How to Use Romanian Adjectives: Agreement and Placement Explained

Understanding Romanian Adjectives and Their Role

In Romanian, adjectives are words that describe or modify nouns, providing more information about their qualities, quantities, or states. Unlike English, Romanian adjectives must agree with the noun they describe in gender, number, and case. This means the adjective changes its form depending on whether the noun is masculine, feminine, singular, plural, and the grammatical case it is in.

Gender Agreement of Romanian Adjectives

Romanian nouns are either masculine or feminine (and sometimes neuter, which behaves like masculine in singular and feminine in plural). Adjectives must match the gender of the noun they modify. For example, the adjective for "beautiful" is frumos for masculine singular and frumoasă for feminine singular.

• Masculine singular: frumos
• Feminine singular: frumoasă
• Masculine plural: frumoși
• Feminine plural: frumoase

Notice how the adjective endings change to reflect the gender and number of the noun.

Number Agreement: Singular and Plural Forms

Adjectives also change depending on whether the noun is singular or plural. For example, the masculine singular adjective frumos becomes frumoși in masculine plural, and the feminine singular frumoasă becomes frumoase in feminine plural.

Case Agreement in Romanian Adjectives

Romanian has five cases: nominative, accusative, genitive, dative, and vocative. Adjectives agree with the noun in case, which affects their endings. For beginners, focusing on nominative and accusative cases is a good start, as these are the most common in everyday speech.

For example, in the nominative case, the masculine singular adjective might be frumos, but in the accusative case, it can change to frumosul depending on the noun and sentence structure.

Placement of Adjectives in Romanian Sentences

Unlike English, where adjectives usually come before the noun, Romanian adjectives can be placed before or after the noun, but the placement can affect the meaning or emphasis.

• Adjective before noun: often used for emphasis or poetic effect. Example: frumos băiat (handsome boy).
• Adjective after noun: the most common placement in everyday speech. Example: băiat frumos (handsome boy).

In general, placing the adjective after the noun is the default and most natural in Romanian.

Special Cases: Adjectives That Change Meaning With Placement

Some adjectives change their meaning depending on whether they come before or after the noun. For example:

• un om mare (a big/tall man) vs. un mare om (a great man)
• o fată veche (an old girl in age) vs. o veche fată (an old/longtime friend, or an old maid)

Summary: Key Points to Remember

1. Adjectives agree with nouns in gender, number, and case.
2. Masculine, feminine, and neuter nouns have different adjective endings.
3. Adjectives usually come after the noun but can come before for emphasis or stylistic reasons.
4. Some adjectives change meaning depending on their placement relative to the noun.
5. Practice with common adjectives and nouns to get comfortable with agreement and placement.

Common Romanian Adjectives and Their Forms