Romanian nouns
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Romanian nouns, under the rules of
Romanian grammar Standard Romanian (i.e. the ''Daco-Romanian'' language within Balkan Romance) shares largely the same grammar and most of the vocabulary and phonological processes with the other three surviving varieties of Balkan Romance, namely Aromanian, Me ...
, are declined, varying by
gender Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity and differentiating between them. Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles) and gender identity. Most cultures u ...
,
number A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The original examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual numbers c ...
, and
case Case or CASE may refer to: Containers * Case (goods), a package of related merchandise * Cartridge case or casing, a firearm cartridge component * Bookcase, a piece of furniture used to store books * Briefcase or attaché case, a narrow box to c ...
.


Gender

An intrinsic property of Romanian
noun A noun () is a word that generally functions as the name of a specific object or set of objects, such as living creatures, places, actions, qualities, states of existence, or ideas.Example nouns for: * Living creatures (including people, alive, d ...
s, as in all
Romance languages The Romance languages, sometimes referred to as Latin languages or Neo-Latin languages, are the various modern languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages in the Indo-European language fam ...
, is their
gender Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity and differentiating between them. Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles) and gender identity. Most cultures u ...
. However, while most Romance languages have only two genders, masculine and feminine, Romanian also has neuter gender. In Latin, the neuter is a separate gender, requiring all
determiner A determiner, also called determinative (abbreviated ), is a word, phrase, or affix that occurs together with a noun or noun phrase and generally serves to express the reference of that noun or noun phrase in the context. That is, a determiner m ...
s to have three distinct forms, such as the adjective ''bona'', ''bonus'', ''bonum'' (meaning ''good''). Comparatively, Romanian neuter is a ''combination'' of the other two genders. More specifically, in Romanian, neuter nouns behave in the singular as masculine nouns and in the plural as feminine nouns. As such, all noun determiners and all pronouns only have two possible gender-specific forms instead of three. From this perspective, it's possible to say that in Romanian there are really just two genders, masculine and feminine, and the category labeled as neuter contains nouns whose gender switches with the number. This class of neuter nouns are also known as ''eterogene'' or 'heterogenous', as ''ambigene'' meaning 'ambigenous' or 'of both kinds ,' or mixed nouns. Depending on gender, otherwise similar nouns will
inflect In linguistic morphology, inflection (or inflexion) is a process of word formation in which a word is modified to express different grammatical categories such as tense, case, voice, aspect, person, number, gender, mood, animacy, and def ...
differently. For example, the nouns "câine" (''dog'', compare Latin ''canis'') and "pâine" (''bread'', compare Latin ''panis'') have phonetically identical endings in the main form (nominative singular), but the former is a masculine noun, while the latter is feminine. For this reason, when inflected they behave in very different manners: * definite article: "câinele" (''the dog'') - "pâinea" (''the bread''); * plural, with definite article: "câinii" (''the dogs'') - "pâinile" (''the loaves of bread''); * genitive/dative: "câinelui" (''of/to the dog'') - "pâinii" (''of/to the bread''). Also, the gender of a noun determines the morphology of most determiners, such as articles, adjectives, demonstratives, numerals. The two nouns taken as examples above will give: * indefinite article: "un câine" (''a dog'') - "o pâine" (''a loaf of bread''); * adjective: "câine alb" (''white dog'') - "pâine albă" (''white bread''); * determinative demonstrative: "acest câine" (''this dog'') - "această pâine" (''this bread''); * determinative possessive pronoun: "câinele meu" (''my dog'') - "pâinea mea" (''my bread''); * cardinal numeral: "doi câini" (''two dogs'') - "două pâini" (''two loaves of bread''), etc. While in many cases assigning the correct gender may be facilitated by the noun ending or meaning, the distinction is usually difficult for those learning Romanian as a second language. For natives, the ''one-two'' test is practically infallible: Saying "un câine - doi câini" makes it clear, by the form of the determining numerals, that "câine" is masculine. When the numerals take the forms "o ... - două ..." the noun in question is feminine, and finally the forms "un ... - două ..." are indicative of a neuter noun.


