Romanian/Lesson 2

GENUL / The Gender

Romanian nouns are divided into three genders (genuri). They are masculine (m.), feminine (f.), neuter (n.).

Romanian pronouns and articles are only masculine and feminine. When needed for neuter nouns, they use the masculine singular form and feminine plural form.

PRONUMELE / The Pronoun

Pronumele Personale / Personal Pronouns

In Romanian there isn't a neuter pronoun for inanimate things. Either el or ea is used, depending on the gender of the noun.
Ei is used when at least one of the beings referred is masculine. Use ele only when all beings referred to are feminine and/or neutre.

Pronumele de politeţe / Polite pronouns

Remember when writing to capitalise Dumneavoastră. This pronoun always demands its verb to be at the 2^nd person plural form. The singular form of the verb may be perceived as disrespectful, even rude.

Colloquial

• dumneata / mata / matale - you (sg.)
  

These pronouns don't require the verb to be at the plural form, though this is considered more respectul. The pronouns themselves are more polite than tu, but less polite than Dumneavoastră.

ARTICOLUL / The Article

Articolul nehotărât / The Indefinite Article

The indefinite article in Romanian precedes the noun.

Because neuter nouns function as masculine in the singular and feminine in the plural, they take the indefinite article "un/unui."

Male

• un copil (m., a child)
• nişte copii (m., some children)
• un bărbat (m., a man)
• nişte bărbaţi (m., some men)

Neuter

• un tablou (n., a painting)
• nişte tablouri (n., some paintings)
• un tatuaj (n., a tattoo)
• nişte tatuaje (n., some tattoos)

Feminine

• o casă (f., a house)
• nişte case (f., some houses)
• o femeie (f., a woman)
• nişte femei (f,. some women)

Feminine nouns take their plural forms in the singular genitive/dative case.

• casa unui bărbat (a man's house)
• casa unei femei (a woman's house)
• casa unor bărbaţi (some men's houses)
• casa unor femei (some women's houses)

Articolul hotărât / The Definite Article

The definite article in Romanian is enclitic (it is attached to the end of the noun).

For masculine and neuter nouns, the article is simply added to the end of the word. Note that in everyday speech, the 'l' is often left unpronounced. For instance, bărbatul (the man) would be pronounced bărbatu.

For feminine nouns, the last letter changes to a. In the genitive, "i" is added to the plural form of the noun.

• Singular, m. & n.: +l (the). The article has a u (called prosthetic) between it and the noun.
  • bărbat (m., man) - bărbatul
  • savant (m. scholar) - savantul
  • tablou (n., painting) - tabloul
• Singular, m. & n., ended in e: +le (the).
  • câine (m., dog) - câinele
• Singular, .f: -a (the).
  • femeie (woman) - femeia
  • portocală (orange, the fruit) - portocala

• Plural, m.: +i to the indefinite plural form
  • bărbaţi (men) - bărbaţii
• Plural, f. & n.: +le to the indefinite plural form
  • femei (f., women) - femeile
  • portocale (f., oranges) - portocalele
  • tablouri (n., paintings) - tablourile

SUBSTANTIVUL / The Noun

Genul / The Gender

Romanian nouns are divided into three genders (genuri). They are masculine (m.), feminine (f.), neuter (n.).

Numărul / The Number

The nouns of neutre gender may bear a masculine article in their singular form and a feminine article in their plural one.

Singularul / The Singular

Masculine singular nouns and neuter singular nouns generally end in:

• a consonant: om (m., man), copac (m., tree)
• -u: ou (n., egg)
• -e: rege (m., king)
• -ă: tată (m., father)

Feminine singular nouns generally end in:

• -ă: copilă ([little] girl)
• -e: femeie (woman)
• -are: floare (flower)
• -ere: distrugere (destruction)
• -ire: convertire (conversion)
• -siune: sesiune (session)
• -ţie: producţie (production)
• -ţiune: naţiune (nation)
• -ziune: televiziune (television)

Pluralul / The Plural

Masculine plural:

• ending in vowel change ending to i:
  • câine (dog) -> câini
• ending in consonant: +i:
  • nor (cloud) -> nori
  • poliţist (policeman) -> poliţişti

Feminine plural:

• ending in -ă change ending to -e
  • copilă ([little] girl) -> copile
  • fată (girl) -> fete
  • fereastră (window) -> ferestre
  • profesoară (female teacher) -> profesoare
• ending in -ă change ending to -i
  • uşă (door) -> uşi
  • maşină (car) -> maşini
  • stradă (street) -> străzi
  • bancă (bank) -> bănci
• ending in -e: change ending to -i
  • carte (book) -> cărţi
  • clădire (building) -> clădiri
  • femeie (woman) -> femei
  • noapte (night) -> nopţi
  • pasăre (bird) -> păsări

Neuter plural:

• +e:
  • calculator (computer) -> calculatoare
  • creion (crayon) -> creioane
  • oraş (town, city) -> oraşe
  • scaun (chair) -> scaune
  • telefon (phone) -> telefoane
  • televizor (TV set) -> televizoare
  • ziar (newspaper) -> ziare
  • verb (verb) -> verbe
• +uri:
  • radio (radio station, radio receiver) -> radiouri
  • sens (meaning) -> sensuri
  • tren (train) -> trenuri
  • zid (wall) -> ziduri

Orthographic changes

• -ea- add +i >>>> -e-
• -oa- add +i >>>> -o-
• -d add +i >>>> -z
• -t add +i >>>> -ţ
• -s- add +i >>>> -ş-
• -st- add +i >>>> -şt-

• -a- add +e >>>> -e-
• -e- add +e >>>> -ea-
• -o- add +e >>>> -oa-
• -î- add +e >>>> -i-