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, -ã whereas feminine singular nouns generally ends in -ã, -e or -þiune (-þie) , -siune/-ziune, -are/-ere/-ire.
Masculine | Neuter | Feminine |
|
|
|
There are, also, some nouns ending
in -i and
some exceptions.
Plural of the Nouns (Plural Substantivelor)
Terminations | Plural | Examples |
---|---|---|
|
|
profesor teacher
: profesori teachers |
Feminine ending in -ã Feminine ending in -e |
+ e (and vowel-consonant change) + i (and vowel-consonant change) |
profesoarã
teacher
(f.) : profesoare teacher |
noapte night : nopþi nights | ||
Neuter
|
+ e (and vowel-consonant change) + uri |
centru center,middle
: centre centers |
sens meaning : sensuri meanings |
|
|
|
|
|
floare flower (f.) : flori flowerss |
|
|
frate brother : fraþi brothers |
-s- |
-º- |
produs product : produºi products |
-st- |
-ºt- |
artist artist (m.) : artiºti artists |
|
|
|
|
|
pasaport passport (n.) : pasapoarte passports |
|
|
fatã girl (f.) : fete girls |
|
|
cuvînt word (n.) : cuvinte words |
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 |
|
Neuter
|
|
|
Fem. |
|
||
Nom/Acc. | |
domn
|
centru,
sens |
|
|
lupi
|
fete |
centre, sensuri
|
Dat/Gen. | |
|
||||||
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 |
|
|
|
Fem. / Neut. |
Nom/Acc. | |
|
niste
lupi |
niste
fete, niste sensuri |
Dat/Gen. | |
|
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 |
|
|
|
Fem. / Neut. |
Nom/Acc. | |
|
-i |
-le |
Dat/Gen. | |
|
-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 |
|
|
|
Fem. / Neut. |
Nom/Acc. | |
|
lupii
|
fetele,
sensurile |
Dat/Gen. | |
|
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