Gender assignment: phonetic

The following phonetic rules can be used, to some degree, to infer the grammatical gender for nouns when these are in their nominative singular form, and without any determiner that could help in recognizing the gender. * Nouns ending in a consonant or in
vowel A vowel is a syllabic speech sound pronounced without any stricture in the vocal tract. Vowels are one of the two principal classes of speech sounds, the other being the consonant. Vowels vary in quality, in loudness and also in quantity (leng ...
or
semivowel In phonetics and phonology, a semivowel, glide or semiconsonant is a sound that is phonetically similar to a vowel sound but functions as the syllable boundary, rather than as the nucleus of a syllable. Examples of semivowels in English are the ...
u are almost always masculine or neuter: ** masculine: "om" (''man, human being''), "copil" (''child''), "bou" (''ox, bull''); ** neuter: "ac" (''needle''), "drum" (''road''), "ou" (''egg''), "lucru" (''thing, job''); ** feminine proper nouns of foreign origin or diminutives: "Carmen", "Corinuș" (diminutive from "Corina"), "Catrinel", "Lulu." * Nouns ending in ă are feminine with very few exceptions: ** feminine: "fată" (''girl''), "piatră" (''stone''), "haină" (''coat''); ** masculine: "tată" (''father''), "popă" (''priest''); * Nouns ending in ''stressed'' a (including those ending in stressed ea or ia) are feminine: ** "sofa" (''sofa''), "cafea" (''coffee''), "nuia" (''wicker''). * Nouns ending in e are generally feminine, but many masculine and a few neuter exceptions exist: ** feminine: "carte" (''book''), "femeie" (''woman''), "mare" (''sea''), "cheie" (''key''); ** masculine: "frate" (''brother''), "iepure" (''hare, rabbit''), "perete" (''wall''); ** neuter: "nume" (''name''). * Nouns ending in i are mostly masculine or neuter, with some feminine exceptions: ** masculine: "ochi" (''eye''), "pui" (''chicken''), "unchi" (''uncle''); ** neuter: "unghi" (''angle''), "ceai" (''tea''), "cui" (''nail''), "nai" (''Pan's pipe''); ** feminine: "zi" (''day''), "tanti" (''aunt''). These rules can be further refined when the noun is recognized as being derived from other words by use of specific endings, as follows: * Masculine nouns: ** -ist: (''chemist''), (''journalist''); ** -an, -ian: (''American''), "fizician" (''physicist''); ** -or, -tor: (''teacher, professor''), "muncitor" (''worker''); ** -ez: "englez" (''Englishman''), "chinez" (''Chinese''); ** -ar: "demnitar" (''statesman''), "fierar" (''blacksmith''); ** others: "geamgiu" (''glazier''), "paznic" (''guard''), "frizer" (''hairdresser''), "român" (''Romanian''), etc. * Neuter nouns: ** -ism: "capitalism" (''capitalism''), "arhaism" (''archaism''); ** -ment, -mânt: "amuzament" (''amusement''), "abonament" (''subscription''), "învățământ" (''education'') - but "ferment" (''ferment'') is masculine; ** -ut, -it, -at, derived from the past participle of verbs: "început" (''beginning''), "trecut" (''past''), "sfârșit" (''end''), "morărit" (''milling''), "uscat" (''land''), "oftat" (''sigh''); ** -aj: "sondaj" (''poll''), "garaj" (''garage''), "afișaj" (''display''). * Feminine nouns: ** -oare, -toare: "onoare" (''honor''), "înotătoare" (''swimmer'') - but "soare" is masculine; ** -are, -ere, -ire, -âre, derived from the long infinitive of verbs: "salvare" (''ambulance''), "plăcere" (''pleasure''), "amintire" (''recollection''), "hotărâre" (''decision''); ** -siune/tiune, abstract nouns: "emisiune" (''broadcast, TV show''), "versiune" (''version''), "dimensiune" (''dimension''), "chestiune" (''question''); ** -tate, abstract nouns: "libertate" (''liberty, freedom''), "greutate" (''difficulty''), "calitate" (''quality''), "rapiditate" (''quickness''); ** -tudine, abstract nouns: "longitudine" (''longitude''),"latitudine" (''latitude''); ** others: "bucurie" (''joy''), etc.


Gender assignment: semantic

Rules other than phonetic can be used when the meaning of the noun is known or at least its semantic group is recognized. In this category obvious examples are proper names of people, or nouns designating nationality, profession, etc. Nouns referring to animals and birds are always specific to their biological gender, and often occur in pairs the same way as we have ''cow'' and ''bull'' in English. Less obvious situations are described below. * Masculine nouns: ** most tree names: "brad" (''fir''), "stejar" (''oak''), "mesteacăn" (''birch''), but some are feminine: "salcie" (''willow''), "magnolie" (''magnolia''); ** mountains and mountain chains, often in the plural: "Carpați" (''Carpathians''), "Bucegi," "Retezat," "Făgăraș". (Because mountains are naturally referred to as, e.g., "the Carpathian mountains", and "mountain" is masculine, its gender "bleeds" to the proper noun, as if it were an adjective; it is possible to construct feminine versions of these names, though they are not used. This often happens for other notable reliefs.) ** others: months of the year, letters of the alphabet, musical notes, figures, etc. * Feminine nouns: ** names of countries and continents when they end in a: "Franța" (''France''), "Japonia" (''Japan''), "America" (''America''), otherwise they are neuter: "Mexic" (''Mexico''), "Vietnam" (''Vietnam''); ** the seasons of the year: "vară" (''summer''), "iarnă" (''winter''); ** the days of the week: "luni" (''Monday''), "duminică" (''Sunday''). (The word for ''day'' is feminine, "zi".)


