznic de ("terribly"), teribil de ("terribly"), and îngrozitor de ("frightfully") all precede the adjective and simply mean "extremely" — the original negativity is bleached out, exactly like English "terribly good" or "awfully kind." Unlike the postposed boosters above, these go before the adjective and take the linking de.
Mi-a părut groaznic de rău că n-am putut veni.
I was terribly sorry I couldn't come. (colloquial / spoken)
A fost teribil de amabil cu noi tot weekendul.
He was awfully kind to us all weekend.
beton, mișto, super — the slang ratings
For "cool / great / awesome," spoken Romanian reaches for mișto (the all-purpose "cool, nice, great"), beton (literally "concrete," = "solid, awesome"), and the borrowed super ("super, great"). These are adjective-like ratings you slap on anything, and they're strongly slangy — mișto in particular is informal to the point of being unusable in any careful register. The opposite of mișto is nasol ("lousy, crap").
Ce concert mișto a fost aseară, m-am distrat de minune!
What a cool concert last night, I had an amazing time! (slang)
Telefonul nou e beton, merită fiecare leu.
The new phone is awesome, worth every leu. (slang)
A fost super că ne-am revăzut după atâta timp.
It was great that we got to see each other again after so long. (informal)
The slang-emphasis kit at a glance
| Intensifier | Position | Meaning | Register |
|---|---|---|---|
| foarte | before | very (neutral baseline) | any |
| foc | after | blazingly, incredibly | colloquial |
| de tot | after | totally, completely | colloquial |
| nevoie mare | after | seriously, badly | colloquial |
| de pică | after | extremely (enough to faint) | colloquial |
| groaznic de / teribil de | before (+ de) | terribly, awfully | colloquial / spoken |
| mișto / beton / super | standalone rating | cool, awesome, great | slang |
Common Mistakes
Dropping a slang intensifier into formal writing, where it clashes hard:
❌ Rezultatele studiului sunt bune de tot.
Register clash — 'de tot' is colloquial. In academic writing use foarte / extrem de: foarte bune / extrem de bune.
✅ Rezultatele studiului sunt foarte bune.
The results of the study are very good. (neutral / academic)
Putting the postposed boosters in front, on the English "very" model:
❌ E o femeie foc frumoasă.
Wrong order — foc follows the adjective: frumoasă foc, not foc frumoasă.
✅ E o femeie frumoasă foc.
She's a stunning woman.
Conversely, postposing the de-type boosters that must stay in front:
❌ E bun groaznic de.
Wrong order — groaznic de / teribil de precede the adjective: groaznic de bun, not bun groaznic de.
✅ E groaznic de bun.
It's terribly good.
Making foc or de tot agree with the noun — they're invariable; only the adjective agrees:
❌ niște fete frumoase focuri
Incorrect — foc never pluralizes or agrees; only the adjective does: niște fete frumoase foc.
✅ niște fete frumoase foc
some stunning girls
Using mișto as a verb or in a formal register — it's a slang rating word, not a polite intensifier:
❌ Vă mulțumim pentru o seară mișto. (formal thank-you)
Register clash — mișto is heavy slang. In a formal note use frumoasă / minunată: o seară minunată.
✅ Vă mulțumim pentru o seară minunată.
Thank you for a wonderful evening. (formal)
Key Takeaways
- Spoken Romanian boosts adjectives with vivid idiomatic intensifiers beyond foarte: frumoasă foc, bun de tot, urât nevoie mare, frumos de pică.
- Watch the position: foc, de tot, nevoie mare, de pică come after the adjective; groaznic de, teribil de come before with linking de.
- Bleached negatives (groaznic de bun "terribly good") boost positively, just like English "terribly / awfully."
- mișto, beton, super are slang ratings for "cool/awesome"; nasol is the slang opposite.
- All of these are strongly colloquial / slang — vivid in conversation, jarring in formal writing, where you fall back on foarte or extrem de.
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- Intensifying Adjectives (foarte, tare, prea)A2 — Degree modifiers that strengthen or temper an adjective — foarte (very), tare (very, colloquial), prea (too), destul de (quite), cam (rather), atât de (so) — all invariable and placed before the adjective.
- foarte vs prea vs tare (very / too)A2 — How to pick between foarte (very, neutral), prea (too, excessive and negative), and tare (very, colloquial) — with the crucial warning that prea is NOT a synonym for foarte and turns a fact into a complaint.
- Degree Exclamatives and Intensity (ce de, atâta, așa de)B2 — Romanian splits intensity exclamatives along a degree/quantity line: atât de / așa de + adjective expresses degree ('so beautiful'), while atâta / atâția + noun expresses quantity ('so much / so many'). The particle 'de' surfaces in the quantitative ce de ('Ce de oameni!') and in vivid idiomatic intensifiers like 'frumos de pică'. This page sorts ce, ce de, atât de, așa de, and atâta so you stop confusing 'so' with 'so much'.
- Intensifying and Fixed ComparisonsB2 — Romanian's conventionalized similes and intensifier-nouns — alb ca zăpada, negru ca tăciunele, sănătos tun, beat criță, singur cuc — frozen idioms you reproduce, not creative comparisons you invent.
- 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.