
Translation · Romanian
Romanian translation services
Audiovisual translation is our specialisation, but our native Romanian translators also handle any text — corporate documents, technical and marketing material, articles and eLearning. Romanian has two characters that look almost identical to the wrong ones, and we check them before anything leaves.
EN · 00:05
There are many files.
RO · 00:05
Sunt multe fișiere.
About Romanian translation
Romanian has two characters that look right and are wrong, and nothing normalises them together
Romanian uses ș and ț written with a comma below — U+0219 and U+021B. There is a second pair, ş and ţ, that looks almost the same at reading size and is not the same thing: those carry a cedilla, U+015F and U+0163, and the Unicode Standard identifies them as the Turkish characters. The Romanian Academy's own orthographic dictionary calls the correct mark the *virgulița* and distinguishes it explicitly from the cedilla the language used to be written with.
Two things make this a delivery problem rather than a curiosity. First, no Unicode normalisation form merges them: U+0219 decomposes to s plus a comma, U+015F to s plus a cedilla, so a search for *mulți* does not find *mulţi*, translation-memory matches fall through, duplicates go undetected and the spellchecker flags correct words. Second, it fails silently: many fonts draw the cedilla as a comma when the text is tagged as Romanian, so the file looks correct on screen while being wrong inside.
It is also a contractual requirement in places. Netflix's Romanian style guide states it directly: use the comma diacritics, do not use cedillas. At GoLocalise the character set is checked on what arrives and on what we send, and every text is reviewed by a second native linguist before delivery.

How can we help you?
Your project manager has everything covered
One point of contact from brief to delivery, and a second linguist on every text before it reaches you.
Brief review
We review your source material and your audience, and agree up front the decisions this language forces before anyone starts translating.
Linguist assignment
Your project goes to a native Romanian translator with experience in your sector, working on files whose character set has been checked before the first line is touched.
Translation and review
The text is translated and then checked by a second native linguist for accuracy, consistency, and register.
Delivery and character check
Files arrive in the format you need, and a check on the outgoing files confirms every ș and ț is the comma-below character rather than the cedilla lookalike.
Regional varieties
Romania, Moldova and the Romanian-speaking market
Romanian was given as the mother tongue of 15,153,198 people in Romania at the 2021 census (INS), out of 19 million residents. It is also the state language of the Republic of Moldova — that is its legal name there since 2023 — and an official language of the European Union.
Standard Romanian covers all commercial, corporate and broadcast work, and it is what we use unless your project says otherwise. The variety question in Romanian is much smaller than the character-set question: a text can be perfectly idiomatic and still be unusable because the diacritics are the wrong codepoints.
Varieties we cover
- Standard Romanian
- Comma-below diacritics
- Moldova on request
Areas of expertise
What we specialise in
From corporate video and eLearning to documentary, advertising and subtitles — always audiovisual, delivered with a character set that survives search, spellcheck and your translation memory.
Corporate and brand video
Company films and internal communications, written to fit the shot rather than overflow it.
eLearning and training video
Course modules and training films, with terminology kept consistent across the programme.
Documentary and interviews
Factual programming and interviews, where the register shifts between speakers and has to survive the move.
Advertising and social video
Campaigns and short-form video, cut to land inside the time available.
Subtitles and captions
Frame-accurate subtitles kept within a comfortable reading speed.
Voice over and dubbing scripts
Scripts timed to the original, ready for a native voice in the booth.
Built for video and audio
Getting Romanian right on screen
Romanian brings a problem that looks like typography and behaves like data, and the only cheap moment to catch it is before the material is burnt in or indexed.
The comma characters are the correct ones, and they are checkable
Romanian ș and ț are U+0219 and U+021B. The cedilla pair, U+015F and U+0163, is a different set of characters that the Unicode Standard identifies as Turkish. It is not a matter of taste and it does not need a linguist to verify — it needs someone to actually look.
No normalisation makes them equal
Search, spellcheck, deduplication and translation-memory matching all treat the two pairs as different text. Mixed files quietly lose TM leverage and return incomplete search results, which is usually how the problem is noticed months later.
It fails silently, which is why it survives review
Many fonts substitute the comma glyph for the cedilla character when the text is tagged as Romanian. The file renders correctly and is wrong inside, so a visual proofread will not find it. We check the codepoints, not the screen.
