Romanian nouns, under the rules of Romanian grammar, are declined, varying by gender, number, and case.
Gender An intrinsic property of Romanian nouns is their gender, as in all Romance languages, which is a system they inherit from their common ancestor, Latin. Although Classical Latin had three genders, most modern Romance languages have only retained the masculine and feminine; however, this is not the case for Romanian, which has also kept the neuter (otherwise lost in many other Romance varieties).
In Latin, the neuter is a fully-separate gender, such that all determiners have three distinct forms (e.g. the adjective , meaning , has distinct nominative singular forms for all three genders: [masculine] / [feminine] / [neuter]). While the Romanian masculine and feminine are similarly distinct, the Romanian neuter is ambigeneric, meaning that it resembles a combination of the other two genders: neuter nouns decline like masculine nouns in the singular and feminine nouns in the plural, and there are no forms which are truly unique to the neuter. As such, all pronouns and noun determiners have a maximum of only two distinct forms for any given combination of case and number, despite there being three distinct gender paradigms, since two of those three paradigms will always be syncretic for any given form. Although the traditional analysis treats ambigeneric nouns as having a gender of their own, it is also possible to analyse Romanian as having only two grammatical genders (masculine and feminine), with the neuter nominals being hybrids that merely switch between the two genders depending on the grammatical number. Other terms for the class of neuter nouns include 'heterogenous', 'ambigenous', 'of both kinds', or 'mixed nouns'.
Depending on gender, otherwise similar nouns will inflect 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 or semivowel 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" (sun) 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, Romanian differentiates morphologically the singular and the plural number of nouns. Within the Romance languages, regarding the plural formation, Romanian falls in the group East from the La Spezia–Rimini Line together with 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:
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 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.
Plural of masculine nouns Singular Plural Examples -cons. -cons.+i pom - pomi (tree)doctor - doctori (doctor)copil -* copii (children)om -* oameni (man, human being) -u -i codru - codri (forest)leu - lei (lion) -e frate - frați (brother)pește - pești (fish) -i ochi - ochi (eye)unchi - unchi (uncle) -ă tată - tați (father)popă - popi (priest)
Plural of feminine nouns Singular Plural Examples -ă -e casă - case (house)fată - fete (girl) -i lună - luni (moon, month)barcă - bărci (boat)soră -* surori (sister)mână -* mâini (hand) -uri marfă - mărfuri (merchandise)dulceață - dulcețuri (jam) -e -i carte - cărți (book)vale -* văi (valley) -vowel+ -vowel+i baie - băi (bathroom)gutuie - gutui (quince) -cons.+ -cons.+ii frecție - frecții (massage)farfurie - farfurii (plate)felie - felii (slice) -a -ale basma - basmale (handkerchief)pijama - pijamale (pajamas) -ea -ele cafea - cafele (coffee)saltea - saltele (mattress) -i miercuri - miercuri (Wednesday)tanti - tanti (aunt)