How to Learn Romanian Online (From Beginner to B1)

If you have ever sat at a Romanian dinner table — your partner’s parents passing food and laughing at a joke you didn’t catch, your relatives slipping into Romanian the moment the conversation turns warm — you already know why you’re here. For most people who land on this page, learning Romanian isn’t about grammar tables. It’s about belonging: talking to the family you married into, reconnecting with the country your parents left, or finally feeling at home in Bucharest or Chișinău instead of like a guest.

The good news is that Romanian is far more learnable than its reputation suggests — it’s a Romance language, so if you know any French, Spanish or Italian, you have a head start. The frustrating part is that solid, structured Romanian material in English is thin on the ground; the big apps under-serve it, and most of what you find online is a scattered word list with no path forward. This guide is the path. It covers how hard Romanian really is, how long it takes, where to start, and the most realistic way to go from zero to actually speaking with the people you care about.

Why learn Romanian (and who actually does)

In my experience, almost nobody learns Romanian by accident. There’s a reason behind it, and that reason is usually a person or a place. The learners I hear from most are partners who have married into a Romanian or Moldovan family and are tired of being the only one at the table who doesn’t understand; second-generation Romanians who grew up hearing the language but never spoke it; and people relocating to Romania for work — the tech scene in Bucharest and Cluj has pulled in a lot of newcomers — or pursuing Romanian citizenship by descent.

I’ve spent more than twenty years teaching myself languages and writing about how to do it well, and the pattern never changes: motivation rooted in connection beats motivation rooted in obligation every single time. If your goal is to talk with your partner’s parents, understand the music and films you grew up around, or read a message from a cousin without a translation app, you already have the strongest engine there is. The rest of this guide is about pointing that engine in the right direction.

Is Romanian hard to learn?

Honestly, it’s easier than most English speakers fear. Romanian is the only Romance language that survived in Eastern Europe, descended directly from the Latin spoken by Roman settlers, and it shares a huge slice of its vocabulary with Italian, French and Spanish. The US Foreign Service Institute places Romanian in its easiest group of languages for English speakers — the same category as French and Spanish — at roughly 600 hours of study to reach professional working proficiency. If you’ve ever studied another Romance language, you’ll recognise words from your very first lesson.

That said, I’ll be straight with you about the parts that take a little more work. Romanian kept some features its cousins dropped: nouns have three genders (masculine, feminine and a neuter that behaves like both), and the language still uses a light case system. Its most distinctive quirk is that the definite article is attached to the end of the word — om (a man) becomes omul (the man) — which feels strange for about a week and then becomes second nature. There’s also a layer of Slavic and Turkish loanwords on top of the Latin base. None of this makes Romanian hard; it just means it has a character of its own rather than being a copy of Italian.

How long does it take to learn Romanian?

There’s no honest single number, because it depends on what “learn” means to you and how consistently you practise. As a realistic guide based on how most self-learners progress:

• 2–4 weeks: handle greetings, courtesies and simple everyday exchanges, and get comfortable with the sounds and spelling.
• ~3 months at 15–20 minutes a day: a solid A2 level — everyday conversations, shopping, introductions, simple past and future.
• 6–12 months: comfortable B1 conversation, the level at which most family and social situations stop feeling like hard work.

The single biggest predictor of success isn’t talent — it’s daily consistency. Twenty minutes every day will take you far past two hours once a week, because language lives in your long-term memory, and long-term memory is built through spaced repetition, not cramming.

The Romanian alphabet and pronunciation

Here’s a relief if you’re coming from a Slavic-looking expectation: Romanian uses the Latin alphabet you already know, with five extra letters — ă, â, î, ș and ț. Spelling is largely phonetic, so once you’ve learned how those five letters sound, you can read almost any Romanian word correctly. The ș sounds like the “sh” in ship, ț like the “ts” in cats, and ă like the unstressed “a” in about. Get these right early and you’ll avoid pronunciation habits that are hard to unlearn later. There’s no new script to memorise, which is one less barrier between you and your first real conversation.

How to learn Romanian: a realistic roadmap

Let me save you the months I see learners waste. The usual journey looks like this: someone opens Duolingo, finds the Romanian course is thin, downloads three random apps that each teach forty disconnected words, bookmarks a few YouTube videos, and within a month has quietly given up — not because Romanian is too hard, but because there was never a structured path. Scattered free resources feel productive but rarely add up to a conversation.

