How it works
The Romanian alphabet to copy, letter by letter: the 31 letters as capitals, then as small letters, each with its Romanian name and its sound. Five are Romanian's own: Ă, Â, Î, Ș and Ț.
Read the full guide
The five special letters
Ă is a with a breve, Â and Î carry a circumflex, and Ș and Ț have a comma below. Â and Î are one sound. Since the reform of 1993 the choice goes by position: Î at the beginning and the end of a word, Â everywhere else.
A comma, not a cedilla
Ș and Ț have look-alikes with a cedilla, Ş and Ţ, which were in Unicode first; the comma letters came in version 3.0. The Romanian Academy counts the cedilla as incorrect, though it may still be seen. The tiles here copy the comma letters, U+0218 to U+021B.
- Q, W and Y occur only in foreign words and their Romanian derivatives, such as quasar, watt and yoga. K is rare too.
- Capital  is seen only in writing that is all capitals: â is used only in the middle of words.
- W is called dublu ve, and Y is igrec, Greek i.
Questions and answers
How many letters are in the Romanian alphabet?
31: the 26 letters of the basic Latin alphabet and five modified ones. The count was fixed in 1982, when Q, W and Y were formally brought in.
Did Romanian use the Cyrillic alphabet?
Yes. Until the mid-19th century Romanian was generally written in a Cyrillic alphabet. A transitional alphabet then mixed Cyrillic and Latin letters, and in 1862 the Latin alphabet replaced Cyrillic in official publications.
How are ă, â, î, ș and ț pronounced?
Ă is /ə/, the a of above. Â and Î are both /ɨ/, heard in the last syllable of roses for some English speakers. Ș is /ʃ/, the sh of shopping, and Ț is /t͡s/, the ts of cats.