The word for “the” is welded onto the end

This explains half the unfamiliar-looking words on a Romanian page. A noun names a person, place or thing, and Romanian sticks its “the” on the end of one: lup becomes lupul.

≈ 4 min of reading · Practise at your own pace

What’s in this chapter

No separate word for “the” — it is an ending: lup a wolf, lupul the wolf.
“A” stays a separate word: un or o.
Which ending you see follows the last letter, not meaning.
Plurals take -i, -e or -uri, with the “the” on top.
With my and your the ending stays: casa mea is “the-house my”.

This explains half the unfamiliar-looking words on a Romanian page: there is no separate word for “the”. It is welded onto the end. Nouns also fall into three families — masculine, feminine, neuter — whose names say nothing about the thing: a house is feminine, a tree masculine. You never have to decide which family a word is in to read it.

The wolf is big.

Lupul este mare.

LOO-pool YES-teh MAH-reh

lup is the wolf; the -ul is the “the”. For “a wolf” the little word comes back out in front: un lupoon loop.

The ending, chosen by the last letter of the word

The last letter of a word is what picks its ending for “the”. Read across a row to see the same word twice, once with “a” in front and once with “the” welded on.

Ends in	a — one	the
consonant, masculine	un lup	lupulLOO-pool
consonant, masculine	un băiat	băiatulbuh-YAH-tool
-e, masculine	un șoarece	șoareceleSHWAH-reh-cheh-leh
-ă, feminine	o casă	casaKAH-sah
-ă, feminine	o fată	fataFAH-tah
-e, feminine	o vulpe	vulpeaVOOL-pyah

Three endings cover almost everything: -ul after a consonant, -le after a masculine -e, and -a swallowing a feminine ending. So copaculkoh-PAH-kool“the tree”, iepureleYEH-poo-reh-leh“the rabbit”, pasăreaPAH-suh-ryah“the bird”.

More than one, with and without the ending

More than one gets its own ending, and the “the” goes on top of that. Read the left of each row first, then the right, so you can see what was added.

lup · lupul

lupiLOO-p(y)“wolves” · lupiiLOO-pee“the wolves”

Masculine takes -i; the “the” doubles it to “ee”.

casă · casa

caseKAH-seh“houses” · caseleKAH-seh-leh“the houses”

Feminine usually takes -e, then -le.

un lup · o casă

niște lupiNEESH-teh LOO-p(y)“some wolves” · niște case“some houses”

“Some” is niște — one shape for every family, and no “the” on the end.

un lucruoon LOO-kroo“a thing”

două lucruriDOH-wuh LOO-kroor(y)“two things”

The third family, neuter, is the easy one: masculine when alone, feminine in a group. It asks no decision of you — un in front, -uri or -e behind.

My friend is a fox.

Prietenul meu este o vulpe.

PRYEH-teh-nool MEH-oo YES-teh oh VOOL-peh

Word for word, “the-friend my”: the “the” stays where English drops it. Feminine takes meaMYAH — casa meaKAH-sah MYAH“my house”.

Peel the ending off, then read

lupul
The “the” is welded on the end.
Show answer +Hide answer −
lupulLOO-pool“the wolf”
casa
The ă has become a plain a.
Show answer +Hide answer −
casaKAH-sah“the house”
vulpea
A feminine -e takes -a.
Show answer +Hide answer −
vulpeaVOOL-pyah“the fox”
Why un lup but o casă?
Show answer +Hide answer −
lup is masculine, so “a” is un; casă is feminine, so o.

Come back to these chapters whenever you need them.All Romanian chapters ↗