If you come from English, you expect contractions to be marked with an apostrophe: don't, I'm, we've. Romanian almost never uses the apostrophe for this. Its workhorse is the hyphen, and it appears far more often than the English apostrophe does, because Romanian fuses not just negation and auxiliaries but a whole swarm of little unstressed words — pronouns, the negator nu, prepositions like într- and dintr- — onto whatever stands next to them. The hyphen is the visible sign that two pieces have collapsed into a single spoken syllable. Master where it goes and you produce the dense, hyphen-studded texture of real written Romanian; get it wrong and, in the worst cases, you write a different word entirely (neam is "kin," ne-am is "we [did something]").
The hyphen joins fused negation, auxiliaries and pronouns
The most frequent hyphens come from three sources, all of which work the same way: a vowel collides with a vowel, one of them drops or merges, and a hyphen records it.
The negator nu → n-. Before a verb or auxiliary starting with a vowel, nu contracts: nu am → n-am, nu are → n-are, nu au → n-au. Before a vowel-initial clitic it also fuses: nu îmi → nu-mi, nu îl → nu-l, nu îi → nu-i.
N-am mai vorbit cu el de luni de zile.
I haven't spoken to him in months. (nu am → n-am)
Nu-mi place deloc filmul ăsta.
I don't like this film at all. (nu îmi → nu-mi)
Clitic pronoun + auxiliary. The compound past auxiliary (am, ai, a, au) starts with a vowel, so the object pronoun in front of it fuses: mă + am → m-am, te + ai → te-ai, se + a → s-a, ne + am → ne-am, l(e) + am → le-am, l + am → l-am.
L-am sunat azi-dimineață, dar nu mi-a răspuns.
I called him this morning, but he didn't answer me. (îl + am → l-am)
Ne-am întâlnit din întâmplare la gară.
We ran into each other by chance at the station. (ne + am → ne-am)
The dative + e: mi-e, ți-e, i-e. The dative clitic fuses with e (is) in the high-frequency "I am cold/hungry/scared" construction: îmi + e → mi-e frig / mi-e foame.
Mi-e somn, mă duc la culcare.
I'm sleepy, I'm going to bed. (îmi + e → mi-e)
Postposed clitics: dă-mi, du-te, spune-i, uită-te
After an affirmative imperative, the clitic clings to the back of the verb and hyphenates onto it — even when the clitic begins with a consonant, because it is now riding on the same word. This is a fixed orthographic rule: dă + mi → dă-mi, du + te → du-te, spune + îi → spune-i, uită + te → uită-te. Two clitics stack into a hyphen chain: dă-mi-l (give it to me).
Dă-mi telefonul tău, te rog.
Give me your phone, please. (dă + mi → dă-mi)
Uită-te ce frumos e cerul!
Look how beautiful the sky is! (uită + te → uită-te)
Spune-i lui Andrei că-l aștept jos.
Tell Andrei I'm waiting for him downstairs. (spune + îi → spune-i; că-l = că + îl)
Prepositional contractions: într-o, dintr-un, printr-un
A small but extremely common set of prepositions ends in a vowel that collides with the indefinite article un / o, and the result is hyphenated. The base forms în (in), din (from), prin (through) take an extra -tr- before the article, then hyphenate: în + o → într-o, în + un → într-un, din + un → dintr-un, prin + un → printr-un. These are the standard, obligatory written forms — you cannot write \în un or *în o*.
| Preposition |
| Written | Gloss |
|---|---|---|---|
| în | în + o | într-o | in a (fem.) |
| în | în + un | într-un | in a (masc.) |
| din | din + o / un | dintr-o / dintr-un | from a |
| prin | prin + un | printr-un | through a |
Locuiește într-un apartament mic din centru.
She lives in a small apartment downtown. (în + un → într-un)
Am aflat dintr-o întâmplare că s-a mutat.
I found out by chance that she'd moved. (din + o → dintr-o; here 'dintr-o întâmplare' = 'from a chance')
A trecut printr-o perioadă grea anul trecut.
She went through a hard time last year. (prin + o → printr-o)
Hyphen vs space vs solid word
Three written outcomes are possible when little words meet, and choosing among them is the heart of this topic.
- Hyphen — when a vowel is lost or merged and the pieces become one syllable: n-am, s-a, mi-e, într-o, dă-mi.
- Space (separate words) — when each piece keeps its own syllable and nothing fuses: nu mă deranja (consonant blocks fusion), mi se pare, i se face, mi le dă. Writing a hyphen here (*nu-mă, *mi-se) is an error.
- Solid word — reserved for genuine single lexemes, never for a fusion. This is precisely the trap: a fusion is never written solid. m-am is two morphemes glued with a hyphen, not the solid *mam.
Nu mă deranja acum, sunt ocupat.
Don't bother me now, I'm busy. (nu + mă: consonant meets consonant, no fusion, two words)
Mi se pare că am uitat ceva.
It seems to me I forgot something. (mi se — two syllables, written apart, no hyphen)
The rare apostrophe
Romanian does keep the apostrophe for a thin layer of (informal) and (colloquial) elisions, mostly in speech transcription and casual address — but it is nothing like the English workhorse. You will meet dom'le / dom'ne (from domnule, "sir/man"), 'neața (from bună dimineața, "morning"), and the dropped article omu' (for omul) in songs and texting. None of these are required spellings; they signal a relaxed, oral register.
