How hard is Romanian to learn?
The Foreign Service Institute categorizes Romanian as a Category I language, indicating it requires approximately 600-750 hours of study for English speakers to reach professional working proficiency. This classification places Romanian among the easier languages for English learners, reflecting genuine structural similarities between the two languages despite their different origins.
Romanian's Latin alphabet presents no learning barrier, and its Romance language family background provides English speakers with substantial vocabulary overlap through shared etymological roots. While Romanian grammar includes some complexities absent from English—such as gendered nouns, case systems, and subjunctive mood—these features are neither unusually difficult nor insurmountable for motivated learners. The straightforward phonetic pronunciation and relatively regular verb conjugations further support learner progress. Overall, Romanian represents an accessible Romance language choice for English speakers willing to invest moderate study time.
About Romanian
| Native speakers (L1) | 24.0M (approximate — from a per-language infobox) |
|---|---|
| Language family | Indo-European (Romance) |
| Primary regions | Romania, Moldova |
| Writing system | Latin |
Speaker counts, language-family and region data from Wikipedia (Ethnologue figures), licensed CC BY-SA 4.0.
Calculate your study hours →Hours to learn Romanian → · How to approach it →
Hours and weeks are the canonical FSI figures for Category I, from the US State Dept FSI list (public domain), verified June 2026. How we compile this — confirm against state.gov on an operator pass before relying on it.