Noun (Substantivul)

 
Rumanian is the only modern romance language which retains a casual declension. Generally this declension appears on definite and indefinite articles; only sometimes it appears directly on nouns and adjectives.

However, since the definite article is generally joined to nouns or adjectives, these often seem to be inflected.


Gender of the nouns (Genul substantivelor)

Rumanian nouns can be masculine, feminine, or neuter and distinguish singular and plural forms.

Masculine and neuter singular form ends in consonant, -u, -e, whereas feminine singular nouns generally ends in , -e or -þiune (-þie) , -siune/-ziune, -are/-ere/-ire.
Masculine Neuter Feminine
  • iubit boyfriend 
  • copil young boy 
  • om man
  • profesor professor
  • litru liter
  • unchiu oncle
  • frate brother
  • rege king
  • tatã father, daddy
  • negoþ commerce, trade
  • steag flag
  • cânt song
  • caiet exercisebook
  • sens meaning
  • ou egg
  • orgoliu pride
  • nume name
  • sânge blood
  • iubitã girlfriend
  • copilã young girl 
  • femeie woman
  • floare flower
  • naþiune nation
  • producþie production
  • televiziune television
  • distrugere destruction
  • convertire conversion

There are, also, some nouns ending in -i and some exceptions.
 
 
Plural of the Nouns (Plural Substantivelor)
 
Terminations Plural Examples
Masculine
+ i (and vowel-consonant change)

profesor teacher : profesori teachers
lup wolf : lupi wolves

unchiu uncle : unchi uncles
frate brother : fraþi brothers

Feminine ending in -ã

Feminine ending in -e

+ e (and vowel-consonant change)

+ i (and vowel-consonant change)

profesoarã teacher (f.) : profesoare teacher
fatã girl : fete girls

noapte night : nopþi nights
Neuter

+ e (and vowel-consonant change)

+ uri

centru center,middle : centre centers
verb verb : verbe verbs
cuvînt word : cuvinte words

sens meaning : sensuri meanings
 
 
Orthographic Particularities:
 
Ending in Singular
When an -i is added
Examples
-oa- , -ea-
-o-, -e-
floare flower (f.) : flori flowerss
-t , -d
-þ , -z
frate brother : fraþi brothers
-s-
-º-
produs product : produºi products
-st-
-ºt-
artist artist (m.) : artiºti artists
Ending in Singular
When -e is added
Examples
-o- , -e-
-oa-, -ea-
pasaport passport (n.) : pasapoarte passports
-a-
-e-
fatã girl (f.) : fete girls
-î-
-i-
cuvînt word (n.) : cuvinte words
 
 
Particularities:
 
Some words have irregular plurals such as:

 
Declension of the Nouns (Declinarea Substantivelor)
   
Rumanian has a declension with 3 genders, 2 numbers and 3 cases: Nominative/Accusative, Dative/Genitive, Vocative.

As we have already said, the rumanian declension appears directly only on some nouns because it generally affects the determiners (i.e.: articles, pronouns...)

Nouns who are directly inflected are: feminine nouns (nom/acc/voc. sg. and dat/gen. sg. = nom/dat/gen. plur.) some masculine nouns (vocative. sg. in -e) and feminine nouns in -a (vocative sg in -o).

Look at the following nouns without articles (lup wolf, fatã girl, Maria Mary , sens meaning, centru center) :

Singular
Plural
Case
Masc.
Neuter
Fem.
Masc.
Fem.
Neuter
Nom/Acc.
lup
domn
centru, sens
fatã
Maria
lupi
fete
centre, sensuri
Dat/Gen.
fete
Mariei
Voc.
doamne!
fatã
Mario!

As you can see, most of the masc. nouns have only one form in the singular (lup) and one form in the plural (lupi), while feminine nouns always have the dative-genitive singular corresponding to the general plural form (fete)

However, nouns generally appear together with determiners (i.e.: articles) with which they agree in number, gender and case.

You will, also, see that neuter nouns behave like masculine ones in the singular and like feminine ones in the plural.

The declension of determiners is richer than that of nouns. Here you have the declension of the indefinite article which precedes the noun. (in this case the vocative is a nonsense, so it doesn't exist)

Singular
Plural
Case
Masc. / Neut.
Feminine
Masculine
Fem. / Neut.
Nom/Acc.
un lup, un sens
o fatã
niste lupi
niste fete, niste sensuri
Dat/Gen.
unui lup, unui sens
unei fete
unor lupi
unor fete, unor sensuri

Remember that , while the indefinite article behaves as in the other romance languages, the definite article is added at the end of the noun (i.e. it is enclitic).

Singular
Plural
Case
Masc. / Neut.
Feminine
Masculine
Fem. / Neut.
Nom/Acc.
-(u)l , -le
-a
-i
-le
Dat/Gen.
-(u)lui
-(e)i
-lor
Voc.
-(u)le
--

So, if you join the noun and the article you will have the following schema (the article is in italic):

Singular
Plural
Case
Masc. / Neut.
Feminine
Masculine
Fem. / Neut.
Nom/Acc.
lupul, sensul
fata
lupii
fetele, sensurile
Dat/Gen.
lupului, sensului
fetei
lupilor
fetelor, sensurilor
Voc.
lupule
--

Notes: The masculine/neuter nominative def. article -le is used with nouns ending in -e, so that:

The femine nominative def. article -a is merged with the noun ending -ã, so that:

Generally adjective follows the noun (and agree with it) and don't take any enclitic article; however if the adjective precedes the noun than it is the adjective that takes the definite enclitic article:

Remember that in rumanian the genitive case is directly assigned by the definite enclitic article, e.g.:

But, if the noun has another determiner (e.g. and indefinite article), then you need a special analytic construction with al,a,ai,ale...
These particles agree in gender and number with the owned thing, not with the owner!



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Zdravko Batzarov