Number

Like all
Indo-European languages The Indo-European languages are a language family native to the overwhelming majority of Europe, the Iranian plateau, and the northern Indian subcontinent. Some European languages of this family, English, French, Portuguese, Russian, Dutc ...
, Romanian differentiates morphologically the
singular Singular may refer to: * Singular, the grammatical number that denotes a unit quantity, as opposed to the plural and other forms * Singular homology * SINGULAR, an open source Computer Algebra System (CAS) * Singular or sounder, a group of boar, ...
and the
plural The plural (sometimes abbreviated pl., pl, or ), in many languages, is one of the values of the grammatical category of number. The plural of a noun typically denotes a quantity greater than the default quantity represented by that noun. This de ...
number A number is a mathematical object used to count, measure, and label. The original examples are the natural numbers 1, 2, 3, 4, and so forth. Numbers can be represented in language with number words. More universally, individual numbers c ...
of nouns. Within the
Romance languages The Romance languages, sometimes referred to as Latin languages or Neo-Latin languages, are the various modern languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages in the Indo-European language fam ...
, regarding the plural formation, Romanian falls in the group East from the
La Spezia–Rimini Line The La Spezia–Rimini Line (also known as the ''Massa–Senigallia Line''), in the linguistics of the Romance languages, is a line that demarcates a number of important isoglosses that distinguish Romance languages south and east of the line fr ...
together with
Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...
. As such, the plural is formed by the addition or change of the final vowel of the singular noun, very often accompanied by other vocalic and/or consonantic shifts in the noun stem, consonant deletion, and/or the interposition of other phonemes. Occasionally, the plural noun has the same form as the singular. A few nouns are defective by missing either the singular or the plural. Finally, some nouns can form the plural in several ways, depending on the meaning. To illustrate, here are just a few examples: * simple vocalic addition: "elev" - "elevi" (''school student''); * simple vocalic replacement: "mamă" - "mame" (''mother''); * vocalic shift in the stem: "măr" - "mere" (''apple''); * consonantic shift in the stem: "perete" - "pereți" (''wall''); * consonant deletion in the stem: "cal" - "cai" (''horse''); * interposition of other phonemes: "cap" - "capete" (''head''); * unchanged plural: "unchi" - "unchi" (''uncle''); * singular only: "rouă" (''dew''); * plural only: "grâne" (''grain/crops'') * multiple plural forms: "cap" - "capete" / "capi" / "capuri" (''head'' / ''leader'' / ''cape''); Most Romanian plural nouns, in their nominative non-articulated forms, end in "i" with another large category ending in "e". Only some recent borrowings make up the very few exceptions to this rule, which seems to be a very stable feature of the language. Among the old Romanian nouns the only exception is "ou" (''egg''), which makes the plural "ouă" . Morphologically, the plural is built by using one of the following four endings: -i, -uri, -e, and -(e)le. Of these, the last one used to have few representatives, such as "stea" - "stele" (''star'') and "nuia" - "nuiele" (''wicker''). Subsequent borrowings enlarged this group, in particular a series of nouns from
Turkish Turkish may refer to: *a Turkic language spoken by the Turks * of or about Turkey ** Turkish language *** Turkish alphabet ** Turkish people, a Turkic ethnic group and nation *** Turkish citizen, a citizen of Turkey *** Turkish communities and mi ...
ending in stressed "a" which were assigned to the feminine gender (although Turkish nouns do not have gender).


Plural formation

Like the gender, the plural formation is an intrinsic property of the noun, and is acquired by native speakers one by one together with the respective noun. The tables below show the plural formation modes for nouns according to their gender, in the non-articulated nominative/accusative case. The asterisk (*) indicates irregular plural formation, requiring the insertion of consonants belonging neither to the stem nor to the plural ending, the deletion of stem consonants, or some unusual vocalic shifts.


Pronunciation of plural endings

In writing, all masculine nouns and part of the feminine and neuter nouns end in letter "i" in the plural. However, this letter can correspond phonetically to either vowel , semivowel , or non-syllabic (see
Romanian phonology In the phonology of the Romanian language, the phoneme inventory consists of seven vowels, two or four semivowels (different views exist), and twenty consonants. In addition, as with other languages, other phonemes can occur occasionally in in ...
). The exact pronunciation depends on the preceding phonemes: * after a vowel, it is pronounced as semivowel , as in ** "lei" (''lions''), ** "văi" (''valleys''), ** "exerciții" (exercises); * after a consonant or consonant group, it is pronounced as non-syllabic , as in ** "frați" (''brothers''), ** "bărci" (''boats''), ** "locuri" (''places''); * after a consonant group, in nouns that require an additional syllable, it is pronounced as vowel . The need of an additional syllable is phonetic, and is indicated in the masculine singular by the presence of vowel . Examples: ** "codru" - "codri" (''forest''), ** "zimbru" - "zimbri" (''
wisent The European bison (''Bison bonasus'') or the European wood bison, also known as the wisent ( or ), the zubr (), or sometimes colloquially as the European buffalo, is a European species of bison. It is one of two extant species of bison, along ...
''), ** but "tanti" (both pl. and sg., ''aunt''). The plural ending "e" is always a vowel and does not represent a pronunciation problem. Despite many plural endings changing the number of syllables in the nouns, the word stress does not generally shift. The only exceptions are a few irregular nouns such as: "soră" - "surori" (''sister'') and, "noră" - "nurori" (''daughter-in-law'').


