Following my post on plural words and my introduction to noun cases it’s now time to address the third component: the definite article.

In English, this is always super simple, being the use of the word the.

Whether it’s the book or the books, in English it’s always the same – just add the word “the” in front of the words (or clause) and you’re set. In Romanian it’s a lot trickier.

Since I’m assuming you speak or understand at least a little Spanish, we’ll start there, although in reality Romanian is much closer to Swedish or Dansk in this regard (as we’ll see later).

English	Spanish	Definite Article
The (male) cat	El gato	El
The (female) cat	La gata	La
The (male) cats	Los gatos	Los
The (female) cats	Las gatas	Las

So far, so good. Spanish has four definite articles (as listed above) and are fixed, immutable and permanent. Italian, French, Portuguese, Catalan and other related languages are set up much the same way, being “definite article + noun”. All you have to do is pick the right definite article and you’re on your merry way.

Unfortunately, Romanian is set up like Swedish in the sense that the definite article doesn’t go in front of the noun but is added onto the end of it. The technical term for this is “post-fixed”.

Let’s look at a simple word, “drum”, which we know from the expression “drum bun“, meaning (generally) “road”.

So how do we say “the road”? Using our handy online dictionary and plugging the word into “Get Declensions” we see that the singular form with definition article is: drumul.

Therefore: “road” is drum and “the road” is drumul.

Unfortunately, if you look you’ll see no fewer than 8 different versions of how to use the definite article and sadly, I’m here to tell you that’s wrong. It’s actually 16 in many cases. Gasp!

The good news is that there are only a few variations in how the definite article gets appended in Romanian and once you learn them, you’re set. It only seems overwhelming at first but trust me, this is one of the easier things to get a handle on.

Let’s stick with drumul for the moment, meaning “the road” in the N/A or “objective” case. Since you’re thoroughly up to date on ALL of my language posts (*LOL*) then you know that the “objective case” means that the noun is doing all of the action. We’re going to stick with that for the time being.

Therefore: “the road” is simply drum (the noun) + ul (meaning “the”).

Let’s have a look at some common words (in the singular, objective case) and their definite article.

Word	Word + Def Article	Gender
pix	pixul	neuter
baiat	baiatul	masculine
soare	soarele	masculine
limba	limba	feminine
munte	muntele	masculine
tata	tatal	masculine
pijama	pijamaua	feminine
rosie	rosia	feminine
masina	masina	feminine
cablu	cablul	neuter
floare	floarea	feminine

Are you banging your head yet? No, well don’t. Even though that seems like a really complicated list, that’s the entirety of it.

Remembering that neuter is masculine in the singular, it’s easy to see that there are only a few ways to add the definite article in the masculine version:

• Add “ul” to the end
• Add just “l” if the last letter is a vowel (other than e); or
• add “le” if it ends in e

Almost all of the time, it is one of the first two. Just add “ul” or “l” to the end of any masculine (or neuter) word in the singular.

In general, if the last letter is “e” and the noun is singular and masculine (or neuter), the rule is to add +le to the word.

As for the feminine words, you’ll notice that they only take a few forms:

• Do nothing
• Add “ua” to the end
• Add an “a” to the end of a word ending in “e”
• Change the last “e” to an “a” if the word ends in two vowels

Really that’s it. Most of the time, if you have to guess and the word ends in “a”, there’s no change. Actually I’m simplifying things for you because this is the actual, correct version:

Singular version – maşină and definite article version – maşina. In other words the “a with a bowl on top” gets dropped in the definite article form. The pronunciation difference between “regular a” and “a with a bowl on top” is virtually nil for a new speaker. This in essence gives you a free pass to say both words the same way.

Now let’s take a look at a series of new words in the singular:

English	Word	Gender	Definite Article	Word + Definite Article
newspaper	ziar	masculine	+ul	ziarul
snake	sarpe	masculine	+le	sarpele
cheese	branza	feminine	(ă for a)	branza
cheese	cascaval	neuter	+ul	cascavalul
apple	mar	neuter	+ul	marul
sea	mare	feminine	+a because it ends in e	marea
copy	copie	feminine	last e becomes a because it ends in 2 vowels	copia
child	copil	masculine	+ul	copilul
back	spate	neuter	+le	spatele
gutter	jgheab	neuter	+ul	jgheabul

Hehehe, I threw that last one in there just to keep you on your toes in terms of pronunciation. “Jgheab” is probably one of the most difficult words to say but it has declensions and other forms in the normal style, so don’t let it intimidate you.

