G1.1 Feminine gender of Romanian nouns
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Feminine Gender of Romanian nouns
Nouns ending in “a” or “ă” are feminine
All nouns ending in “a” or “ă” are feminine (singular). There are only a few exceptions, only one worth mentioning: “tată” (father) which is masculine.
English | Romanian translation |
Romanian stress |
Audio Pronunciation |
Phonetic Transcription |
---|---|---|---|---|
coffee | cafea | cafeá | /ka'fe̯a/ | |
couch or sofa | canapea | canapeá | /ka.na.p'e̯a/ | |
artist (woman) | artistă | artístă | /ar'tis.tə/ | |
italian (woman) | italiancă | italiáncă | /i.ta.li.an'kə/ | |
brochure or leaflet | broşură | broşúră | /bro'ʃu.rə/ | |
aunt | mătuşă | mătúşă | /mə'tu.ʃə/ | |
sister | soră | sóră | /'so.rə/ |
Do you have difficulties recognizing or pronouncing the vowels "a" or “ă”?
Then you can try our Romanian vowels pronunciation lesson as well as the practice exercise to distinguish between "a" and "ă”.
Nouns ending in “ie” are feminine
Nouns ending in “ie” are feminine with only one notable exception: "tataie" (grandfather, old man).
English | Romanian translation |
Romanian stress |
Audio Pronunciation |
Phonetic Transcription |
---|---|---|---|---|
woman | femeie | feméie | /fe'me.je/ | |
paper | hârtie | hârtíe | /hɨr'ti.je/ | |
witness | mărturie | mărturíe | /mər.tu'ri.je/ | |
hat | pălărie | pălăríe | /pə.lə'ri.je/ |
Other nouns ending in "e"
Nouns ending in "e" but not following into the above category, can be feminine, masculine or neuter. There are some complex rules defining how to categorize them. It is better to learn the gender of these nouns by heart.
English | Romanian translation |
Romanian stress |
Audio Pronunciation |
Phonetic Transcription |
---|---|---|---|---|
flower | floare | floáre | /flo̯a're/ |
Nouns ending in "i"
99% of nouns ending in "i" are not feminine, they are either masculine or neuter. There are very few feminine nouns ending in "i", the most important being: zi (day), luni (Monday), marţi (Tuesday), miercuri (Wednesday), joi (Thursday), vineri (Friday).
English | Romanian translation |
Romanian stress |
Audio Pronunciation |
Phonetic Transcription |
---|---|---|---|---|
day | zi | zí | /zi/ |
Checking rule: All feminine nouns end in one of the following vowels: (“a”, “ă”, “e”, “i”)
If you believe that a word is feminine (in its singular dictionary form) then it must end in one of the vowels: “a”, “ă”, “e”, “i”. This also implies that all nouns ending in a consonant are not feminine.
English vs Romanian, gender neutral vs gender specific
As opposed to English that exposes many gender neutral nouns (e.g. teacher, professor), in Romanian all nouns have a gender, this is why you always have a word that refers to a male teacher (profesor) and another one to a female teacher (profesoară).
1 comments
sorry. answer is in another
sorry. answer is in another lesson
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