Case

Syntactically, Romanian nouns can be in any of five
grammatical cases A grammatical case is a category of nouns and noun modifiers ( determiners, adjectives, participles, and numerals), which corresponds to one or more potential grammatical functions for a nominal group in a wording. In various languages, nomina ...
: *
nominative In grammar, the nominative case (abbreviated ), subjective case, straight case or upright case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb or (in Latin and formal variants of Engl ...
, when the noun is the subject; *
accusative The accusative case (abbreviated ) of a noun is the grammatical case used to mark the direct object of a transitive verb. In the English language, the only words that occur in the accusative case are pronouns: 'me,' 'him,' 'her,' 'us,' and ‘the ...
, when the noun is the direct object, often also required by prepositions; *
genitive In grammar, the genitive case (abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can al ...
, when the noun shows the possessor; *
dative In grammar, the dative case (abbreviated , or sometimes when it is a core argument) is a grammatical case used in some languages to indicate the recipient or beneficiary of an action, as in "Maria Jacobo potum dedit", Latin for "Maria gave Jacob a ...
, when the noun shows the receiver of an action; *
vocative In grammar, the vocative Grammatical case, case (list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated ) is a grammatical case which is used for a noun that identifies a person (animal, object, etc.) being addressed, or occasionally for the noun modifiers ...
, when the noun shows the (usually animate) addressee of what is said. The short definitions above are only an approximate indication of the actual usage. Here are some examples with the noun "băiat" (''boy'') in the various cases: Indefinite article (a, an, some) Morphologically, the five cases are expressed by giving the nouns three different forms. The nominative and the accusative share the same form, the distinction being made from the context, word order, or by the use of particular prepositions. Similarly, the genitive and the dative share the same form, distinguished syntactically or by the presence of possession articles when the nouns are in the genitive case. The vocative is less used than the other four, because it is limited to people, animals, or other things that can be addressed. Comparatively, other
Romance languages The Romance languages, sometimes referred to as Latin languages or Neo-Latin languages, are the various modern languages that evolved from Vulgar Latin. They are the only extant subgroup of the Italic languages in the Indo-European language fam ...
, although maintaining a syntactic distinction between cases, have reduced them to a single form and replaced morphological variation with the use of specific prepositions.
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
used to have up to seven cases, the Romanian five plus the
ablative In grammar, the ablative case (pronounced ; sometimes abbreviated ) is a grammatical case for nouns, pronouns, and adjectives in the grammars of various languages; it is sometimes used to express motion away from something, among other uses. T ...
and the
locative In grammar, the locative case (abbreviated ) is a grammatical case which indicates a location. It corresponds vaguely to the English prepositions "in", "on", "at", and "by". The locative case belongs to the general local cases, together with the ...
. The case mark is always applied to the article, definite or indefinite, that determines the noun, and sometimes also to the noun itself. The indefinite article, like its English counterpart, is placed before the noun as a separate word, and has in Romanian different forms for the nominative/accusative and for the genitive/dative (the vocative cannot be determined by an indefinite article). On the other hand, the Romanian
definite article An article is any member of a class of dedicated words that are used with noun phrases to mark the identifiability of the referents of the noun phrases. The category of articles constitutes a part of speech. In English, both "the" and "a(n)" ar ...
is always appended as an ending (see
enclitic In morphology and syntax, a clitic (, backformed from Greek "leaning" or "enclitic"Crystal, David. ''A First Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics''. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1980. Print.) is a morpheme that has syntactic characteristics of a wo ...
). As the plural mark and the case mark are attached also at the end of the word, the declension becomes a complex process of combining all three endings: The definite article has special forms for the various cases and numbers, and is placed ''after'' the plural mark with possible phonetic changes to make the word easily pronounceable. The table below gives the complete paradigm of the masculine noun "bou" (''ox'').


Declension with the indefinite article

The general rule for the declension of nouns when they are accompanied by the indefinite article is that the article changes form and the noun keeps its main (nominative) form at all cases. The only exception is the singular of feminine nouns in the genitive/dative forms: they use their respective plural nominative forms in addition to inflecting the indefinite article. The tables below give a few examples. Three nouns from each gender were chosen as representatives: : masculine "pom" (''tree''), "frate" (''brother''), "tată" (''father''); : neuter "loc" (''place''), "scaun" (''chair''), "exercițiu" (''exercise''); : feminine "casă" (''house''), "floare" (''flower''), "cafea" (''coffee'').


