A1.2 Romanian numbers eleven (11) to one hundred (100)
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In lesson A0.8 Romanian numbers you have learned the Romanian numbers from zero to ten.
In this lesson you are going to learn how to count to one hundred in Romanian. It will help you while shopping in Romanian, writing down an Romanian address, or a phone number. Or maybe you would like to become an Romanian accountant :).
In this lesson you will study:
- the Romanian numbers from 11 to 20
- the Romanian numbers form 21 to 30
- the numbers 40, 50, 60, 70,80 ,90 and 100
How to count in Romanian from eleven (11) to twenty (20)
| English | Romanian translation |
Audio | Phonetic Transcription |
|---|---|---|---|
eleven | unsprezece | | |
twelve | doisprezece | | |
thirteen | treisprezece | | |
fourteen | paisprezece | | |
fifteen | cincisprezece | | |
sixteen | șaisprezece | | |
seventeen | șaptesprezece | | |
eighteen | optsprezece | | |
nineteen | nouăsprezece | | |
twenty | douăzeci | |
How to count in Romanian from twenty one (21) to thirty (30)
| English | Romanian translation |
Audio | Phonetic Transcription |
|---|---|---|---|
Twenty one | Douăzeci și unu | | |
Twenty two | Douăzeci și doi | | |
Twenty three | Douăzeci și trei | | |
Twenty four | Douăzeci și patru | | |
Twenty five | Douăzeci și cinci | | |
Twenty six | Douăzeci și șase | | |
Twenty seven | Douăzeci și șapte | | |
Twenty eight | Douăzeci și opt | | |
Twenty nine | Douăzeci și nouă | | |
Thirty | Treizeci | |
How to say the Romanian numbers from forty (40) to one hundred (100)
| English | Romanian translation |
Audio | Phonetic Transcription |
|---|---|---|---|
Forty | Patruzeci | | |
Fifty | Cincizeci | | |
Sixty | Șaizeci | | |
Seventy | Șaptezeci | | |
Eighty | Optzeci | | |
Ninety | Nouăzeci | | |
One hundred | O sută | |
To reach the Romanian numbers e.g. 43 or 67 you will need to follow the same pattern: 40 and 3, 60 and 7.
If you are not sure how to say it in Romanian just drop us a comment at the bottom of this page. We'll be happy to answer.
Colloquial forms of numbers in Romanian
Here is an example of a Romanian native speaker saying șaișopt.
And another example of a Romanian saying douășpatru
13 comments
Add numbers from 20 to 30
Hi,
Thank you for this Romanian lesson on numbers. Would it be possible to add the numbers from 20 to 30?
Thanks
Romanian numbers
Hi,
I have added the Romanian numbers from 20 to 100 on top of the existing ones from 11 to 20.
You might be interested in the Romanian numbers exercises at the end of the lesson.
Enjoy it!
Short forms
I often hear short forms of numbers above ten, such as "nouășpe lei și patrușcinci de bani" in shops. It's a little confusing, but you need to recognize these forms even if you don't use them yourself.
Nitpick (English teacher here): "ninety" keeps the 'e'. When we write the ordinal number "ninth" however, the 'e' disappears. I don't know why; English is weird.
Colloquial Romanian - Street Language
Hi,
You are right in saying that spoken Romanian, as any other language differs from written Romanian. I'll add the most common colloquial forms of the numbers including pronunciation. While the above forms (e.g. unsprezece) are the correct ones, that are accepted in writing as well as formal situations, the colloquial forms are used by many native speakers this is why I agree with you that it is important to be able to recognize them. However they are not correct from a Romanian vocabulary point of view, you won't find them in a Romanian dictionary(unless it has colloquial forms).
Here is a list:
11 - unșpe
12 - doișpe
13 - treișpe
14 - paișpe
15 - cinșpe
16 - șaișpe
17 - șaptișpe
18 - optișpe
19 - nouășpe
20 - douăzeci (this is the same form as the normal written one)
There are also a few variations of the above colloquial forms, but they are less used.
I'll do my best to add the audio of these colloquial forms asap. I'll try to finish the pronunciation lessons (the one with the combined vowels) first.
