Writing borrowed and foreign words

Romanian uses both adapted loans and words that still show their foreign source. The spelling of the source form matters, but so does Romanian grammar: the borrowed common noun body (a close-fitting garment or bodysuit) has the definite form bodyul (the bodysuit), while the source expression show takes the plural form show-uri (shows).

How do you decide how to write a borrowed word?

First identify the word's status and then check its current DOOM3 entry: keep a foreign source spelling where it is retained, but use the Romanian article, plural, and capitalization recorded for a loan used in Romanian.

1. Decide whether you are writing a common noun used in Romanian, a foreign proper name, or a multiword foreign expression. Do not treat a person's name or a brand as an ordinary common noun without checking its established spelling.
2. Check DOOM3 for the headword, gender, definite form, plural, pronunciation notes, and any usage label. A new or fashionable loan may be recorded without being a recommendation for every context.
3. If the word is sufficiently integrated, attach Romanian morphology in the form shown by the dictionary: bodyul (the bodysuit) and bodyuri (bodysuits) are written as one word.
4. If the source ending is difficult to integrate, the spelling and pronunciation do not match, or the item is an abbreviation or multiword expression, keep the Romanian ending after a hyphen when DOOM3 records that pattern: show-uri (shows), CD-uri (CDs), and fake news-uri (fake news items).

When do Romanian endings attach without a hyphen?

Attach the definite ending -ul or the neuter plural ending -uri without a hyphen when the loan's final letters function as an ordinary written ending in Romanian, including y pronounced as Romanian i in the examples below.

These examples do not create a productive rule for every new loan. The final letter, its pronunciation in Romanian, the word's grammatical behavior, and the dictionary entry all matter. Do not replace a listed form with an English plural just because the source language uses one.

When does a borrowed word keep a hyphen?

A hyphen commonly separates -ul or -uri from a foreign-looking final spelling when the ending is hard to pronounce or integrate, when the written ending differs from its pronunciation, or when the base is a short form or a multiword source expression.

What happens to capitalization and Romanian diacritics?

Common nouns used in Romanian are normally lowercase, whether they are old loans or recent foreign words: fairplay, kitsch, and fake news. Foreign proper names keep their established source capitalization and spelling, as in Müller, Washington, and New York; each is explicitly a foreign name, not a Romanian common noun. Romanian words and adapted forms still require Romanian diacritics such as ă, â, î, ș, and ț wherever the standard spelling calls for them.

• Keep the source spelling of an unadapted name: write Müller, not a guessed Romanian replacement. A legal or established personal name can preserve a spelling that does not follow the general spelling of Romanian common nouns.
• Do not capitalize an ordinary loan just because it came from another language: write un gest de fairplay (an act of fair play), not a capitalized common noun.
• Do not remove Romanian diacritics from the surrounding Romanian text or from an adapted loan. The foreign origin of a word is not a reason to omit ă, â, î, ș, or ț from its Romanian form.
• Do not automatically Romanianize every foreign source form. If a name, title, quotation, or source expression is intentionally presented in the original spelling, mark that status and preserve it.

What does inclusion in DOOM3 tell you about register?

DOOM3 records current spelling, pronunciation, morphology, and some usage restrictions; its inclusion of a foreign word does not mean that the word is the best choice in every text. A recent loan may be familiar in technology, business, media, or conversation while a Romanian equivalent remains clearer in a formal or general-audience text. Treat register as a choice of audience and context, not as a simple opposition between correct and incorrect.

Mistakes to avoid

• For the current DOOM3 pattern, write bodyul and bodyuri, not body-ul and body-uri.
• Write hobbyuri and sprayuri with attached plurals; do not copy the tempting forms hobby-uri and spray-uri.
• Write show-uri, kitsch-uri, and fake news-uri with the recorded hyphens; do not assume that every loan takes a bare -uri ending.
• Keep Müller, Washington, and New York as foreign proper-name forms when that is the intended name; do not lowercase or respell them by guesswork.
• When a new loan is absent from your memory or has competing forms, check DOOM3 instead of inventing a plural, article, pronunciation, or register label.