Declension with the definite article

In the singular, in the nominative/accusative case, the definite article is -(u)l or -le for masculine and neuter nouns and (u)a for feminine nouns. When these forms are changed for the genitive/dative case, the definite article becomes -lui for masculine and neuter nouns and -i for feminine. To obtain these forms, the definite article for masculine and neuter simply affix the ending -ui after consonant l (after removing vowel e where it exists). In the case of feminine nouns, the genitive/dative is derived not from the singular but from the ''plural'' non-articulated forms, by adding a semivocalic -i at the end. In the plural, in the nominative/accusative case, the definite article is -ii for masculine nouns, and -le for neuter and feminine nouns. To put these forms into genitive/dative the masculine definite article is changed into -ilor, and the neuter and feminine definite article is changed into -lor. Nouns with definite article can also be in the vocative case. In the singular, nouns are either left in their nominative/accusative forms, or given the endings specific to gender: -le for masculine and neuter nouns, and -o for feminine nouns. The tables below show examples using the same nouns as previously. For the vocative, the square brackets are used where the respective forms can be imagined, but are not normally used. Additionally, some nouns can have two versions of vocative which can express slightly different attitudes toward the person (animal, thing, etc.) that is being addressed. For example, "iubit" (''lover'') has two vocative forms: "iubite" and "iubitule". The first sounds more direct and might be found in poems and song lyrics (''Oh, my darling!''), while the second sounds more natural in everyday life (''Honey!'') (Compare "my dear" in English which normally expresses close intimacy but is reduced to a mere formality when followed by the person's name: 'My dear Mr Smith'). The genitive/dative forms require a special mention in the case of proper nouns representing people's names. For men's names, the inflection is replaced by placing the article lui ''before'' the noun, as a separate word. * Am citit poeziile lui Eminescu de nenumărate ori. (''I've read Eminescu's poems countless times.'') * I-am dat lui Mihai prăjitura ta. (''I gave your cake to Mihai.'') The same construction is sometimes applied to women's names, but the practice is considered by
prescriptive grammar Linguistic prescription, or prescriptive grammar, is the establishment of rules defining preferred usage of language. These rules may address such linguistic aspects as spelling, pronunciation, vocabulary, syntax, and semantics. Sometimes info ...
as incorrect, with the exception of feminine proper nouns that have a masculine-like ending: * fusta Mariei / *fusta lui Maria (''Mary's skirt'') * fusta lui Carmen / *fusta Carmenei (''Carmen's skirt'') For proper nouns other than those referring to people, the genitive is constructed by inflection, like the common nouns.


Case usage

The following subsections describe the usage of each case.


Nominative

Nominative In grammar, the nominative case (abbreviated ), subjective case, straight case or upright case is one of the grammatical cases of a noun or other part of speech, which generally marks the subject of a verb or (in Latin and formal variants of Engl ...
is the case of the
subject Subject ( la, subiectus "lying beneath") may refer to: Philosophy *''Hypokeimenon'', or ''subiectum'', in metaphysics, the "internal", non-objective being of a thing **Subject (philosophy), a being that has subjective experiences, subjective cons ...
and of the predicate nominal. Here are some examples: * Subject: ** Apa trece, pietrele rămân. (''Water passes, rocks remain .'') ** Poștașul sună întotdeauna de două ori. (''The postman always rings twice.'') ** Mă doare capul. (''I have a headache.'' - lit. ''The head hurts me.'') ** Îmi plac merele. (''I like apples'' - lit. ''Apples please me.'') * Predicate nominal: ** Fotografia este o artă. (''Photography is an art.'') ** Ochii sunt oglinda sufletului. (''The eyes are the soul's mirror.'') ** Roma a devenit un imperiu. (''Rome became an empire.'')


