ă, â, î or a

Romanian has three extra vowel letters next to a:

• ă is a short, relaxed vowel like the a in English about: casă, mă, după, băiat.
• â and î stand for the same sound, a closed vowel made in the middle of the mouth with spread lips. English has no exact match. Its position in the word decides the letter. Write î at the start or end of a word (în, încet, a coborî) and â inside it (câine, pâine, mâine, târziu).
• After a prefix the word keeps its î: reîntâlnit, neînțeles.

With feminine nouns, the ending shows the article. You write o casă (a house) but casa (the house) and mașina mea (my car). Watch verb forms too: a coborî (to go down) has î at the end, but coborâm (we go down) has â in the middle.