What actually works is unglamorous and reliable:

1. Learn whole phrases from day one, not just isolated words, so you can say something useful in your first week.
2. Build core vocabulary with spaced repetition so words move into long-term memory instead of leaking out.
3. Get audio from native speakers from the very start, so your ear and your accent grow together.
4. Lean on the Latin overlap — consciously connect new Romanian words to the French, Spanish or Italian you already know.
5. Use the language — text a relative, label things at home, watch a Romanian series with subtitles, listen to the music with the lyrics in front of you.

The fastest way to do all of this in one place, without assembling it yourself, is a single structured course built around the long-term memory method. That’s exactly what the online course below is designed for.

The best way to learn Romanian online

Top Romanian Language Course | Learn with one of the best online courses. ✓ Find out more & start directly with a free demo!

This Romanian online course is a comprehensive and convenient way to master the language. Designed for learners of all levels, from complete beginners to more advanced speakers, it provides a flexible, engaging experience tailored for English speakers. With a focus on practical conversation, grammar and vocabulary, you’ll quickly gain the confidence to communicate effectively in Romanian, progressing at your own pace.

• You decide where and when you want to learn.
• You can learn on your smartphone, tablet, or PC.
• Your learning progress is saved automatically.

Advantages of an online Romanian course

A modern online course combines practical learning with scientifically proven methods. This offers you:

• Long-term memory method: vocabulary really sticks because it is repeated at precisely timed intervals.
• Short learning units: just 15–20 minutes a day is enough to make rapid progress.
• High flexibility: learn at the office, on the go, or even in bed — access anytime.
• Individual customisation: decide how many words you learn per day and which exercise type you use (multiple choice, writing, listening comprehension).
• Quick results: after about three months you will already have reached a solid A2 level on the European Framework of Reference.

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What makes this Romanian language course special?

• After about three months you will have learnt the most important Romanian words and reached level A2 of the Common European Framework of Reference.
• You only need to learn for about 15–20 minutes per day.
• The intelligent learning software gives you a fresh daily task, so you learn with the highest possible efficiency.
• It works straight in your browser with no installation, and it’s genuinely easy to use, even for complete beginners.
• Thanks to the long-term memory method you’ll soon be able to hold a conversation using the most common Romanian phrases.

The course builds a foundational vocabulary of over 1,300 words, but never as isolated entries: dialogue texts and expressive phrases place each word inside relevant, real-life themes, so you learn words inside full sentences. All texts and vocabulary are spoken by native speakers, so you learn authentic pronunciation from the start, and each exercise gently introduces new grammar so your understanding grows in step with your vocabulary.

Screenshot from the 17-Minute-Languages course.

Which course level is right for me?

For beginners, the question barely arises: you can’t go wrong with the basic course. If you already have some Romanian, a free placement test points you to the right level, such as the intermediate course covered further down. And the benefits of getting there are very real:

• With family: stop standing on the edge of the conversation. Talk with your partner’s parents, understand the jokes, and pass the language on instead of letting it fade.
• While travelling: move through Romania and Moldova — from Bucharest to the painted monasteries of Bucovina — with locals as your bridge rather than a barrier.
• In relationships: connect more deeply with a Romanian partner and the people who matter to them.
• For your mind: learning a language at any age keeps the brain active, and research links bilingualism to a later onset of cognitive decline.

Screenshot from the 17-Minute-Languages course.

Online course vs. traditional classes

A classic course at a community college or with a private tutor is inflexible and ties you to a fixed time and place. With the online course you learn from any internet-connected device in the world; your course data and progress are stored online, available everywhere and at all times.

Screenshot from the 17-Minute-Languages course.

What exactly is the long-term memory learning method?

With the long-term memory method you learn Romanian according to the latest findings in learning research. Vocabulary is queried again and again on a precise daily rhythm. Once you’ve known a word for several days in a row, it has settled into your long-term memory; a word you forget goes back to the beginning of the loop. New vocabulary is added each day, and you decide both how much you learn and how — quick multiple choice when time is short, typing the words yourself when you also want to master the spelling.

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The Romanian course suits every age — keep your mind active while you learn.

