The fastest words to learn are the ones you see most. This deck lists the 60 most common Romanian words, each with a clear English meaning and a real example sentence. Study them below, or download the deck for Anki or Quizlet.
The best Romanian flashcards to learn first are the words you meet most often. This free deck pairs the 60 most common Romanian words, like casă, apă, pâine, with a plain English meaning and a real example sentence for each. Download it as a CSV for Anki or Quizlet, or learn the words in context by reading.
CSV columns are word, translation, example (with a header row). Ready to import into Anki, Quizlet, or any spaced-repetition app.
60 most common Romanian words · Updated July 2026
| Romanian | Meaning | Example |
|---|---|---|
| casă | house, home | Casa mea este mare. |
| apă | water | Beau apă în fiecare zi. |
| pâine | bread | Cumpăr pâine de la magazin. |
| timp | time | Nu am timp astăzi. |
| zi | day | Astăzi este o zi frumoasă. |
| noapte | night | Îmi place să citesc noaptea. |
| om | man, person | El este un om bun. |
| femeie | woman | Femeia aceea este profesoară. |
| copil | child | Copilul se joacă în parc. |
| prieten | friend | Am un prieten bun. |
| familie | family | Familia mea este mare. |
| oraș | city, town | Locuiesc într-un oraș mare. |
| țară | country | România este o țară frumoasă. |
| carte | book | Citesc o carte interesantă. |
| mâncare | food | Mâncarea este gata. |
| bani | money | Nu am bani la mine. |
| mașină | car | Am o mașină nouă. |
| drum | road, way | Drumul este lung. |
| muncă | work, job | Merg la muncă dimineața. |
| școală | school | Copiii merg la școală. |
| a fi | to be | Eu sunt student. |
| a avea | to have | Am o soră. |
| a face | to do, to make | Ce faci acum? |
| a merge | to go | Merg la școală în fiecare zi. |
| a veni | to come | Vino aici, te rog. |
| a vrea | to want | Vreau o cafea. |
| a putea | to be able to, can | Poți să mă ajuți? |
| a ști | to know | Nu știu răspunsul. |
| a vedea | to see | Vreau să văd un film. |
| a spune | to say, to tell | Îmi poți spune ora? |
| a mânca | to eat | Îmi place să mănânc fructe. |
| a bea | to drink | Beau apă rece. |
| a dormi | to sleep | Copilul doarme acum. |
| a lucra | to work | Lucrez într-un birou. |
| a iubi | to love | Te iubesc. |
| a citi | to read | Îmi place să citesc cărți. |
| a scrie | to write | Scriu o scrisoare. |
| a vorbi | to speak, to talk | Vorbesc puțin română. |
| a cumpăra | to buy | Vreau să cumpăr flori. |
| a trăi | to live | El trăiește în București. |
| bun | good | Acesta este un restaurant bun. |
| rău | bad | Filmul a fost rău. |
| mare | big, large | Casa este foarte mare. |
| mic | small | Câinele este mic. |
| nou | new | Am cumpărat un telefon nou. |
| vechi | old | Acest oraș este vechi. |
| frumos | beautiful | Astăzi este frumos afară. |
| ușor | easy; light | Acest test este ușor. |
| greu | heavy; difficult | Bagajul este greu. |
| fericit | happy | Sunt foarte fericit. |
| da | yes | Da, sunt de acord. |
| nu | no, not | Nu, mulțumesc. |
| și | and | Eu și tu suntem prieteni. |
| dar | but | Vreau să vin, dar nu am timp. |
| cu | with | Merg la cinema cu prietenii. |
| în | in | Cartea este în geantă. |
| la | at, to | Ne vedem la ora șapte. |
| pentru | for | Acest cadou este pentru tine. |
| acum | now | Trebuie să plec acum. |
| unde | where | Unde este stația de autobuz? |
Flashcards fix words in memory; reading teaches you to use them. Lingo7 lets you read real books in Romanian with sentence-aligned translation and native-narrated audio, and save any word to review later. Free to start.
The deck is built from high-frequency words, the ones that make up most of everyday Romanian. Learning them first gives you the biggest return per card, because you will meet them again and again the moment you start reading or listening.
Flashcards work best with spaced repetition: review a card, and if you knew it, wait longer before seeing it again. Anki and Quizlet both do this automatically. Download the CSV, import it, and review a few minutes a day. Keep the example sentence on the card so you learn how the word actually behaves, not just its dictionary gloss.
One honest limit: flashcards build recognition, but you learn to use a word by meeting it in real context. Pair this deck with reading. When a word you drilled shows up in a story, it stops being a flashcard and becomes part of the language. That pairing is what reading in Lingo7 is built for.
Best Romanian books for your level (A1 to C1) →
Not sure of your level? Take the Romanian CEFR test (A1 to C2) →
How long does it take to learn Romanian? See the timeline →
Start with the most frequent words. A few thousand high-frequency Romanian words cover the majority of everyday text, so each of those cards pays off far more than a rare one. This deck gives you the top 60 to begin with, each with a meaning and an example sentence, so you learn the word in context rather than in isolation. When a card sticks, meet the word again in a real book to lock it in.
Click Download CSV to save the deck, then in Anki choose File, Import and select the file. Map the first column to the front (the Romanian word) and the second to the back (the meaning); the third column holds an example sentence you can add to the back too. The first row is a header, so tell Anki to ignore it or delete that one card. For Quizlet, use Copy for Quizlet and paste into the import box with Tab between term and definition.
Flashcards are excellent for building recognition and drilling the first few thousand words, but on their own they teach words out of context. You learn to use Romanian, not just recognize it, by reading and hearing the words in real sentences. The efficient combination is flashcards for raw vocabulary plus reading for context, collocation and grammar. That is exactly what Lingo7 is built around.
Roughly 2,000 to 3,000 common words cover most everyday Romanian text, and around 5,000 gets you comfortably through many novels. You do not need all of them before you start: with sentence-aligned translation you can begin reading real Romanian at a couple of thousand words and pick up the rest from context. This deck is a fast way to front-load the most useful 60.