Interrogative pronouns and determiners

Romanian interrogative pronouns ask about a person, thing, choice, or quantity. Some stand alone, while others can come before a noun: Cine vine? (Who is coming?) but Ce film vezi? (What film are you watching?).

What do the main interrogative forms ask?

Use cine for a person, ce for a thing, activity, or state, care to choose from a set, and cât/câtă/câți/câte for quantity. Then check whether the form stands alone or modifies a noun and whether it must agree with that noun.

How do you choose a pronoun or a determiner?

A pronoun replaces a noun and stands by itself. A determiner comes directly before a noun and helps identify or quantify it. Romanian grammars often call these noun-modifying forms pronominal adjectives. For this lesson, check whether a noun appears immediately after the question word.

• Cine asks about people and functions only as a pronoun. It cannot appear directly before a noun: say Cine este studentul? (Who is the student?), not cine student.
• Ce is invariable, so it does not change for gender or number: ce film, ce carte, and ce filme. As a determiner, it can ask about the type or quality of a person or thing: Ce student este Radu? (What kind of student is Radu?). Ce fel de student explicitly asks about the kind of student.
• Care selects one or more items from a known or limited set: Care dintre aceste variante este corectă? (Which of these options is correct?). In nominative-accusative use, care has one form for all genders and numbers.
• Cât asks about an uncountable quantity, while câți/câte ask about countable plural nouns. The form agrees with the noun or with the understood noun when it stands alone.

How do cât forms agree?

Match cât to the gender and number of the noun. Use singular cât with masculine or neuter nouns and câtă with feminine nouns; use plural câți with masculine nouns and câte with feminine or neuter nouns.

The noun after a quantitative interrogative normally has no article: câte cărți, not câte niște cărți and not câte cărțile. Neuter nouns follow the masculine singular and feminine plural agreement patterns, as in cât vin (how much wine) versus câte scaune (how many chairs). See Romanian noun gender for the agreement pattern.

What changes in the basic cases?

For A2 questions, learn the common nominative-accusative forms of cine and care together with the genitive-dative forms used for recipients, possession, or a selected person or thing. The Romanian case system explains the larger pattern.

Ce usually expresses genitive-dative meanings with another construction at this level. The genitive-dative forms of cât are more advanced, so keep the agreement pattern first; recognize câtor in Câtor colegi le-ai scris? (How many colleagues did you write to?).

Use cui for the dative question “to whom?”: Cui îi trimiți mesajul? (Who are you sending the message to?). The repeated îi is a short dative pronoun; it is common in a complete sentence.

Use cui with the genitive article for “whose?”: A cui este geanta? (Whose bag is it?). The article agrees with the gender and number of the thing possessed. See the genitive articles for that agreement.

Use the standalone forms căruia, căreia, and cărora when the question means “to which one/person?” or “to which ones?”: Căreia i-ai trimis fotografia? (Which one did you send the photograph to?); Cărora le-ai mulțumit? (Which ones did you thank?). Before a noun, use the shorter agreeing forms cărui, cărei, and căror: Cărei colege i-ai trimis fotografia? (Which female colleague did you send the photograph to?).

When do you use pe cine?

Use pe cine when cine is the direct object of the verb. Romanian marks this human direct-object question with pe: Pe cine ai invitat? (Whom did you invite?). Do not use pe when cine is the subject or when cui is the dative recipient.

A standalone direct-object question with care commonly uses Pe care îl alegi? (Which one do you choose?), with pe and a matching clitic. A noun-modifying question has the noun in the phrase, as in Pe care student îl recomanzi? (Which student do you recommend?). The full doubling pattern belongs to Romanian object pronoun doubling. At this level, use cine for a subject, pe cine for a direct object, and cui without pe for an indirect object.

What is the neutral question word order?

Put the interrogative word or phrase near the beginning, then use the ordinary finite verb. Romanian does not add an English-style auxiliary do for these questions.

Other word orders are possible for contrast or focus, but the patterns above are the neutral starting point.

How are interrogatives different from relative pronouns?

Interrogatives ask a direct question: Care carte este a ta? (Which book is yours?). Relative pronouns introduce a non-question clause: Cartea care este pe masă este a mea. (The book that is on the table is mine.). The forms can overlap, but relative-clause syntax is outside this lesson; see relative pronouns.