Plural of Feminine Romanian Nouns

In the previous lesson you've seen how to recognize feminine nouns.

In this lesson we'll teach you how to build the plural of a Romanian feminine noun.
The plural form depends on the ending of the singular. Below we are mentioning the most typical rules for forming the plural. In addition to these rules there are a few other ones either non-representative or irregular.

1) Nouns ending in "-ă"

Nouns ending in "ă" in singular, can have one of the following four plural endings:

1.1 The "-ă" singular ending is replaced by "-e" in plural.

Please note that some feminine nouns when forming the plural change the vowels in the root, not only the endings: e.g. italiancă , italience. It is advised to learn these cases by heart.

1.2 The "-ă" ending is replaced by "-i" in plural.

If you would like to practice more the pronunciation of the final half silent "i", please check out our dedicated lesson on the pronunciation of the vowel i

1.3 The "-ă" ending is replaced by "-uri" in plural.

There are only a few such nouns in Romanian.

If you are wondering how can you know which one of the three above plural cases to choose when you are faced with an noun ending in "-ă", the answer is that you cannot really know it, therefore we advise you to learn the pairs of nouns (singular and plural) by heart.

1.4 The "-ică" singular ending is replaced by "-ele" in plural.

Just for your information, most the words ending in "ică" are diminutives.

2) Nouns ending in "e"

Nouns ending in "e" in singular, can have one of the following three plural endings:

2.1 The "-e" singular ending is replaced by "-i" in plural.

2.2 The "-e" singular ending is replaced by "uri" in plural.

2.3 The "-e" singular ending is dropped in plural.

This is the case for the nouns (singular form) that end in a vowel followed by "ie": e.g. "femeie" = "fem" + "e" + "ie".

3) Nouns ending in "-a"

Nouns ending in "a" (singular form), can have one of the following two plural endings:

3.1 If the nouns(singular form) end in "-ea" then the final "a" is dropped and replaced by "le" in plural.

3.2 Other nouns ending in "-a" that add (and do not replace) the ending "-le".

4) Irregular plurals of Romanian feminine nouns

Pronunciation of words ending in "i"

Many of the above plural forms end in "i". The final "i" has a special more silent pronunciation. Please check-out our vowel "i" dedicated pronunciation lesson (section 2).