Masculine nouns in Romanian. Plural endings

A masculine noun designates a word referring to a male person, animal, bird, etc., or professions and nationalities referring to males.

Certain objects are also masculine: pantalon – pantaloni (trousers), pantof – pantofi (shoes), as are some fruits: strugure –struguri (grapes), pepene – pepeni (melon), and some vegetables: castravete –castraveți (cucumber), ardei – ardei (pepper), morcov – morcovi (carrot).

The plural ending for a masculine noun is always "i". This letter is added to the end of a noun, but in most cases vowel or consonant mutations in the root also occur.

Play: masculine nouns plural

Examples

consonant,  -i

prieten,prieteni (engl. friend)

băiat,băieți (engl. boy)

 -u  -i

fiu,fii (engl. son)

leu,lei (engl. lion)

 -e  -i

frate,frați (engl. brother)

câine,câini (engl. dog)

 -i  -i

ochi,ochi (engl. eye)

pui,pui (engl. chicken)

Exceptions

tată,tați (engl. father)

popă,popi (engl. priest)

cal,cai (engl. horse)

copil,copii (engl. child)

Remarks

There are no specific rules for vowel or consonant mutations: băiat (singular) – băieți (plural), frate (singular) – frați (plural).

In the singular, the masculine nouns have different endings: consonant (prieten), -u (fiu), -e (câine), -i (ochi), -ă (tată).

Certain masculine words have identical singular and plural forms ("ochi,ochi" or "pui,pui").

Mona Moldoveanu Pologea, PhD Linguist

ROLANG School Managing Director