Timed, not dumped
We deliver spotted subtitle files and two-column voice-over scripts timed to the original — never a loose document that still needs spotting.
Deliverables
How your Romanian translation arrives
Subtitle files
SRT, VTT, STL or TTML, burnt in or as separate files, ready to drop into your edit.
Character set checked on delivery
Every outgoing Romanian file is checked so that ș and ț are the comma-below characters, which is what platform style guides ask for and what your search and translation memory need.
Dual-column scripts
Source and target side by side with timecodes, the format the studio records from.
Reviewed, never single-pass
Every script is checked by a second native linguist before it reaches the studio.
Translation rates
Professional Romanian translation
For internal documents, correspondence and material where accuracy is the main requirement.
- Native subject-matter translator
- Second-linguist review
- Subtitle files or a timed script
For marketing, eLearning and technical content, with review, terminology management and layout adjustment.
- Everything in Standard
- Terminology management
- Layout and expansion handled
- Dedicated project manager
Every project is quoted individually and backed by our Price Match Promise. Send us your files for an exact, no-obligation quote.
Trusted by global brands
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Most common questions
How much does Romanian translation cost?
Romanian translation is priced per word for text and per minute for audiovisual, depending on volume, subject matter and turnaround, with the diacritic check included as part of delivery rather than billed as an extra step. Send your files and we will come back with a free, itemised quote, backed by our Price Match Promise.
Are your Romanian translations done by native linguists?
Yes. Native Romanian linguists handle every translation, and a second native linguist independently reviews each text before it reaches you, working to the orthography set by the Romanian Academy rather than to whatever convention a legacy file happened to use.
Do you provide Romanian subtitling and voice over as well?
Yes — Romanian translation, subtitling and voice over all come from one team, working to a single glossary throughout. The character-set check applies across all of it, because a subtitle file and a script that disagree on the diacritics cause the same downstream problems.
What is the difference between ș and ş?
They are different characters. The first has a comma below and is the Romanian one; the second has a cedilla and is Turkish. At reading size they look nearly identical, which is exactly why the wrong one spreads: nothing on screen tells you, and no Unicode normalisation treats them as the same text.
Does it really matter if the wrong one is used?
It matters wherever the text is processed rather than just read. Search misses words, spellcheckers flag correct spellings, duplicate detection fails and translation-memory matches drop, so you pay again for segments you already own. Some platform style guides also reject deliveries on it, which turns a typographic detail into a redelivery.
Do you deliver Romanian subtitles and voice-over scripts, not just documents?
Yes — audiovisual is our specialisation. We deliver spotted SRT/VTT and timed two-column voice-over scripts, plus translated text when you need it.
We have older Romanian files. Can you check which characters they use?
Yes, and it is worth doing before you reuse them. Material that has passed through several suppliers and several generations of software is often mixed, with both sets in the same document, and that is the version that quietly poisons a translation memory.
Is Romanian the same as Moldovan?
Romanian is the legal name of the state language of the Republic of Moldova, and has been since 2023. In practice the written standard is shared, and we handle Moldova-specific work as a variant of the same language rather than as a separate one.
How quickly can a Romanian translation project be delivered?
Most short documents are delivered within 24 to 48 hours. Word count, subject complexity and turnaround all move the date, and your project manager will confirm the timeline at the start.
What do you need from us to quote Romanian translation?
Less than people expect: the document, script or subtitle file, its word count, what the text is actually for, and the date you need it by. A draft is fine — we would rather quote on what exists than wait for a final version that eats your deadline. A named project manager comes back with an itemised quote, normally within four working hours.
How quickly will we hear back, and who will we be dealing with?
More than half of enquiries get a reply within thirty minutes during office hours (Monday to Friday, 9am to 6pm UK time), and the itemised quote normally follows within four working hours. After that you have one dedicated project manager who owns the job from brief to final file — not a ticket queue, and not a different name on every email. If it is easier, call +44 207 095 5730 and ask for them by name.
We are still pitching and the budget is not signed off. Can we still get a Romanian quote?
Yes, and it is one of the commonest reasons people get in touch. Tell us it is for a pitch and you get a figure you can put in front of your own client, itemised so it stands up to being picked apart, with no obligation and no follow-up sales calls if the pitch goes elsewhere. If it lands, the quote still holds and we already know the project.
Ready to start your Romanian translation project?
Send us your documents, script or video and we'll come back with an exact, itemised quote.
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