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, -ă whereas feminine singular nouns generally ends in -ă, -e or -ţiune (-ţie) , -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 tată father, daddy	negoţ commerce, trade steag flag cânt song caiet exercisebook sens meaning ou egg orgoliu pride nume name sânge blood	iubită girlfriend copilă young girl  femeie woman floare flower naţiune nation producţie 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 : fraţi brothers
Feminine ending in -ă Feminine ending in -e	+ e (and vowel-consonant change) + i (and vowel-consonant change)	profesoară teacher (f.) : profesoare teacher fată girl : fete girls
		noapte night : nopţi 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	-ţ , -z	frate brother : fraţi brothers
-s-	-ş-	produs product : produşi products
-st-	-şt-	artist artist (m.) : artişti artists
Ending in Singular	When -e is added	Examples
-o- , -e-	-oa-, -ea-	pasaport passport (n.) : pasapoarte passports
-a-	-e-	fată girl (f.) : fete girls
-î-	-i-	cuvînt word (n.) : cuvinte words

 
 
Particularities:
 
Some words have irregular plurals such as:

• ou egg : ouă
• copil young boy : copii
• cal hors : cai

 
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, fată girl, Maria Mary , sens meaning, centru center) :

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)

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).

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

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

• you say lupul the wolf and sensul the meaning
• but fratele the brother and numele the name

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

• you join unire + -a union + the and say unirea the union
• but fată + -a girl + the gives fata the girl

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:

• omul bun = bunul om the good man
• omului bun = bunului om to/of the good man
• omule bun! = bunule om! oh good man!
• omamenii buni = bunii oameni the good men
• omamenilor buni = bunilor oameni to/of the good men ; oh good men!
• fata bună = buna fată the good girl
• fată bună = bună fată oh good girl!
• fetei bune = bunei fete to/of the good girl
• fetele bune = bunele fete the good girls
• fetelor bune = bunelor fete to/of the good girls ; oh good girls!

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

• declinarea substantivelor the declension of the nouns
• prietenul fetei the friend of the girl (i.e. the girl's friend)
• casa fetei the house of the girl (i.e. the girl's house)

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!

• un prieten al fetei a friend (m.sg.) of (m.sg.) the girl (i.e. a friend of the girl's)
• o casă a fetei a house (f.sg.) of (f.sg.) the girl
• aceşti prieteni ai fetei these friends (m.pl.) of (m.pl.) the girl
• aceste case ale fetei these houses (f.pl.) of (f.pl.) the girl