Appendix:Romanian nouns
Romanian nouns come in three genders, two numbers and (technically) 5 cases.
- Genders
- Masculine
- Feminine
- Neuter
- Numbers
- Singular
- Plural
- Cases
- Nominative/Accusatve
- Genitive/Dative
- Vocative
Gender
editMasculine
editFeminine
editNeuter
editNeuter nouns are slightly peculiar in that there is no set of words (articles, adjectives, etc.) designated to their use. Instead, they use masculine words in the singular and feminine words in the plural.
singular | plural | |
---|---|---|
m | un bărbat frumos a beautiful man |
doi bărbați frumoși two beautiful men |
n | un lucru frumos a beautiful thing |
două lucruri frumoase two beautiful things |
f | o femeie frumoasă a beautiful woman |
două femei frumoase two beautiful women |
Number
editPlurals in Romanian end in -i, -uri or -e. See individual genders' declension appendices for more details.
Article
editAlthough a separate part of speech, the article must be mentioned in any description of nouns due to the fact that the definite article is not, itself, a separate word in Romanian.
Indefinite
editindefinite article forms | singular | plural | |
---|---|---|---|
m, n | f | ||
nom/acc | un | o | niște |
gen/dat | unui | unei | unor |
The indefinite article has 6 forms total: 3 nominative/accusative forms and 3 genitive dative forms. Each case has 2 singular forms (one for masculine/neuter and one for feminine) and one form for all plurals.
Definite
editThe definite article in Romanian is enclitic, meaning that it is attached to the end of the word.
definite clitics | singular | plural | ||
---|---|---|---|---|
m / n | f | m | f / n | |
nom/acc | -l (or -le) | -a | -i | -le |
gen/dat | -lui | -ei (or -ii) | -lor | -lor |
Case
editNominative/Accusative
editNominative
editThe nominative case corresponds to the subject of the sentence in English.
Accusative
editThe accusative case corresponds partly to English's objective case. It marks the direct object of a verb, rather than the indirect object (which is handled by the dative case).
Genitive/Dative
editA peculiarity in this case is that feminine singular nouns take their plural forms.
masculine | feminine | ||||
---|---|---|---|---|---|
nom/acc | gen/dat | nom/acc | gen/dat | ||
singular | indefinite | un bărbat | unui bărbat | o femeie | unei femei |
definite | bărbatul | bărbatului | femeia | femeii | |
plural | indefinite | niște bărbați | unor bărbați | niște femei | unor femei |
definite | bărbații | bărbaților | femeile | femeilor |
Genitive
editThe genitive case indicates possession.
- cartea băiatului ― the boy's book
- numele fratelui meu ― my brother's name
- numele surorii mele ― my sister's name
- numele surorilor mele ― my sisters' names
Dative
editThe dative case corresponds partly to English's objective case. It marks the indirect object of a verb, rather than the direct object (which is handled by the accusative case.)
Vocative
editThe vocative does not correspond to a particular case in English. It is used when addressing someone. It is not incredibly common and can be replaced by the nominative form in most cases.