| Letter
|
Phoneme
|
Approximate pronunciation
|
| A a
|
/a/
|
a in "father"
|
| Ă ă (a with breve)
|
/ə/
|
a in "above"
|
| Â â (a with circumflex)
|
/ɨ/
|
the close central unrounded vowel as heard, for example, in the last syllable of the word roses for some English speakers
|
| B b
|
/b/
|
b in "ball"
|
| C c
|
/k/
|
c in "cat"
|
| /tʃ/
|
ch in "chimpanzee" — if c appears before letters e or i
|
| D d
|
/d/
|
d in "door"
|
| E e
|
/e/
|
e in "merry"
|
| /e̯/
|
/e/)
|
| /je/
|
ye in "yes" — in a few old words with initial e: este, el etc. Several Romanian dictionaries specify the pronunciation [je] for word-initial letter e in some personal pronouns: el, ei, etc. and in some forms of the verb a fi (to be): este, eram, etc.
|
| F f
|
/f/
|
f in "flag"
|
| G g
|
/ɡ/
|
g in "goat"
|
| /dʒ/
|
g in "general" or "giraffe" — if g appears before letters e or i
|
| H h
|
/h/
|
h in "house"
|
| (mute)
|
no pronunciation if h appears between letters c or g and e or i (che, chi, ghe, ghi)
|
| I i
|
/i/
|
i in "machine"
|
| /j/
|
y in "yes"
|
| /ʲ/
|
(palatalization)
|
| Î î (i with circumflex)
|
/ɨ/
|
Identical to Â, see above
|
| J j
|
/ʒ/
|
s in "treasure"
|
| K k
|
/k/
|
c in "scan"
|
| L l
|
/l/
|
l in "lamp"
|
| M m
|
/m/
|
m in "mouth"
|
| N n
|
/n/
|
n in "north"
|
| O o
|
/o/
|
o in "floor"
|
| /o̯/
|
/o/)
|
| P p
|
/p/
|
p in "spot"
|
| Q q
|
/k/
|
k in "kettle"
|
| R r
|
/r/
|
alveolar trill or tap
|
| S s
|
/s/
|
s in "song"
|
| Ș ș (s with comma)
|
/ʃ/
|
s in "sugar"
|
| T t
|
/t/
|
t in "stone"
|
| Ț ț (t with comma)
|
/ts/
|
zz in "pizza" but with considerable emphasis on the "ss"
|
| U u
|
/u/
|
u in "group"
|
| /w/
|
w in "cow"
|
| V v
|
/v/
|
v in "vision"
|
| W w
|
/v/
|
v in "vision"
|
| /w/
|
w in "west"
|
| /u/
|
oo in "spoon"
|
| X x
|
/ks/
|
x in "six"
|
| /ɡz/
|
x in "example"
|
| Y y
|
/j/
|
y in "yes"
|
| /i/
|
i in "machine"
|
| Z z
|
/z/
|
z in "zipper"
|