Hai, dom'le, că nu-i așa de greu!
Come on, man, it's not that hard! (dom'le — colloquial apostrophe elision of domnule)
'Neața! Ai dormit bine?
Mornin'! Did you sleep well? ('neața — colloquial clipping of bună dimineața)
When the hyphen changes the word
The stakes are highest with pairs that are spelled identically except for the hyphen — here the hyphen is the only thing telling two different words apart. ne-am is the pronoun-cluster "we [+ past auxiliary]"; neam (one solid word) is a noun meaning "kin, relatives." s-a is "[he/she/it] reflexive + past auxiliary"; sa is the possessive "his/her." Dropping or adding the hyphen here is not a typo — it produces a real, wrong word. (The full set of these traps lives on the common spelling errors page.)
Ne-am întâlnit cu tot neamul de sărbători.
We met up with the whole family over the holidays. (ne-am = 'we [met]' with hyphen; neam = 'kin' solid)
S-a întors acasă cu mașina sa.
He came back home in his (own) car. (s-a = reflexive + auxiliary; sa = 'his/her')
Common Mistakes
Writing the fusion as one solid word instead of hyphenating it — the single most common literacy error:
❌ Sa dus la birou.
Incorrect — se + a fuses WITH a hyphen: S-a dus la birou.
✅ S-a dus la birou.
He went to the office.
Confusing neam (kin) and ne-am (we + auxiliary), where the hyphen is the whole difference:
❌ Neam plimbat prin parc.
Incorrect — this means 'kin'; the verb cluster needs a hyphen: Ne-am plimbat prin parc.
✅ Ne-am plimbat prin parc.
We took a walk in the park.
Using an apostrophe where Romanian wants a hyphen (transferring the English habit):
❌ N'am timp.
Incorrect — Romanian contracts with a hyphen, not an apostrophe: N-am timp.
✅ N-am timp.
I don't have time.
Splitting the prepositional contraction into two words:
❌ Stau în o cameră mică.
Incorrect — în + o must contract: Stau într-o cameră mică.
✅ Stau într-o cameră mică.
I'm staying in a small room.
Hyphenating a cluster where nothing fuses (consonant blocks it):
❌ Mi-se pare ciudat.
Incorrect — 'se' starts with a consonant, no fusion: Mi se pare ciudat.
✅ Mi se pare ciudat.
It seems strange to me.
Key Takeaways
- Romanian fuses with a hyphen, not an apostrophe: n-am, nu-i, mi-e, s-a, ne-am, te-am, l-am, dă-mi, du-te, spune-i.
- The prepositions în, din, prin contract obligatorily before un/o with a -tr-: într-o, într-un, dintr-un, printr-un.
- Choose hyphen (one fused syllable) vs space (two separate syllables: mi se, nu mă) vs never solid for a fusion.
- The apostrophe survives only in colloquial elisions: dom'le, 'neața, omu' — far rarer than in English.
- Some pairs differ only by the hyphen — ne-am (we) vs neam (kin), s-a vs sa — so the hyphen carries real meaning.
Now practice Romanian
Reading grammar gets you part of the way. The exercises are where it sticks — free, no signup needed.
Start learning Romanian→Related Topics
- Clitic Elision and Hyphenation SpellingB2 — The orthography of clitic contractions: when a clitic fuses across a vowel it takes a HYPHEN (m-am dus, te-ai trezit, s-a întâmplat, ți-l dau, n-am, văzându-l), but when it keeps its own syllable it is written separately (mi le dă, i se pare). The hyphen marks phonological fusion — getting it right is a hallmark of literacy.
- Common Spelling Errors and How to Avoid ThemB1 — Romania's most frequent literacy errors are the homophone traps that native speakers themselves slip on: sau vs s-au, sa vs s-a, mai vs m-ai, ia vs i-a, neam vs ne-am, numai vs nu mai, odată vs o dată, niciun vs nici un, decât vs de cât, întruna vs într-una. Each pair sounds identical (or nearly so) but means something completely different, and the difference is usually one hyphen or one space. This page gives you a reliable expansion test for each one.
- Punctuation ConventionsA2 — Romanian punctuation looks familiar to an English eye but the rules underneath are different: a comma DOES precede dar, iar, ci, însă but does NOT separate subject from verb or sit before most că-clauses; quotation marks are the low-opening, high-closing „…”; dialogue runs on an em-dash; and numbers use a decimal comma. This page maps the differences so your written Romanian reads as native, not as English with Romanian words.
- Linking, Elision, and Fast SpeechB1 — Fluent Romanian elides heavily: the definite article's final -l drops in speech (omul → omu'), 'nu' contracts (n-am, nu-i), clitic pronouns fuse and lose vowels (mi-e, ți-am, te-a văzut), and vowels coalesce across word boundaries — even though the writing keeps the full forms. This page maps the reductions so you can understand rapid speech and link your own words instead of pronouncing them one careful syllable at a time.
- Why Diacritics Matter in RomanianA1 — Romanian diacritics are obligatory, not decorative. Dropping them doesn't just look careless — it changes words: peste (over) vs pește (fish), fata (the girl) vs față (face), tata (dad) vs tată (father), mana (manna) vs mână (hand). Diacritic-free Romanian is ambiguous, decodable only from context, and acceptable in casual texting but never in writing that matters.