Five cases, three forms
Grammar books list five Romanian cases. The good news: in the forms you actually say, they collapse to three.
| Case | What it does | Form |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative and accusative | subject, object, after most prepositions | casa, băiatul |
| Genitive and dative | of, possession, and to (indirect object) | casei, băiatului |
| Vocative | calling someone | Ioane! Maria! |
So the real work is one extra form per noun, plus the vocative for names and titles.
The case lives in the article
In Romanian the definite article ("the") is stuck to the end of the noun: casă (a house) becomes casa (the house). That ending is also where the case shows.
| Romanian | English |
|---|---|
| casa | the house (subject or object) |
| casei | of the house, to the house |
| băiatul | the boy (subject or object) |
| băiatului | of the boy, to the boy |
| trenul | the train |
| trenului | of the train, to the train |
Feminine nouns take -ei (or -ii: școala, școlii), masculine and neuter nouns take -ului. In the plural, every gender takes -lor:
| Romanian | English |
|---|---|
| casele | the houses |
| caselor | of the houses, to the houses |
| băieții | the boys |
| băieților | of the boys, to the boys |
Without "the", the case moves to the article in front: o casă, unei case; un băiat, unui băiat.
Genitive: whose is it
The genitive is how Romanian says of and the English 's. The owner simply follows the thing, in its genitive form:
| Romanian | English |
|---|---|
| mașina mamei | mum's car (the car of mum) |
| ușa casei | the door of the house |
| numele profesorului | the teacher's name |
| cartea lui Ion | Ion's book |
Masculine names take lui in front instead of an ending: cartea lui Ion, mama lui Andrei. Feminine names ending in -a take the ending: cartea Mariei (in speech you will also hear cartea lui Maria).
When the thing owned does not come right before the owner, a small linking word appears: al, a, ai, ale, matching the thing owned. O prietenă a mamei (a friend of mum's), un prieten al lui Ion (a friend of Ion's).
Dative: to whom
The dative uses the same form as the genitive. It marks the person something is given, said or shown to:
| Romanian | English |
|---|---|
| Dau o carte prietenului. | I give a book to my friend. |
| Îi spun mamei. | I tell mum. |
| Le scriu părinților. | I write to my parents. |
Notice the small pronouns îi and le: in everyday Romanian the dative noun is usually announced by one of them, as in Îi spun mamei.
Vocative: calling someone
The vocative is used to address someone. Masculine names and titles often take -e or -ule; feminine names usually stay as they are; plurals take -lor.
| Romanian | English |
|---|---|
| Ioane! | Ion! |
| Domnule profesor! | Sir! (to a male teacher) |
| Maria! | Maria! |
| Doamnelor și domnilor! | Ladies and gentlemen! |
Accusative with people: pe
The accusative looks like the nominative, but when the object is a person or a named animal, Romanian puts pe before it and usually repeats it with a pronoun: Îl văd pe Ion (I see Ion), O caut pe Maria (I'm looking for Maria). With things, no pe: Văd casa.