Genitive

Genitive In grammar, the genitive case (abbreviated ) is the grammatical case that marks a word, usually a noun, as modifying another word, also usually a noun—thus indicating an attributive relationship of one noun to the other noun. A genitive can al ...
usually indicates ''possession'' or ''belonging'', but is also used to show ''origin'' and others kinds of relationship. Additionally, while most
preposition Prepositions and postpositions, together called adpositions (or broadly, in traditional grammar, simply prepositions), are a class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations (''in'', ''under'', ''towards'', ''before'') or mark various ...
s require the noun they determine to take the accusative, there are some exceptions in which the genitive (or the dative) is required. The genitive is most often used in the pattern ''noun for possessed + noun for possessor'', with the noun denoting the possessor in the genitive case, like for example "balonul copilului" means ''child's balloon'' (lit. ''the balloon of the child''). In such a construction, if the possessed ("balonul", ''the balloon'') has the definite article attached to it—the most usual situation—and the possessor ("copilului", ''of the child'') comes immediately after, no other words are necessary to express the genitival relationship. * Ochii bunicului sunt albaștri. (''Grandfather's eyes are blue.'') * Fiul vecinilor intră mereu în bucluc. (''The neighbors' son always gets into trouble.'') In any other construction involving the genitive, a
possessive article Possessive determiners (from la, possessivus, translit=; grc, κτητικός / ktētikós - en. ktetic Lallu) are determiners which express possession. Some traditional grammars of English refer to them as possessive adjectives, though they d ...
must be used, corresponding roughly to the English "''of the''". This can happen (1) when the possessed has the indefinite article, (2) when other words intervene between the two parts, or (3) when the possessed and possessor switch order in the sentence. The possessive article must agree in number and gender with the possessed, and has the forms below. * Indefinite article: ** Era un mare iubitor al artelor. (''He was a great art lover.'' - lit. ''lover of the arts'') ** Au participat și reprezentanți ai guvernului. (''Government representatives also took part.'' - lit. ''representatives of the government'') * Intervening words: ** . (''The Moon's apparent diameter is equal to the Sun's.'') ** Așa scrie în lecția 10 a manualului. (''This is what lesson 10 in the textbook says.'' - lit. ''lesson 10 of the textbook'') * Reversal of possessed and possessor, especially in poetry: ** Al vieții vis de aur ca un fulger, ca o clipă-i. (
Eminescu Mihai Eminescu (; born Mihail Eminovici; 15 January 1850 – 15 June 1889) was a Romanian Romantic poet from Moldavia, novelist, and journalist, generally regarded as the most famous and influential Romanian poet. Eminescu was an active memb ...
: ''Life's golden dream is like a flash, like a blink.'')


= Prepositions requiring the genitive

= Some prepositions and preposition compounds require the noun they determine to be in the genitive case. Examples: * asupra (''regarding''): o discuție asupra fluxului de lucru (''a discussion regarding the workflow'', - lit. ''regarding the flow of the work''); * împotriva (''against''): voturi împotriva creșterii impozitului (''votes against tax increase'', - lit. ''against the increase of the tax''); * deasupra (''above''), înapoia (''behind''), înaintea (''before''), înăuntrul (''inside''); * în fața (''in front of''), în timpul (''during''), în jurul (''around''); * la începutul (''at the beginning of''), la mijlocul (''in the middle of''), la sfârșitul (''at the end of''); * din cauza (''because of''), cu ocazia (''on the occasion of''), în numele (''on behalf of''). Nouns in the genitive can occur in series, as in "culoarea jucăriei copilului prietenului meu" (''my friend's child's toy's color''), but as in English more than three successive nouns become difficult to understand and are considered bad use of the language.


Dative

The dative is used for the indirect object, that is, the noun representing the person/object that ''receives'' the action indicated by the verb. The dative is required by a particular series of verbs, many of which express the general idea of ''giving'', hence the name. Examples: * a da (''to give''): I-am dat câinelui sandvișul meu. (''I gave my sandwich to the dog.''); * a spune (''to tell''): Le spui colegilor să nu vină mâine? (''Will you tell your workmates not to come tomorrow?''); * a cere (''to ask for''), a explica (''to explain''), a oferi (''to offer''), a arăta (''to show''), etc.; * ''Not related to the idea of giving:'' a folosi (''to be useful to''), a dăuna (''to harm'').


