"You say hello in Romanian."

Translation: Tu dai bună ziua în limba română.

[splittongue]

This sentence is good to teach you some Romanian speech pattern (very formal, actually) but its choice for the test is bad (I got it during a test, and failed it). That is because even if ro-en translation pose no issue, the reverse is foggy, even for a native Romanian. All the following translations are valid, and there is no rule when to say the one or the other: "Tu saluți pe românește", "Tu saluți în românește", "Tu saluți în română", "Tu spui salut pe românește", "Tu spui salut în românește", "Tu spui hello pe românește" (yes, this actually would be the most used form, think about ”How do you say bună ziua in English?”, the formulation ”How do you say hello in English?” makes no sense), and many other versions using ”a saluta” (to say hello, to greet), ”a spune salut”, ”a zice salut”, ”a da bună ziua”, not counting expressions used not so frequently (or old) like ”a da binețe”, etc.

(@meowagain, yes, ”Tu dai binețe”, ”Tu spui bună ziua”, ”Tu zici bună ziua” are all correct too, and the formulation with ”dai” is used with the same frequency)

[-Sveznalica-]

What is the difference between "românește" and "română"? Both are used with meaning of "Romanian language"... Could you give some more examples for the use of both adjectives pretty pretty please :D

[splittongue]

"Românește" actually means "the way Romanians do". Think about adverbs like for example "pescărește" - "the way fishermen (pescar/pescari) do", or expressions like ”a plăti nemțește” or ”a o șterge englezește” - to pay ”like Germans” (this means everybody pays his part, expression coming into Romanian during the second world war, because the Romanian way is: if I invite somebody for lunch, I pay for them), and respectively ”to leave like British” (i.e. to leave a place/situation stealthily, thievishly, to tip-toe out of a situation, don't ask me why and how this expression came into Romanian).

This construction can be freely applied when talking about languages or people, X-ește being synonym to ”X language” or ”X people”, etc. ”I speak Chinese (language)” can be either ”(Eu) vorbesc (limba) chineză” or ”(Eu) vorbesc chinezește”. ”I eat Turkish food” - ”Mănânc mâncare turcească” or ”Mănânc turcește”. To sit with the legs crossed under you is ”a sta turcește” - ”to sit the way Turkish (people) do”. In most of the cases, the full sentence (where ”limba”, ”mâncare” etc is used) is more formal and the ”-ește” one is more informal or friendly.

[EricConnal]

why is it "dai" instead of "spui" for "you say"?

[meowagain]

apparently there's an expression, a da buna ziua, that means to greet someone (https://dexonline.ro/definitie/zi 1.36)

i've never heard it, but then i'm not exactly a native speaker. still, it can't be that common (someone correct me if i'm wrong!)

[EricConnal]

that's interesting meowagain. i wonder if it is wrong to say 'spui' instead of dai? or if they are both valid?

[meowagain]

spui should be right too

[redactedname85]

There's the same expression in Italian = dare il buongiorno (lit.: to give the good morning).

[OwlLasers]

Why is it necessary to add "ziua" when, as I've been taught anyway, Romanian people simply use "bună?"

[splittongue]

”Bună!” means ”hi!” or ”hey!”, etc.
”Românesc” is wrong as is male version. ”Ziua” is female in Romanian :)
See also my comment here.

[OwlLasers]

Also, why is "romanesc" suggested, but counted incorrect?

[splittongue]

românesc is a masculine form for ”romanian”. A romanian t-shirt is ”un tricou românesc” but a shirt would be ”o cămașă românească”. ”Limba” (language), unfortunately, is feminine. That is because our women always talk more than our men... :P

[JacobStrob1]

lingot for the funny dis