Cât, câtă, câți, and câte

Romanian uses cât, câtă, câți, and câte to ask about quantity: Câte bilete cumperi? (How many tickets are you buying?) The form agrees with the noun when a noun is named.

How do you choose the form?

Use singular cât or câtă with a mass or uncountable noun. Use plural câți or câte with a countable plural noun. Then match gender and number. The same four forms can stand alone when the noun is understood; compare each form with and without a named noun.

Use the singular forms for something measured as a substance, amount, or general quantity: cât lapte (how much milk) and câtă pâine (how much bread). Use the plural forms for separate countable items or people: câți oameni (how many people) and câte cărți (how many books).

Grammatical gender controls the form, not the sex of the people or the type of thing being counted: câți studenți and câți oameni, but câte persoane and câte exerciții.

Where does the noun go?

Put the quantity word directly before the noun it quantifies. In this basic pattern, the noun follows without an article: câte bilete, not câte biletele and not câte niște bilete.

Why does neuter gender use two patterns?

A neuter noun uses the masculine agreement pattern in the singular and the feminine agreement pattern in the plural. That is why you say cât timp with the singular neuter noun timp and câte scaune with the plural neuter noun scaune. See Romanian noun gender for the wider agreement pattern.

What happens when no noun follows?

When cât asks about price, duration, or an understood amount, it stays in the form cât: Cât costă biletul? (How much does the ticket cost?) and Cât durează filmul? (How long does the film last?) When the understood noun is plural, use câți or câte: Câți au răspuns? (How many answered?) or Câte au rămas? (How many are left?)

What word order is neutral?

Place the full quantity phrase near the beginning. The verb keeps its ordinary form. Romanian does not add an English-style auxiliary do: Câte mesaje ai trimis? (How many messages did you send?)

• When the quantity phrase is the subject, it normally comes before the verb: Câți studenți au venit? (How many students came?)
• When another subject is named, the verb can come before that subject: Cât costă cafeaua? (How much does the coffee cost?)
• When the quantity word modifies a noun, keep the two together: Câte pagini citește Ana? (How many pages is Ana reading?), not a separated phrase modeled on English.

What advanced forms might you recognize?

The forms above are the basic nominative–accusative forms. They appear in subject and direct-object patterns. In more advanced genitive–dative phrases such as recipient questions, you may see câtor before a noun and câtora standing alone: Câtor colegi le-ai trimis un mesaj? (How many colleagues did you send a message to?) The grammatical role determines the form; keep the basic forms in an ordinary subject question.

Mistakes to avoid

• Do not use câți with every plural noun. Say câte cărți and câte scaune, but câți colegi.
• Do not use a singular form with a countable plural noun: câte bilete, not cât bilete.
• Do not add the definite article after the quantity word: Câte bilete ai?, not Câte biletele ai?.
• Do not choose from the sex of the people being counted. The noun's grammatical gender controls the form: câte persoane but câți oameni.
• Do not confuse cât in Cât costă? with agreement on an omitted plural noun. With a named plural noun, choose câți or câte instead.