Dialogue: Greetings and Introductions

The very first thing you do in any conversation — greet someone and say who you are — forces you to make a choice that Romanian builds into its grammar: are you being casual or polite? English has one "you" and gets by on tone. Romanian splits "you" into the intimate tu and the respectful dumneavoastră, and the split shows up in your first word: Salut! to a friend, Bună ziua! to a stranger or someone older. There is no neutral middle ground; you commit to a register the moment you open your mouth.

This page presents a short first-meeting dialogue, then walks through it line by line. Along the way you'll meet the copula a fi ("to be"), the reflexive verbs a se numi and a se chema (two ways to say "my name is"), and the courtesy formula Îmi pare bine ("nice to meet you").

The dialogue

A formal first meeting between two adults who don't know each other — at a conference, an office, a viewing. Both use the polite register.

— Bună ziua! Mă numesc Andrei Popescu.

— Bună ziua! Îmi pare bine. Eu sunt Maria Ionescu.

— Îmi pare bine de cunoștință. Sunteți de aici, din București?

— Nu, sunt din Cluj. Dumneavoastră?

— Eu sunt bucureștean. Cu ce vă ocupați?

— Sunt arhitectă. Și dumneavoastră?

— Sunt profesor. Mă bucur să vă cunosc.

In full, the exchange runs: "Good day! My name is Andrei Popescu." — "Good day! Pleased to meet you. I'm Maria Ionescu." — "Pleased to make your acquaintance. Are you from here, from Bucharest?" — "No, I'm from Cluj. And you?" — "I'm a Bucharester. What do you do?" — "I'm an architect. And you?" — "I'm a teacher. I'm glad to meet you."

Line by line

Bună ziua! — the register-marked greeting

Bună ziua (literally "good day," bun + zi in the definite feminine) is the polite all-purpose greeting for daytime. It immediately signals that the speakers will use the formal dumneavoastră. Its time-of-day siblings are Bună dimineața ("good morning") and Bună seara ("good evening"). The casual counterparts — Salut! and Bună! — would be wrong here, because they presuppose informality with a stranger.

Mă numesc — the reflexive way to give your name

Mă numesc ("my name is," literally "I name myself") comes from the reflexive verb a se numi. Romanian treats naming yourself as something you do to yourself, so the reflexive pronoun mă ("myself") is obligatory. Its everyday twin is a se chema — Mă cheamă Andrei ("I'm called Andrei"). A third, plainer option drops the reflexive entirely: Numele meu este Andrei ("My name is Andrei").

Eu sunt — the copula a fi

Sunt ("I am" / "they are") is a form of a fi, the verb "to be," used here to state identity and origin. Romanian, like Spanish or Italian, normally drops the subject pronoun because the verb ending already tells you who — Sunt din Cluj is complete on its own. Adding eu ("I"), as in Eu sunt Maria, is for emphasis or contrast: "I'm Maria (and you are...?)."

The same copula introduces your profession — and note that Romanian omits the article here: Sunt profesor, Sunt arhitectă ("I'm a teacher / an architect"), with no word for "a." The feminine arhitectă shows that profession nouns agree with the speaker's gender. For the full conjugation, see a fi.

Sunteți / dumneavoastră / vă — the polite "you"

When Andrei asks Sunteți de aici? ("Are you from here?"), he uses the 2nd-person plural verb form sunteți even though he's addressing one person. This is the dumneavoastră system: Romanian shows respect by using the plural "you," exactly as French uses vous. The matching object/dative pronoun is vă (Cu ce vă ocupați?, Mă bucur să vă cunosc), and the standalone pronoun is dumneavoastră (Dumneavoastră? = "And you?").

Compare the casual version of the same questions, with tu and the singular verb:

Îmi pare bine — the courtesy formula

Îmi pare bine ("nice to meet you," literally "it seems good to me") is the fixed phrase you say on being introduced. Fuller and more formal: Îmi pare bine de cunoștință ("pleased to make your acquaintance"). A near-synonym is Încântat / Încântată ("delighted," agreeing with the speaker's gender). At the close, Mă bucur să vă cunosc ("I'm glad to meet you") wraps things up warmly. None of these should be parsed word by word — learn them as whole chunks.

Cultural notes

• Handshakes accompany formal introductions; the dumneavoastră register stays in force until the older or higher-status person invites switching to tu (Putem să ne tutuim? — "Shall we use tu with each other?").
• Bună! alone is a friendly catch-all among young people and is creeping into semi-casual settings, but in a clearly professional or respectful situation, Bună ziua remains the safe choice.
• Romanians often state their profession early in an introduction (Sunt arhitectă); it's a normal, non-intrusive part of getting acquainted.

Common Mistakes

Greeting a stranger or elder with the casual Salut!:

Dropping the reflexive pronoun from mă numesc / mă cheamă:

Conjugating mă cheamă in the 1st person:

Inserting an article before a profession, copying English "a teacher":

Pairing tu with the polite plural verb (mixing registers):

Key Takeaways

• Romanian encodes register in your first word: Salut! / Bună! (casual) vs. Bună ziua! / Bună seara! (polite).
• Give your name with the reflexive Mă numesc or Mă cheamă (3rd-person verb!), or the plain Numele meu este.
• a fi states identity, origin, and profession; the subject pronoun is dropped unless emphatic, and no article precedes a profession (Sunt profesor).
• Polite "you" uses the plural verb + dumneavoastră + vă; casual "you" uses the singular verb + tu + te. Keep them consistent.
• Îmi pare bine and Mă bucur să vă cunosc are fixed courtesy chunks — memorize them whole.