Eu vorbesc puțin română și puțin engleză.

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Breakdown of Eu vorbesc puțin română și puțin engleză.

• a vorbi: to speak
• româna: the Romanian language
• și: and
• puțin: a little
• engleza: the English language

Questions & Answers about Eu vorbesc puțin română și puțin engleză.

Why is Eu included at the beginning? Is it always necessary?

In Romanian the verb ending usually tells you who the subject is, so Eu is optional.
• Vorbesc puțin română… already means “I speak a little Romanian….”
• You include Eu only for emphasis or to avoid ambiguity (e.g. contrasting with someone else).

How is the verb a vorbi conjugated in the present tense?

a vorbi is a regular “-i” verb with these forms:
• eu vorbesc
• tu vorbești
• el/ea vorbește
• noi vorbim
• voi vorbiți
• ei/ele vorbesc

How do you pronounce vorbesc, especially the -esc ending?

The pronunciation is /vorˈbesk/ (stress on the second syllable).
• -esc = /-esk/
• c at the end is /k/ because it’s not followed by e or i.

Why is puțin placed before română and engleză, and why isn’t it puțină?

Here puțin is an adverb modifying the verb vorbesc (“I speak a little”), not an adjective modifying “română.” Adverbs do not agree in gender or number, so you always use the masculine form puțin.
If you treat it as an adjective you’d say puțină (feminine), but then it would be tied to the noun:
• Am puțină apă. (“I have a little water.”)
With vorbesc, stick to the adverb:
• Vorbesc puțin română.

Can I drop the second puțin and just say Vorbesc puțin română și engleză?

Yes. One puțin covers both languages:
• Vorbesc puțin română și engleză.
Repeating puțin simply adds emphasis that you speak each language only a little.

Why aren’t română and engleză capitalized in Romanian?

Romanian does not capitalize language names or adjectives derived from nationalities. So you write
• română, engleză, spaniolă
all in lowercase (unless they start a sentence).

Why is there no article before română and engleză?

When you talk about languages as direct objects, you generally use the bare (unmarked) form. They act like uncountable nouns here. You don’t need “o” or any article:
• Vorbesc română.
If you did add an article, you would be specifying “the language” (e.g. limba română).

What’s the difference between Vorbesc română and Vorbesc în română?

• Vorbesc română = “I have the ability to speak Romanian.” (language skill)
• Vorbesc în română = “I’m speaking in Romanian [right now].” (language used in conversation)

What is the usual word order for verb, adverb and object in Romanian?

The normal order is:
verb → adverb → object
e.g. Vorbesc (verb) puțin (adverb) română (object).
Moving the adverb after the object (Vorbesc română puțin) sounds awkward and is not standard.

Are there other ways to say “a little” besides puțin?

Yes, colloquially you can use un pic or diminutives like puțintel:
• Vorbesc un pic de română și un pic de engleză.
• Vorbeam puțintel română.
Note that with un pic you often insert de before the noun (un pic de română), though dropping de is also heard in speech.