Sadly, there are some exceptions to the rules I listed above. Yes, I know you’re probably sighing with frustration but hey, imagine how it is for me to write this whole thing, especially with Romanians watching me like a hawk! :P

Again, do not let these giant lists of rules confuse you or intimidate you. As you begin to read (and speak!) Romanian, the various ways these words are modified begins to make sense and “sound right”.

Romanians know these forms only because they’ve memorized them and heard them millions of times.

Now let’s mix things up just a teensy bit and combine plural forms plus the definite article:

English	Singular	Gender	Word + Definite Article (Sing)	Plural	Word + Definite Article (Plural)
mattress	saltea	feminine	salteaua	saltele	saltelele
gutter	jgheab	neuter	jgheabul	jgheaburi	jgheaburile
back	spate	neuter	spatele	spate	spatele
child	copil	masculine	copilul	copii	copiii
copy	copie	feminine	copia	copii	copiile
sea	mare	feminine	marea	mari	marile
apple	mar	neuter	marul	mere	merele
cheese	cascaval	neuter	cascavalul	cascavaluri	cascavalurile
cheese	branza	feminine	branza	branzeturi	branzeturile
snake	sarpe	masculine	sarpele	serpi	serpii
newspaper	ziar	neuter	ziarul	ziare	ziarele

Although that seems like a hell of a lot to learn, you can see it’s relatively easy.

Most masculine nouns in the plural end in “i” and the definite article is just adding another “i” to the end.

And whether a noun is masculine or feminine, in general if it ends in “e” in the plural the definite article is to simple add “le” to the end, making for some real tongue twisters (like saltelele above).

Nonetheless, once you’ve learned the plural form of a noun, the definite article ending is usually pretty straightforward and easy to learn.

I purposefully included two words “copie” and “copil” to show how they intersect in the plural forms. “Copii” can mean either “children” or “copies”. But “the children” becomes “copiii” while “the copies” becomes “copiile”.

Ok time to take a breather because now we get into the rest of the forms for the definite article. So far we’ve been dealing with just two, the objective case in the singular and in the plural.

The other two forms are the “subjective” case, when the noun is “receiving the action”, which is actually pretty easy to formulate. It helps if you think of the subjective case as “of the (noun)” whereas objective case is “the (noun)”.

Let’s start with the singular version:

English	Word	Gender	Word + Definite Article (Objective)	Word + Definite Article (Subjective)
newspaper	ziar	neuter	ziarul	ziarului
snake	sarpe	masculine	sarpele	sarpelui
cheese	branza	feminine	branza	branzeturii
cheese	cascaval	neuter	cascavalul	cascavalului
apple	mar	neuter	marul	marului
sea	mare	feminine	marea	marii
copy	copie	feminine	copia	copiei
child	copil	masculine	copilul	copilului
back	spate	neuter	spatele	spatelui
sea	mare	feminine	marea	marii
coffee	cafea	feminine	cafeaua	cafelei
mattress	saltea	feminine	salteaua	saltelei
father	tata	masculine	tatal	tatalui

I’m sure that seems overwhelming but it’s not. With masculine words, if the objective case of the definite article ends in “ul” then the subjective case is just “ului” in almost all cases.

In case where a masculine word ends in “le” then it just switches to “lui”, a very similar ending.

For feminine words, the objective format is going to probably end in “e” and the subjective format in “ei” somehow with perhaps some interior changes.

Some feminine words in the subjective format of the definite article end in “ii” though. This makes a lot more sense when you combine the whole she-bang and look at the singular AND plural forms of these words:

English	Word (Sing)	Gender	Word + Def. Art (Obj) Sing	Word + Def. Art (Subj) Sing	Word (Plural)	Word + Def. Art (Obj) Plural	Word + Def. Art (Subj) Plural
newspaper	ziar	neuter	ziarul	ziarului	ziare	ziarele	ziarelor
snake	sarpe	masculine	sarpele	sarpelui	serpi	serpii	serpilor
cheese	branza	feminine	branza	branzeturii	branzeturi	branzeturile	branzeturilor
cheese	cascaval	neuter	cascavalul	cascavalului	cascavaluri	cascavalurile	cascavalurilor
apple	mar	neuter	marul	marului	mere	merele	merelor
sea	mare	feminine	marea	marii	mari	marile	marilor
copy	copie	feminine	copia	copiei	copii	copiile	copiilor
child	copil	masculine	copilul	copilului	copii	copiii	copiilor
back	spate	neuter	spatele	spatelui	spate	spatele	spatelor
coffee	cafea	feminine	cafeaua	cafelei	cafele	cafelele	cafelelor
mattress	saltea	feminine	salteaua	saltelei	saltele	saltelele	saltelelor
father	tata	masculine	tatal	tatalui	tati	tatii	tatilor

Whew, I know, I know! But aside from the tongue-twisting aspect, it’s easy to see that when you know the plural forms, the definite article is a cinch since it’s always some form of adding “lor” to the end of the plural definite article form.

