Romanian Translation

Romanian is a Romance language surrounded by Slavic ones, and its alphabet overlaps with Turkish at an unexpected point: both have a letter that looks like ş, and they are not the same character.

4 min readLast updated 1 September 2026

Short answer

Romania is a party to the Hague Apostille Convention, so the certification chain is straightforward. What needs technical care is name spelling: Romanian ș and ț are different Unicode characters from Turkish ş and ţ and do not match in electronic records.

Language family: Romance; descended from Latin
Alphabet: Latin, with five special letters: ă â î ș ț
Apostille: Romania and Türkiye are both parties
Technical trap: The ș / ş character confusion

Comma below or cedilla?

Two letters in the Romanian alphabet carry a comma below: ș and ț. The Turkish ş, and the ţ used in older Romanian keyboard layouts, carry a cedilla instead. To the eye they look almost identical; to a computer they are entirely different characters.

Alike to the eye, different as characters
Letter	Correct Romanian	Common error	Difference
s	ș	ş	Comma below versus cedilla
t	ț	ţ	Comma below versus cedilla
a	ă	a	Breve dropped
a	â	a	Circumflex dropped
i	î	i	Circumflex dropped

Alike to the eye, different as characters

In practice passports simplify these letters: Șerban becomes SERBAN, Ionuț becomes IONUT. That simplified spelling governs in official procedures; the accented form appears in the translation as information.

A Romance language surrounded by Slavic ones

Romanian descends from Latin and is related to Italian and Spanish. Its geography, however, has left a marked Slavic layer in its vocabulary, and its grammar has features the neighbouring Romance languages lack: nouns decline, and the definite article attaches to the end of the word.

Where it departs from other Romance languages
Feature	Romanian	Italian / Spanish
Definite article	Suffixed: omul	Preposed: l'uomo, el hombre
Noun declension	Yes (nominative, genitive, dative)	No
Neuter gender	Yes	No
Slavic vocabulary	Marked	Almost none

Where it departs from other Romance languages

The consequence for translation is that someone who knows Italian or Spanish can partly decipher a Romanian document but will stall in a legal text, because the case endings and the suffixed article determine who is doing what to whom. Partial comprehension is not reliable on an official document.

Romanian documents and how we render them

Frequently seen documents
Document	What it is	Our approach
Certificat de naștere	Birth certificate	Its scope differs from a Turkish civil registry extract
Carte de identitate	Identity card	The CNP (personal numeric code) field is stated separately
Cazier judiciar	Criminal record certificate	Its validity is limited in time, so the date is highlighted
Diplomă de bacalaureat	School-leaving and university entrance qualification	Both functions are set out
Foaie matricolă	Academic transcript	Grades run 1 to 10; the scale is stated
Adeverință	An official letter issued by an institution	What it attests is explained in the heading

Frequently seen documents

The CNP row deserves attention: the personal numeric code on a Romanian identity card encodes date of birth, sex and place of birth. The number is carried across as it stands; decoding and interpreting it is not the translator's job.

Grades run from 1 to 10

Romanian grades run from 1 to 10, with 10 the highest and 5 usually the pass mark. This can be confused with the Turkish scale out of 100: a Turkish institution seeing an 8 on a transcript may take it for a low mark.

the highest mark in Romania: 10the highest mark in Romania
the usual pass mark: 5the usual pass mark
added to the Latin alphabet: ă â î ș ț: 5 lettersadded to the Latin alphabet: ă â î ș ț

We do not convert grades in translation; the source value is carried across and the scale stated. If your transcript carries no explanation of the scale, ask your university for a written statement of its grading system.

Frequently asked questions

Can the ș in my name be written as ş in Turkish records?

They look the same but are different characters and do not match electronically. For official purposes the simplified spelling in your passport (S) governs. The translation shows the original Romanian form as well, so the institution does not read the difference as an inconsistency.

Is an apostille enough for a document going to Romania?

Yes. Romania is a party to the Hague Apostille Convention, so sworn translation, notarisation and an apostille are valid. Because Romania has its own system of sworn translators, we suggest asking the receiving institution whether a translation issued in Türkiye is accepted.

Is an 8 on my transcript a low grade?

No. The Romanian scale runs 1 to 10, and 8 is a good mark. A Turkish institution reading it against a scale of 100 will assess it wrongly. That is why we state the scale explicitly and suggest obtaining a grading statement from your university.

Can a translator who knows Italian handle my Romanian document?

Not for an official procedure. A sworn translation requires an oath record for Romanian. And although the languages are related, Romanian's case system and suffixed article are not unlocked by a knowledge of Italian.