Street Language for Numbers in Romanian
When learning or when I went to Romania earlier this year, I used more of the street language for numbers in Romanian, especially 11-19 (unșpe, doișpe ...) because it is shorter and easier to say and pronounce in daily life. Correct me if I'm wrong because I also do this way with 21, 22, 37, 56, 83 ... that I get rid of "și" (meaning "and") and just saying for example douăzeci unu (21), douăzeci doi (22) instead of saying douăzeci și unu (21) and seemed to be fine as well. Though grammatically or in written form, it does look weird because I'm used to writing "și", but in spoken form, not using "și", at least for me, wasn't a problem.
Thank you for sharing your
Thank you for sharing your feedback,
You are right, on the street the colloquial Romanian can be applied. One would pronounce 21 in Romanian as "douășunu" in one word, thus removing the "zeci" from the written form, not the "și". "și", actually just the "ș" must remain. You cannot remove ''ș" completely, you cannot say "douăunu" as this would be translated as "twoone". Eventually native Romanians would understand that what you mean by two and one is actually twenty one, but from a language point of view in the colloquial/street Romanian version you need to add the "ș".
To give you a few other examples
paișpe 14
treișpatru 34
patrușcinci 45
șaișapte 67
The above is just the phonetical transcription as in writting unless you are writing to friends that will forgive you :) , this is not correct and considered to be poor Romanian. In writing unless you are asked to spell it out you can always write it as a number 21.
If you have any other questions just let me know.
Happy to help!
Thanks
Thanks for all the time you put into this. This reminds me of a lesson I was supposed to give at someone's house. He gave me his address using one of those colloquial forms, and it was over the phone which made it even harder. When I found his apartment in the freezing cold he wasn't even there! Living in Romania has its challenges but I love it! An interesting time to be here right now too.
24
Hi there. At the section "How to count from 21 to 30" there is a video. Is the women saying douășpatru? And what is common to use in a shop: douășpatru or douăzeci și patru? Or is both quite common?
The Romanian lady says
The Romanian lady says "douășpatru" - twenty four.
Douășpatru is the coloquial way of saying douăzeci și patru.
In everyday spoken Romanian you hear it a lot.
21, 31, 41, 51, 61, 71, 81, 91
What are the preferred forms in spoken language for: 21, 31, 41, 51, 61, 71, 81, 91. My guess is the following: douăzecișunu, treişunu, patruşunu, cinşunu, şaişunu, şaptizişunu, optizişunu, nouăzișunu. (I am not sure, especially about 21, 71, 81 and 91). What do you think is the most common form for 21, 31, 41, 51, 61, 71, 81, 91?
The preferred spoken
The preferred spoken colloquial forms are
21 douășunu
31 treișunu
41 patrușunu
51 cinzecișunu
61 șaișunu
71 șapteșunu
81 optzecișunu
91 nouășunu
I found one clip where one Romanian is saying șaișopt, I'll add it temporarily at the end of the lesson and then after some weeks I'll remove it, just for you to hear a native speaker.
The person in that clip has a bit of accent from Transylvania but a light one.
Happy to help!
Thanks so much! very nice to
Thanks so much! very nice to hear both of them, especially the douășpatru is very clear. Now a difficult question: any idea why cinzecișunu and optzecișunu are used, and not a shorter form? With regard to all the numbers: my impression is that on Radio Romania Actualitati they most of the time use the offcial forms for numbers.
I'm happy to you found it
I'm happy to you found it useful.
Cinzecișunu is already a shorter form because you are skipping the break/spaces between the words cinezeci și unu
Cinșunu is also a valid colloquial form and actually you may hear it, however when the listener can understand from the context that this is 51.
For example a cashier at a bank counting money manually would definitely say cinșunu , cinșdoi because (s)he would be counting very fast the money.
But cinșunu it's considered improper Romanian even for spoken language, however some Romanian surely are using this form.
It is normal to hear on the radio and on TV cinzeci și unu because this is standard Romanian.
I hope I was able to help, if you have further questions just let me know.
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