In case you’re getting confused about the difference between objective and subjective cases, it’s easy to keep in mind the word “suprafata” which means “surface”. In fact, this is kind of a fun trick which I’ll show you after looking at all its forms:

English	Word (Sing)	Gender	Word + Def. Art (Obj) Sing	Word (Plural)	Word + Def. Art (Obj) Plural
surface	suprafata	feminine	suprafata	suprafete	suprafetele

Wow see, not so bad is it?

So let’s make some fun new sentences with our words that we’ve just learned!

English	Romanian
newspaper	ziar
the newspaper	ziarul
the surface of the newspaper	suprafata ziarului
the newspapers	ziarele
the surface of the newspapers	suprafata ziarele
the surfaces of the newspaper	suprafetele ziarului
the surfaces of the newspapers	suprafetele ziarele
coffee	cafea
the coffee	cafeaua
the surface of the coffee	suprafata cafelei
the coffees	cafele
the surface of the coffees	suprafata cafelelor
the surfaces of the coffee	suprafetele cafelei
the surfaces of the coffees	suprafetele cafelelor
sea	mare
the sea	marea
the surface of the sea	suprafata marii
the seas	marile
the surface of the seas	suprafata marilor
the surfaces of the sea	suprafetele marii
the surfaces of the seas	suprafetele marilor
child	copil
the child	copilul
the surface of the child	suprafata copilului
children	copii
the children	copiii
the surface of the children	suprafata copiilor
the surfaces of the child	suprafetele copilului
the surfaces of the children	suprafetele copiilor

Whew, you did it! Well, almost. Now let’s go completely insane and dig down deep and huff and puff and grunt and combine all of this with adjectives that agree in number and gender.

Do you remember the word for “hot”?

English	Singular	Plural	Gender
hot	calda	calde	feminine
hot	cald	calzi	masculine

Are you ready?!

Let’s mix them all together to GO FOR THE GOLD!

English	Romanian
newspaper	ziar
the hot newspaper	ziarul cald
the hot surface of the hot newspaper	suprafata calda ziarului cald
the hot newspapers	ziarele calde
the hot surface of the hot newspapers	suprafata calda ziarele calde
the hot surfaces of the hot newspaper	suprafetele calde ziarului cald
the hot surfaces of the hot newspapers	suprafetele calde ziarele calde
coffee	cafea
the hot coffee	cafeaua calda
the hot surface of the hot coffee	suprafata calda cafelei calda
the hot coffees	cafele calde
the hot surface of the hot coffees	suprafata calda cafelelor calde
the hot surfaces of the hot coffee	suprafetele calde cafelei calda
the hot surfaces of the hot coffees	suprafetele calde cafelelor calde
sea	mare
the hot sea	marea calda
the hot surface of the hot sea	suprafata calda marii calda
the hot seas	marile calde
the hot surface of the hot seas	suprafata calda marilor calde
the hot surfaces of the hot sea	suprafetele calde marii calda
the hot surfaces of the hot seas	suprafetele calde marilor calde
child	copil
the hot child	copilul cald
the hot surface of the hot child	suprafata calda copilului cald
hot children	copii calzi
the hot children	copiii calzi
the hot surface of the hot children	suprafata calda copiilor calzi
the hot surfaces of the hot child	suprafetele calde copilului cald
the hot surfaces of the hot children	suprafetele calde copiilor calzi

Oh my gosh, break out the champagne time, eh?

Yes I realize this is mind-splittingly difficult to learn but the good news is that this stuff is just about the hardest part of Romanian to learn. Everything after this gets a whole lot easier, especially verbs and the like.

Once you know the gender and different forms any Romanian noun will take, the rest becomes easy as it will begin to “just sound right”. That’s about all the words of encouragement I can give you at this point.

Actually there’s a bit more on this subject but if you’ve gotten this far, I think you’re 90% of the way there.

HANG IN THERE! YOU CAN DO IT! :D