# Describing language skills (possessive constructions)



## Psi-Lord

What is the best, most idiomatic way of conveying in Romanian the meaning of sentences such as ‘My English is a bit rusty’, ‘John’s Portuguese is excellent’, ‘Mary’s Romanian is kind of choppy’ etc.? I’m actually curious about how Romanian handles the possessive part of such statements.

Thanks in advance!


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## Reef Archer

You may use the exact translation; I don't think it would sound funny to anybody.
If you tend "to think" in other languages, that is.

However, there are all sorts of formulations that sometimes don't even come close to those consecrated in other languages, but have the exact same meaning, nevertheless.
So, I would rather say, „Nu prea știu engleză” ["I don't really know English"] instead of „Engleza mea e cam ruginită” (the exact translation of your first example).

Something I've often noticed is a tendency of over-elaborating a simple phrase in a foreign language. This habit turns some very well-known idioms into both unpractical and pretentious (read 'phony') Romanian expressions: „Cunoștințele mele într-ale englezei s-au cam erodat” etc.

Don't know about others' view on the matter, tho'.


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## farscape

Using the possessive article would be the answer to your question. As a rule a language is considered to be a feminine "noun" therefore the article has the feminine form also. Examples:

My English is a bit rusty -> Engleza *mea* e un pic cam ruginită
John's Portuguese -> Portugheza *lui* John
Mary's Romanian -> Româna Mari*ei*

Interesting to note that while in most cases the possessive pronoun can be incorporated in the woman's name, for the man it has to stand alone. For nouns, regardless of gender, the possessive pronoun is always included in the noun: Engleza băiatului/omului/fetei (The boy/man/girl's English).

As RA has noted, these are idioms, perfectly acceptable in a casual conversation.

Best,


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## Psi-Lord

Thanks, *Reef Archer* and *farscape*. 

I actually first started wondering whether plain possession would be idiomatic in Romanian (despite, as *Reef Archer* pointed out, other optional ways of expressing that being readily available) more because of a friend who was corrected in a title. He meant to write on his Romanian in Romanian itself (for practice and corrections) and named his piece of writing something like „Româneşte lui Ion”; however, a native speaker corrected him, on the grounds that it sounded somewhat artificial, and that „Româneşte pentru Ion” or „Română pentru Ion” would fall more into line with the spirit of Romanian.

Would you say this particular situation falls under a different interpretation, or is there something more subtle behind such a correction? Or maybe it was just an opinion, and other native speakers might not agreed with it?


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## Reef Archer

Haha!
Actually, I cut out half of my post because I tend to ramble a bit way too much.
My second observation was that more and more people in Dracula's country tend to have strange _opinions_ regarding the Romanian language. Of course, they call them _certainties_ and _knowledge_, but they are so wrong in their certainties it gets worrisome. And it's so bad that in this rhythm, each Romanian human being will speak a Romanian language only he or she will understand. *His/her Romanian, literally.*

So... the different interpretation part is the most certain thing when it comes to communicating as of late


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## farscape

Psi-Lord said:


> „Româneşte pentru Ion” or „Română pentru Ion” would fall more into line with the spirit of Romanian.
> 
> Would you say this particular situation falls under a different interpretation, or is there something more subtle behind such a correction? Or maybe it was just an opinion, and other native speakers might not agreed with it?



As always, the context is king 

Româneşte pentru Ion - for a title, this sounds weird. As part of a sentence, one could say "Vorbesc în româneşte pentru Ion" - I speak Romanian for Ion.

Română pentru  Ion - Still weird and senseless as a title. If the peice was about  Romainan language explained/taught to Ion, then one would say: Român*a* pentru Ion.

Not understanding the context, I can only speculate that the orginal  version "Româneşte lui Ion"  might be OK as a contraction: (Îi scriu în /  Îi spun pe) româneşte lui Ion.

However the only way we can tell if the title used by your friend is OK  or not is to know what the piece is about, with as many details as  possible.

Later,


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## Psi-Lord

farscape said:


> However the only way we can tell if the title used by your friend is OK  or not is to know what the piece is about, with as many details as  possible.


It was actually the title of a thread in another forum (I’m not sure it’d be okay to link it here, which is why I haven’t), but, simply put, the idea behind it was his writing in Romanian (either for practice alone or asking questions about grammar, vocabulary etc.) in order to get corrections from native speakers. A bit like if he had a class notebook he’d write his homework in and then hand it to the teacher for corrections by the end of each class, and he’d decided to give such a notebook the title ‘John’s Romanian’ (with John being he himself).

Does that make sense?


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## farscape

I've come up with two suggestions:

1/ Româna lui Ion - sounds a bit cryptic and could be construed as a spelling mistake, therefore not recommended
2/ Limba română pentru Ion - one could decipher two meanings here: Romanian for Ion (as in presented/explained to Ion) and What Romanian language means to Ion. This is probably close enough to what the posts of your friend aim to achieve.

Best,


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