This article on Romanian nouns is related to the Romanian grammar and belongs to a series of articles on the Romanian language. It describes the morphology of the noun in this language, and includes details about its declension according to number, case, and application of the definite article, all of which depend on specific gender and plural formation rules. This article is actively undergoing a major edit. ... Romanian (limba română IPA ), the official language of Romania, is an Eastern Romance language. ... Morphology is a subdiscipline of linguistics that studies word structure. ... A noun, or noun substantive, is a word or phrase that refers to a person, place, thing, event, substance or quality. ... In linguistics, declension is a feature of inflected languages: generally, the alteration of a noun to indicate its grammatical role. ... Number, in linguistics, is a grammatical category used to express the quantity of objects referred to by a noun. ... This is a list of cases as they are used by various inflectional languages that have declension. ... Definite Article is the title of British comedian Eddie Izzards 1996 performance released on video and CD. The video/DVD and CD performances were both recorded on different nights at the Shaftesbury Theatre in London, England. ... In linguistics, grammatical genders, also called noun classes, are classes of nouns requiring different agreement forms on determiners, adjectives, verbs or other words. ... Number, in linguistics, is a grammatical category used to express the quantity of objects referred to by a noun. ...

Gender

An intrinsic property of Romanian nouns, as in all Romance languages, is their gender. However, while most Romance languages have only two genders, masculine and feminine, Romanian has preserved from Latin a third one, the neuter. In Latin, the neuter is a separate gender, requiring all determiners 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 can only have two forms in each number, instead of three. A noun, or noun substantive, is a word or phrase that refers to a person, place, thing, event, substance or quality. ... The Romance languages, also called Romanic languages or New Latin languages, are a subset of the Italic languages, specifically the descendants of the Latin dialects spoken by the common people in what is known as Latin Europe (Italian/Portuguese/Spanish/Catalan Europa latina, French Europe latine, Romanian Europa latină) as... In linguistics, grammatical genders, also called noun classes, are classes of nouns requiring different agreement forms on determiners, adjectives, verbs or other words. ... Latin was the language originally spoken in the region around Rome called Latium. ... Determiners are words which quantify or identify nouns. ...

Depending on gender, otherwise similar nouns will inflect differently. For example, the nouns "câine" (dog, from Latin canis) and "pâine" (bread, from 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: Inflection or inflexion refers to a modification or marking of a word (or more precisely lexeme) so that it reflects grammatical (i. ...

• definite article: "câinele" (the dog) - "pâinea" (the bread);
• plural, with definite article: "câinii" (the dogs) - "pâinile" (the loafs 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 loafs of bread), etc.

While in many cases assigning the correct gender may be facilitated by the noun ending or meaning, the distinction is usualy 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 u are almost always masculine or neuter:
  • masculine: "om" (man, human being), "copil" (child), "bou" (ox, bull), "exemplu" (example);
  • neuter: "ac" (needle), "drum" (road), "ou" (egg), "lucru" (thing, job);
  • feminine proper nouns of foreign origin or diminutives: "Carmen," "Corinuş" (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);

• Nounds 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: "chimist" (chemist), "jurnalist" (journalist);
  • -an, -ian: "american" (American), "fizician" (physicist);
  • -or, -tor: "profesor" (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), "învăţământ" (education) - but "ferment" (ferment) is masculine;
  • -ut, -it, -at, derived from the past participle of verbs: "început" (beginning), "trecut" (past), "sfârşit" (end), "morărit" (milling), "uscat" (land), "oftat" (sigh);
  • -aj: "sondaj" (poll), "garaj" (garage), "afişaj" (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);
  • others: "emisiune" (broadcast, TV show), "greutate" (difficulty), "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:
  • tree names: "brad" (fir), "stejar" (oak), "mesteacăn" (birch), but the following are feminine: "salcie" (willow), "magnolie" (magnolia);
  • mountains and mountain chains, often plural: "Carpaţi" (Carpathians), "Bucegi," "Retezat," "Făgăraş";
  • 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: "Franţa" (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).

Number

Like all Indo-European languages, Romanian differentiates morphologically the singular and the plural numberof nouns. Within the Romance languages, regarding the plural formation, Romanian falls in the group East from the La Spezia-Rimini line together with the Italian. 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: The Indo-European languages include some 443 (SIL estimate) languages and dialects spoken by about three billion people, including most of the major language families of Europe, as well as many languages of Southwest and South Asia, which belong to a single superfamily. ... The word singular may refer to one of several concepts. ... Plural is a grammatical number, typically referring to more than one of the referent in the real world. ... Number, in linguistics, is a grammatical category used to express the quantity of objects referred to by a noun. ... The Romance languages, also called Romanic languages or New Latin languages, are a subset of the Italic languages, specifically the descendants of the Latin dialects spoken by the common people in what is known as Latin Europe (Italian/Portuguese/Spanish/Catalan Europa latina, French Europe latine, Romanian Europa latină) as... In the linguistics of the Romance languages, the La Spezia-Rimini Line is a line that refers to a number of important isoglosses that distinguish the eastern Romance languages from the western Romance languages. ...

• 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" - "pereţi" (wall);
• consonant deletion in the stem: "cal" - "cai" (horse);
• interposition of other phonemes: "cap" - "capete" (head);
• plural identical with singular: "unchi" - "unchi" (uncle);
• only singular: "rouă" (dew);
• only plural: "grâne" (wheat seeds/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. Morphologically, the plural is built by using one of the following four endings: -i, -uri, -e, and -(e)le. Of these, the last one is a relatively new acquisition; it came into the language together with a series of nouns from Turkish ending in stressed "a", and was subsequently also applied for other phonetically similar borrowings.

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 asterisc (*) indicates irregular plural formation, requiring the insertion of consonants belonging neither to the stem nor to the plural ending, deletion of stem consonants, or unusual vocalic shifts.

Masculine nouns in the plural all end in orthographic "i", but this can correspond phonetically to either vowel /i/, semivowel /ǐ/, or non-syllabic /ʲ/ (see Romanian phonology). The Romanian language has seven vowels and twenty-two consonants, including two semivowels, and . ...

Case

Romanian nouns have 3 cases, Direct (Nominative/Accusative), Indirect (Dative/Genitive) and Vocative.

When the definite article is attached, this "i" becomes in all cases vocalic /i/ and the semivowel /ǐ/ is added at the end. Similarly, the genitive/dative and the vocative...