Most languages in Eastern Europe - like Polish, Russian, Ukrainian and Bulgarian - belong to a family called 'Slavic'. But Romanian belongs to a different family called 'Romance' - the family of languages that grew out of Latin, the language spoken by the ancient Romans 2,000 years ago. French, Spanish, Italian and Portuguese are all in the same family.
That happened because Romania, long ago, was part of the Roman Empire. Roman soldiers, builders and farmers moved into the area and brought their Latin with them. Over hundreds of years, that Latin slowly changed into Romanian. The country's name literally means 'land of the Romans'.
If you compare words across the family, you can spot the cousins. The word for 'water' is aqua in Latin, agua in Spanish, eau in French - and apă in Romanian. The word for 'good' is buenas in Spanish, bonjour in French, bună in Romanian. Once you spot the pattern, it's a bit like a code.
To say hello in Romanian, you can say 'Bună!' (BOO-nuh) for a friendly hi, or 'Bună ziua!' (BOO-nuh ZEE-wah) for a polite 'good day'. To say thank you: 'Mulțumesc!' (mool-tsoo-MESK). To say goodbye: 'La revedere!' (lah reh-veh-DEH-reh).
