Romanian nouns

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Contents 1 Nouns 1.1 Case 1.2 Gender and Number 1.3 Articles 1.4 Declension

Nouns

Case

Unlike all other modern Romance languages, Romanian features case marked on the noun. There are five cases in Romanian: nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, and vocative.

Gender and Number

There are three genders in Romanian: masculine, feminine, and neuter. There are two numbers, singular and plural. Each gender has singular and plural forms.

A note about the neuter and number: the Romanian neuter is in form identical to the masculine in the singular, but the feminine in the plural. (See below)

Articles

Romanian has both indefinite and definite articles. These articles are gender-specific, and decline for case and number.

The indefinite article (a, an in English) declines thus: <p>

		Singular	Plural
Nominative	masc. fem. neut.	un o un	unii/nişte unei/nişte unei/nişte
Accusative	masc. fem. neut.	un o un	unii/nişte unei/nişte unei/nişte
Genitive	masc. fem. neut.	unui unei unui	unor unor unor
Dative	masc. fem. neut.	(a) unui (a) unei (a) unui	(a) unor (a) unor (a) unor

There are no indefinite vocative forms <p> The definite article (the in English) is a suffix that forms part of the noun declension. There is variation in what forms the article will be: <p>

		Singular	Plural
Nominative	masc. fem. neut.	-(u)l, -le -a, -ua -(u)l, -le	-i -le -le
Accusative	masc. fem. neut.	-(u)l, -le -a, -ua -(u)l, -le	-i -le -le
Genitive	masc. fem. neut.	-(u)lui -ei -(u)lui	-ilor -lelor -lelor
Dative	masc. fem. neut.	(a) -(u)lui (a) -ei (a) -(u)lui	(a) -ilor (a) -lelor (a) -lelor

<p> As you can tell, the nominative and accusative share one set of endings, while the genitive and dative share another set. In further tables, these will be marked "N/A" and "G/D". <p> The vocative is covered below. <p>

Declension

<p> There are varying declensions in Romanian, depending on both gender and the ending a noun has. Listed below are the more common declensions: <p>

		Masculine
		Indefinite		Definite
		Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
N/A	cons. vowel	un bărbat (man) un frate (brother) un prieten (friend)(1)	(nişte) bărbaţi (nişte) frăţi (nişte) prieteni	bărbatul fratele prietenul	bărbaţii frăţii prietenii
G/D	cons. vowel	unui bărbat unui frate unui prieten	(unor) bărbaţi (unor) frăţi (unor) prieteni	bărbatului fratelui prietenului	bărbaţilor frăţilor prietenilor
V	cons. vowel	-	-	bărbatule! fratele! prietene!	bărbaţii! frăţii! prieteni!
		Feminine
		Indefinite		Definite
		Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
N/A	unst. vowel str. vowel	o casă (house) o basma (handkerchief)	(nişte) case (nişte) basmale	casa basmaua	casele basmalele
G/D	unst. vowel str. vowel	unei casă unei basma	(unor) case (unor) basmale	casei basmale	caselor basmalelor
V	unst. vowel str. vowel	-	-	caso! basma!	casele! basmalele!
		Neuter
		Indefinite		Definite
		Singular	Plural	Singular	Plural
N/A		un timp (time) un hotel (hotel)	(nişte) timpi (nişte) hoteluri	timpul hotelul	timpile hotelurile
G/D	cons. vowel	unui timp unui hotel	(unor) timpi (unor) hoteluri	timpului hotelului	timpilor hotelurilor
V	cons. vowel	-	-	timpule! hotelule!	timpilor! hotelurilor!

(1) declensions on this prieten were provided by a student of Romanian and not a native/fluent speaker - await approval of a native or more advanced speaker