A pierdut trenul de opt jumate.

Sentence Discussions Romanian
#1
English Translation

He failed to catch the 8:30 train.

Okay, a question for Romanian speakers. Is the last word here a typo, or is it short form/slang for “jumatate”?

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#2
English Translation

He failed to catch the 8:30 train.

My friend who’s native Romanian speaker says that you indeed can say it this way “jumate”, it’s really a short form that works well

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#3

Thanks. I wondered but had never heard it. I think there are common contractions like that which may not make textbooks, but everyone knows over there.

As another example are numbers in the teens: they are supposed to be, for example, 15 is cincisprezece, but many would say something that sounds like cinci-shpray. Otherwise, counting from 11 to 19 could take awhile….

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#4

Yes, in colloquial speech we contract the numbers lile this:

11 - unșpe
12 - doișpe
13 - treișpe
14 - paișpe
15 - cinșpe
16 - șaișpe
17 - șaptâșpe
18 - optâșpe
19 - nouășpe

Then we call a number like 25 - douășcinci