Taking Romanian further: the intermediate course (B1–B2)

Once you’ve got a solid foundation, the natural next step is to push from A2 into confident B1–B2 territory — the level where conversations stop being a series of survival phrases and start feeling like real exchanges. The intermediate Romanian course is built for exactly that stage, adding over 1,800 new words on top of the basics, again on just 15–20 minutes a day.

Where the beginner course gets you talking, the intermediate course gets you talking about more: leisure and hobbies, work and career, travel and culture, social situations, even emergencies and academic topics. It leans heavily on authentic dialogue texts read by native speakers, so you learn Romanian the way it’s actually spoken, and it includes an audio trainer that’s ideal for turning commutes and waiting time into listening practice. If you already have good basics, you can start the intermediate Romanian course with a free two-day demo* and pick up where the basic course leaves off.

Learning Romanian with an app: is Mondly worth it?

If you’d rather learn in short, game-like bursts on your phone, Mondly is the most popular app that actually offers Romanian — and unlike some bigger names, it genuinely does (Babbel, for instance, doesn’t have a Romanian course at all). Mondly leans on playful daily lessons, a points system and conversation simulations with native-speaker audio, which makes it easy to keep a streak going during a coffee break or a commute.

Being straight about it: the free version is a decent way to test the waters, but the real depth sits behind the premium subscription, and like most app-based learning it’s stronger for vocabulary and motivation than for deep grammar. I’d treat Mondly as a fun supplement or an on-the-go companion rather than your only resource. If that fits how you like to learn, you can try Mondly’s Romanian lessons for free* and see whether the app style clicks for you.

Can you learn Romanian for free?

Partly — and it’s worth knowing where free works and where it doesn’t. You can pick up a lot for free from YouTube channels, Romanian music with lyrics, films and series on streaming, and word lists like our own phrase guide. As a supplement, that’s genuinely useful and I’d encourage it. The catch is that free resources almost never form a structured sequence, so motivation fades and progress stalls once the easy wins run out. The most efficient approach is to anchor yourself with one structured course for the path, then layer free content on top for listening and immersion — and most paid courses let you start with a free trial, so you can test before you spend anything.

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Your first Romanian phrases

You don’t have to wait until you’re “ready” to say something. Here are five phrases that already carry you a long way at any Romanian table:

• Bună! — Hi / Hello
• Bună dimineața! — Good morning
• Mulțumesc! — Thank you
• Ce mai faci? — How are you? (informal)
• La revedere! — Goodbye

When you’re ready for greetings, courtesies, terms of endearment and the everyday expressions that make you sound natural, work through our full guide to common Romanian phrases.

Frequently asked questions

Is Romanian easy to learn?

For English speakers, Romanian is one of the more approachable languages. As a Romance language it shares much of its vocabulary with French, Spanish and Italian, and the US Foreign Service Institute rates it in its easiest group, at around 600 hours of study. The main adjustments are its three genders, a light case system, and the definite article attached to the end of the word.

Can I learn Romanian for free?

You can pick up words and phrases for free from videos, music and word lists, which makes a great supplement. The limitation is that free resources rarely form a structured sequence, so progress tends to stall. A guided course gives you that missing path, and most let you start with a free trial.

How long does it take to learn Romanian?

With about 15–20 minutes of structured daily practice, most learners reach a solid A2 conversational level in roughly three months, and a comfortable B1 within six to twelve months. Daily consistency matters more than total hours.

What is the best app to learn Romanian?

For a structured path from beginner to fluency, a course built on the long-term memory method works best. If you prefer short, game-like lessons on your phone, Mondly is the most popular app that actually offers Romanian and is a solid supplement, especially for vocabulary and motivation.

Does Babbel have Romanian?

No. Babbel does not currently offer a Romanian course. If you want app-based learning for Romanian, Mondly is the better-known option, while a dedicated online course built on spaced repetition gives you the most structured route.

For a reliable overview of the language’s history and structure, the Encyclopaedia Britannica entry on the Romanian language is a trustworthy starting point.

Keep learning

Helpful language learning tips:

• The different ways of learning languages
• Learning vocabulary successfully
• Motivated language learning
• Train your listening comprehension at the same time
• Learning languages quickly – is it possible?
• The different types of language learners

Learn Romanian in another language:

• 🇩🇪 – Rumänisch Onlinekurs
• 🇳🇴 – Lær rumensk – Rumensk språkkurs