= Clitic doubling

= As in the examples above, the dative noun in such constructions is almost always '' doubled'' by a
personal pronoun Personal pronouns are pronouns that are associated primarily with a particular grammatical person – first person (as ''I''), second person (as ''you''), or third person (as ''he'', ''she'', ''it'', ''they''). Personal pronouns may also take dif ...
, itself in the dative case, which is placed near the
verb A verb () is a word (part of speech) that in syntax generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual descri ...
no matter where the noun is in the sentence. Although not including this logically redundant pronoun does not affect the meaning and still produces grammatically correct sentences, native speakers seldom fail to include it. Depending on the verb mood, tense, and initial phoneme, the doubling personal pronoun will change in several regards: (1) which form, full or clitic, of the pronoun is used, (2) the position relative to the verb or verb parts, and (3) whether it is a true
clitic In morphology and syntax, a clitic (, backformed from Greek "leaning" or "enclitic"Crystal, David. ''A First Dictionary of Linguistics and Phonetics''. Boulder, CO: Westview, 1980. Print.) is a morpheme that has syntactic characteristics of a w ...
attached phonetically to the verb or it is a separate word. The table below shows these patterns on two verb examples—one starting with a consonant and the other with a vowel—, "a da" (''to give'') and "a arăta" (''to show''). For personal moods only the first person in the singular is shown, as the other forms behave identically. In each table cell, the upper example is for the singular of the personal pronoun, and the lower one for the plural. In all situations the pronoun has the same form for all genders and only changes with number. As the examples show, when the verb is simple (not compound), the doubling pronoun is placed before the verb and has its full form. Exception to this rule make the imperative and the gerund, which require the clitic form bound at the end of the verb. Also, the past participle and the supine do not require the clitic doubling at all. When the verb is compound and includes the conjunction "să" (approximately equivalent to English ''to'') or the infinitive preposition "a", the doubling pronoun is placed immediately after "să" / "a" and takes the clitic form in the singular ("să-i" and "a-i") and the full form in the plural ("să le" and "a le"). In all remaining situations the pronoun is placed before the first element of the compound verb and takes the clitic form, as in "i-am dat" and "le-am dat". When the verb starts with a vowel and the doubling pronoun comes right before it the use of the full or clitic is optional. In such cases the shorter (clitic) version one is more frequent in speech and informal writing. The gerund deserves a special mention, as not only is the doubling pronoun placed ''after'' the verb, but the verb itself receives an
epenthetic In phonology, epenthesis (; Greek language, Greek ) means the addition of one or more sounds to a word, especially in the beginning syllable (''prothesis (linguistics), prothesis'') or in the ending syllable (''paragoge'') or in-between two syll ...
"u". This "u" can be alikened to the vowels that take this position in the
Latin Latin (, or , ) is a classical language belonging to the Italic branch of the Indo-European languages. Latin was originally a dialect spoken in the lower Tiber area (then known as Latium) around present-day Rome, but through the power of the ...
gerund, and has become the
Italian Italian(s) may refer to: * Anything of, from, or related to the people of Italy over the centuries ** Italians, an ethnic group or simply a citizen of the Italian Republic or Italian Kingdom ** Italian language, a Romance language *** Regional Ita ...
"o" as in "''sto facendo''" (''I am doing''). When the full doubling pronoun "îi" is placed before the verb (all parts of the verb, if compound), it can turn into its clitic form if it binds through
elision In linguistics, an elision or deletion is the omission of one or more sounds (such as a vowel, a consonant, or a whole syllable) in a word or phrase. However, these terms are also used to refer more narrowly to cases where two words are run toget ...
to the word before it, as in "nu-i dau" (''I don't give him''), "că-i dau" (''that I give him''), "și-i dau" (''and I give him''). The imperative mood builds its affirmative and negative forms on different patterns, so that the position of the doubling pronoun is different. Compare "dă-i" → "nu-i da", "dă-le" → "nu le da". In poetry, archaic or regional speech, or invectives, the order of the compound verb elements can switch, and with them the position of the doubling pronoun will change. Compare: "i-am dat" → "datu-i-am", "le-am dat" → "datu-le-am", "le-aș da" → "da-le-aș". Note also the use of the epenthetic "u" again where otherwise a consonant would come just before the pronoun. Things are further complicated if another pronoun is present which claims a position near the verb, such as the pronoun that replaces or doubles the direct object. Here are some examples of how such situations are handled. Depending on the gender of the direct object, the pronoun position can be different in certain cases: If two pronouns having identical forms meet, the pronoun doubling the indirect object drops, as it is optional:


= Words requiring the dative

= Although most
preposition Prepositions and postpositions, together called adpositions (or broadly, in traditional grammar, simply prepositions), are a class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations (''in'', ''under'', ''towards'', ''before'') or mark various ...
s require the noun they determine to be in the accusative case, a few must be followed by a noun in the dative. Similarly, the dative is required by some
adjective In linguistics, an adjective (list of glossing abbreviations, abbreviated ) is a word that generally grammatical modifier, modifies a noun or noun phrase or describes its referent. Its semantic role is to change information given by the noun. Tra ...
s, many of which conveying the general idea of being (or not) beneficial, or having derived from
verb A verb () is a word (part of speech) that in syntax generally conveys an action (''bring'', ''read'', ''walk'', ''run'', ''learn''), an occurrence (''happen'', ''become''), or a state of being (''be'', ''exist'', ''stand''). In the usual descri ...
s that themselves require the dative. A few
adverb An adverb is a word or an expression that generally modifies a verb, adjective, another adverb, determiner, clause, preposition, or sentence. Adverbs typically express manner, place, time, frequency, degree, level of certainty, etc., answering ...
s showing comparison fall into the same category. Examples: * Prepositions: ** datorită (''owing to''): Am reușit datorită ajutorului tău. (''I succeeded owing to your help.''); ** mulțumită, grație (''thanks to''). * Adjectives: ** favorabil (''favorable''): Am primit numai mesaje favorabile proiectului noastru. (''We received only messages in favor of our project.''); ** folositor, util (''useful''), propice (''propitious''), recunoscător (''grateful''), dăunător (''harmful''). * Adverbs: ** asemenea (''like''): De atâta fericire fața ei strălucea asemenea soarelui. (''With so much happiness her face was shining like the sun.''); ** similar (''similarly''), conform (''according to''), contrar (''contrary to''). Depending on the sentence
syntax In linguistics, syntax () is the study of how words and morphemes combine to form larger units such as phrases and sentences. Central concerns of syntax include word order, grammatical relations, hierarchical sentence structure ( constituency) ...
, the adverbs above can also work as adjectives, nevertheless requiring the dative.


