85. Frumos (Beautiful)

I believed that the word “frumos” (said: Fr-oo-mo-ss), which in English is “beautiful”, is one of the most common positive adjective used in the Romanian language.

Unlike in the US where the word “beautiful” is used to describe a woman and the word “handsome” is used to describe a man, the difference in Romanian is smaller. When describing a man or masculine word you would use the word “frumos”, when describing a woman or a feminine word you would use the word “frumoasă”.

It is almost comical how much the word beautiful is used. In my observation if someone is describing anything that was good, they can and will use the word beautiful. Some examples I can remember now include: It was a beautiful day, it was a beautiful party, the food is beautiful, his work is beautiful, it is a beautiful road, beautiful jacket, beautiful smell, you cleaned beautifully, beautiful (in ping-ping pong and volleyball after a good volley or spike). I was watching the movie Tron in English with Romanian subtitles and when the words like, “nice!” and “far-out” were used they were translated to, “frumos”.

You can also use it negatively by say “nu fromos” which means not beautiful. One example is when a child is behaving badly or playing with their food at the table or throwing a temper tantrum they will tell the child that he/she is not being beautiful.

Also, if you really want to be nice when you are asking for something you might say something like “vă-rog frumos” which is saying literally in a formal tone: I ask you please, beautiful. That sentence can be said to any sex, I most commonly hear it when you are asking a bus driver to stop and let you out.

I apologies in advance because when I return to America I will probably compliment things, people and events with the word “beautiful”. Hopefully I will return to being an American soon after returning and revert to using words like “good” and “cool” and “nice”.