Learn Romanian › rău
rău
bad /ˈrəw/
adjective#76 most common
Also: evil, wicked, harm (as a noun)
Example sentences
El este rău.
He is bad.
Câinele nostru nu e rău, doar e mare.
Our dog isn't mean, it's just big.
Vremea a fost foarte rea în acest weekend.
The weather was very bad this weekend.
Mă doare rău capul de dimineață.
My head has been hurting badly since morning.
Nu vreau să-i fac rău nimănui, oricât m-ar supăra.
I don't want to harm anyone, no matter how much they upset me.
Filozofii se întreabă de secole dacă răul există de sine stătător sau doar ca absență a binelui.
Philosophers have wondered for centuries whether evil exists on its own or only as the absence of good.
Declension
| Case | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | rău (m) / rea (f) | răi (m) / rele (f) |
| Genitive | rău (m) / rele (f) | răi (m) / rele (f) |
| Accusative | rău (m) / rea (f) | răi (m) / rele (f) |
| Vocative | None | None |
Word family
răutatewickedness, meanness
răutăciosmean-spirited, spiteful
înrăito turn bad, to embitter
răuvoitormalicious, ill-wishing
a-i părea răuto be sorry (literally: to seem bad to someone)
Etymology
Rău comes from Latin reus, which meant a defendant or the guilty party in a lawsuit. Over centuries the sense drifted from a legal term for guilt to a general word for bad or evil. This is unusual among Romance languages, which mostly built their word for bad from Latin malus (French mauvais, Italian and Spanish malo). Romanian kept reus for this purpose while other Romance tongues repurposed malus instead.
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