Prefixes: ne-, re-, des- / dez-
The last lesson built nouns with -re. Romanian builds many more words from ones you already know, and once you can spot the pieces you can understand words you have never seen.
| prefix | meaning | base | new word |
|---|
| ne- | not | fericit (happy) | nefericit (unhappy) |
| | plăcut (pleasant) | neplăcut (unpleasant) |
| | cunoscut (known) | necunoscut (unknown) |
| | vinovat (guilty) | nevinovat (innocent) |
| re- | again | a face (to do) | a reface (to redo) |
| | a cunoaște (to know) | a recunoaște (to recognize) |
| des- / dez- | undo | a se încălța (to put on shoes) | a se descălța (to take off shoes) |
| | a se îmbrăca (to get dressed) | a se dezbrăca (to get undressed) |
Ne- is the everyday Romanian not; you have already seen it on gerunds (neștiind). Some adjectives borrowed from Latin or French arrived with their own in- / im- instead: posibil → imposibil. With des- / dez-, write dez- before a vowel or a voiced consonant (b, d, g, j, l, m, n, r, v, z) and des- before a voiceless one (c, f, h, p, s, ș, t, ț). On verbs that begin with în- / îm-, it takes their place: îmbrăca → dezbrăca. Every one of these prefixes is written together with the word, never with a hyphen: nefericit, reface.
Suffixes: -tor, -os, -bil
| suffix | meaning | base | new word |
|---|
| -tor | a person, thing or place that does | a vinde (to sell) | vânzător (seller) |
| | a încărca (to charge) | încărcător (charger) |
| | a dormi (to sleep) | dormitor (bedroom) |
| -os | full of, having | gust (taste) | gustos (tasty) |
| | zgomot (noise) | zgomotos (noisy) |
| -bil | that can be done | a accepta (to accept) | acceptabil (acceptable) |
Many -tor nouns name people: cumpărător (buyer) from a cumpăra, locuitor (resident) from a locui, jucător (player) from a juca. With -os, prieten (friend) gives prietenos (friendly). The stem sometimes shifts a little: vinde → vânzător, pericol → periculos. A woman who sells is a vânzătoare: -tor becomes -toare in the feminine. Adjectives in -os have four forms: gustos, gustoasă, gustoși, gustoase. Most -bil adjectives came into Romanian ready-made (posibil, amabil, confortabil). When -bil sits on a verb you know, read it as that can be …ed: acceptabil is that can be accepted.