Accusative

The
accusative The accusative case (abbreviated ) of a noun is the grammatical case used to mark the direct object of a transitive verb. In the English language, the only words that occur in the accusative case are pronouns: 'me,' 'him,' 'her,' 'us,' and ‘the ...
is mainly the case of the
direct object In linguistics, an object is any of several types of arguments. In subject-prominent, nominative-accusative languages such as English, a transitive verb typically distinguishes between its subject and any of its objects, which can include but ...
, but other nouns can take the accusative form: those
indirect object In linguistics, an object is any of several types of arguments. In subject-prominent, nominative-accusative languages such as English, a transitive verb typically distinguishes between its subject and any of its objects, which can include but ...
s which aren't in the
dative case In grammar, the dative case (abbreviated , or sometimes when it is a core argument) is a grammatical case used in some languages to indicate the recipient or beneficiary of an action, as in "Maria Jacobo potum dedit", Latin for "Maria gave Jacob a ...
, as well as most circumstantials and attributes built with prepositions. Examples: * Direct object: :Am spart o farfurie. (''I broke a plate.'') :Cunoști un profesor de chitară? (''Do you know a guitar instructor?'') * Indirect object: :Fiul meu vorbește tot timpul despre avioane. (''My son always talks about airplanes.'') :Mă gândesc adesea la copilăria mea. (''I often think about my childhood.'') * Circumstantial: :Am ajuns în sfârșit la gară. (''We finally arrived at the station.'') :Ne ducem la mare cu trenul. (''We're going to the sea by train.'') * Attribute: :Am găsit numărul ei în cartea de telefon. (''I found her number in the phonebook.'') :Oamenii de la munte sunt duri. (''Mountain people are tough.'') A particularity of Romanian is that the direct object is marked in certain situations by the
preposition Prepositions and postpositions, together called adpositions (or broadly, in traditional grammar, simply prepositions), are a class of words used to express spatial or temporal relations (''in'', ''under'', ''towards'', ''before'') or mark various ...
''pe'', which in such constructions loses its original meaning (''on'', ''above''). The usage rules for this marker are complex and insufficiently codified; both semantics and morphology comes into play. Examples of direct object with marker "pe" are given below. * When the noun designates a person or a personified animal/object: :L-am văzut ieri pe Mihai. (''I saw Mihai erson's name: Michaelyesterday.'') :L-a împușcat pe lup în cap. (''He shot the wolf in the head.'') * When the noun designates an inanimate object, if the subject and the direct object are the same noun and they precede the verb: :Cui pe cui se scoate. (Proverb: ''A nail takes out a nail.'') * When the noun is preceded by the comparative adverb ''ca'' (like): :M-a privit ca pe un străin. (''He looked at me as if I were a stranger.'') The same preposition ''pe'' is used not only with nouns in accusative, but also with other words having the role of the direct object: pronouns (personal, interrogative, relative, demonstrative, indefinite or negative), numerals acting as pronouns, etc.


Vocative

As the vocative case gives the noun a distinct charge of familiarity, directness, and immediateness, nouns in the vocative are rarely used alone, except when addressing or calling someone. Most of the time, and particularly in writing, such nouns are used together with specific adjectives such as ''drag'' (dear) and ''stimat'' (respected, dear). Also, such adjective+noun constructions often include a possessive pronoun. Examples: * Vocative alone: **Băiete! (''You, boy!'' or ''Waiter!'') **Măi, Ioane, unde ești? (''Hey, Ion, where are you?'') - ''măi'' is one of a series of interjections used to address someone **Bleguților! (''You, little silly buggers!'') **Eleno! (''Elena, dear!'') **Doamnelor! (''Ladies!'') * Vocative with adjective: **Dragă bunico, (''Dear Grandma'') **Stimate domnule director, (used to formally address in writing the manager of an institution) * Vocative with possessive pronoun and adjective: **Dragul meu Radu, (''My dear Radu'') **Scumpii noștri prieteni, (''Our beloved friends'')


References

* James E. Augerot, "Romanian / Limba română: A Course in Modern Romanian," Center for Romanian Studies (2000) . * Laura Daniliuc and Radu Daniliuc, "Descriptive Romanian Grammar: An Outline," Lincom Europa, München, Germany (2000) . * Gheorghe Doca, "Romanian language. Vol. I: Essential Structures," Ars Docendi, Bucharest, Romania (1999). * Gheorghe Doca, "Romanian language. Vol. II: Morpho-Syntactic and Lexical Structures," Ars Docendi, Bucharest, Romania (2000). * Liana Pop, Victoria Moldovan (eds), "Gramatica limbii române / Grammaire du roumain / Romanian Grammar," Echinox, Cluj-Napoca, Romania (1997). {{DEFAULTSORT:Romanian Nouns Romanian grammar Declension