Learn Romanian: Understanding the Nouns

When learning Romanian as a foreign language, one of the fundamental parts of speech you’ll encounter is the noun, or “substantivul” in Romanian.

What is a Noun?

A noun is a flexible part of speech that denotes names of objects, beings, natural phenomena, attributes, feelings, states of mind, actions, and relationships between people. In Romanian, a noun is an independent part of speech capable of receiving determinations (adjectives or numerals) and being replaced by pronouns.

Examples: “Casa” (house), “copil” (child), “bucurie” (joy), “iubire” (love), “munte” (mountain), “câine” (dog), “oraș” (city).

Classification of Nouns in the Romanian language

Nouns in Romanian can be classified in several ways:

• By Meaning: Nouns can be common (denoting objects of the same kind) or proper (denoting specific objects to distinguish them from others).Examples: “om” (human – common noun), “Maria” (Maria – proper noun), “București” (Bucharest – proper noun).
• By Structure: Nouns can be simple (formed from a single word) or compound (formed from two or more words).Examples: “floare” (flower – simple noun), “bunăvoință” (good will – compound noun), “câine-lup” (dog wolf – compound noun), “Ștefan cel Mare” (Stephen the Great – compound noun).

Gender of Nouns

In Romanian, nouns can be masculine, feminine, or neuter. In most cases, there is a correspondence between natural gender and grammatical gender, with the neuter gender corresponding to inanimate objects.

Examples: “băiat” (boy – masculine), “fată” (girl – feminine), “copac” (tree – neuter).

Number of Nouns

Nouns in Romanian have two numbers: singular and plural. However, some nouns are defective in number, having forms only in the singular or only in the plural.

Examples: “pisică” (cat – singular), “pisici” (cats – plural), “ochelari” (glasses – plural only).

Cases of Nouns

In traditional Romanian grammar, a noun can have five cases: nominative, genitive, dative, accusative, and vocative.

Examples: “copil” (child – nominative), “copilului” (of the child – genitive), “copilului” (to the child – dative), “copil” (child – accusative), “copile” (child – vocative).

The Value of Nouns in the Romanian language

Nouns in Romanian can have different grammatical values. For example, they can have an adjectival value when they accompany and determine another noun, or an adverbial value in certain contexts.

Learning about the noun in Romanian is a crucial step in your Romanian lessons. As you continue to learn Romanian as a foreign language, you’ll discover the richness and complexity of this part of speech and how it contributes to the beauty of the Romanian language.

Remember, learning a new language opens up a world of possibilities. So keep going with your Romanian lessons, and soon you’ll be able to navigate the Romanian language with ease.

References (nouns in the Romanian language)

Morfologia.ro  Gramatica limbii române: RomanaBAC.com