Romanian cardinal numbers

Romanian cardinal numbers name a quantity: Am două cărți. (I have two books.) Most are invariable, but unu / un / una / o and doi / două change with their role and with the gender of the counted noun.

Which forms do you use for 0–10?

Use unu or una when one stands alone, and use un or o directly before a singular noun. Use doi with masculine plural nouns; use două with feminine and neuter plural nouns. From three through ten, the number itself does not change form.

Number	Romanian	Typical use
0	zero	zero (invariable)
1	unu / una; un / o	Un student, o studentă. (One male student, one female student.)
2	doi / două	Doi studenți, două cărți, două scaune. (Two male students, two books, two chairs.)
3	trei	trei studenți, trei studente, trei scaune (three students, three female students, three chairs)
4	patru	patru zile (four days)
5	cinci	cinci mese (five tables)
6	șase	șase luni (six months)
7	șapte	șapte copii (seven children)
8	opt	opt întrebări (eight questions)
9	nouă	nouă pagini (nine pages)
10	zece	zece minute (ten minutes)

The independent forms answer a question such as Câți sunt? (How many are there?) or Câte sunt? (How many are there?). Compare Unu. (One, for a masculine or neuter noun) with Una. (One, for a feminine noun). Before a noun, the forms are un student, un scaun, and o studentă. The gender agreement pattern for one and two gives the fuller comparison.

How do you form 11–19 and the tens?

The numbers from 11 to 19 are written as one word with -sprezece. The main agreement contrast in this group is doisprezece for masculine nouns versus douăsprezece for feminine and neuter nouns; the other forms are normally invariable.

Range	Forms	Example
11–19	unsprezece, doisprezece / douăsprezece, treisprezece, paisprezece, cincisprezece, șaisprezece, șaptesprezece, optsprezece, nouăsprezece	unsprezece zile (eleven days); doisprezece studenți / douăsprezece studente (twelve male / female students)
20, 30, 40	douăzeci, treizeci, patruzeci	treizeci de minute (thirty minutes)
50, 60, 70	cincizeci, șaizeci, șaptezeci	șaizeci de pagini (sixty pages)
80, 90	optzeci, nouăzeci	nouăzeci de zile (ninety days)
21, 22, and so on	tens + și + units	douăzeci și unu de studenți / douăzeci și două de studente (twenty-one male / female students)

Write the tens as one word: douăzeci, treizeci, and patruzeci. From 21 upward, connect the tens and units with și: douăzeci și trei (twenty-three). Before a counted noun, numbers from 20 through 99 normally use de: douăzeci de cărți (twenty books) and douăzeci și trei de cărți (twenty-three books). See numbers over twenty and the linker de for the expanded pattern.

How do you build hundreds, thousands, and millions?

Place the smaller number before sută (hundred), mie (thousand), milion (million), or miliard (billion). These large-number words have plural forms, and the counted noun after them is introduced by de.

Value	Romanian form	Example
100	o sută	o sută de lei (one hundred lei)
200	două sute	două sute de oameni (two hundred people)
1,000	o mie	o mie de kilometri (one thousand kilometres)
2,000	două mii	două mii de persoane (two thousand people)
1,000,000	un milion	un milion de lei (one million lei)
2,000,000	două milioane	două milioane de euro (two million euros)
1,000,000,000	un miliard	un miliard de dolari (one billion dollars)

Join parts over 100 without an extra și between the hundreds or thousands and the rest: o sută cinci (105), o sută douăzeci și cinci (125), and o mie douăzeci și cinci (1,025). The și in the last example joins the tens and units.
Use de before the noun when the final part is 20–99: o sută cinci cărți (105 books), but o sută douăzeci de cărți (120 books).
Do not build 2,000 as a form meaning “twenty hundred.” Romanian uses două mii, not a compound with sute.
The large-number words can themselves be definite or indefinite nouns: sute de oameni means hundreds of people, while sutele de oameni means the hundreds of people.

What changes in conversation and in more advanced phrases?

In careful writing, keep the full spellings such as unsprezece and doisprezece. In rapid or casual speech, the ending may be reduced in pronunciation, but the shortened sound is not the spelling to use in ordinary writing. For everyday quantity phrases, learn the number together with the noun: trei ore (three hours), douăzeci de minute (twenty minutes), and o mie de lei (one thousand lei).

For a genitive meaning “of three students,” Romanian can use a trei studenți: Rezultatele a trei studenți sunt aici. (The results of three students are here.)
For a dative meaning “to three students,” Romanian can use la trei studenți: Le-am explicat regula la trei studenți. (I explained the rule to three students.) These case patterns are more advanced than the basic counting pattern.
For “three at a time,” place câte before the cardinal number: câte trei (three each). This is a distributive use, not a new cardinal form.

Mistakes to avoid

Do not use una before a feminine noun: say o studentă, but answer independently with una.
Do not use doi with a feminine or neuter plural noun: say două studente and două scaune.
Do not omit și inside a compound such as douăzeci și trei.
Do not omit de before the counted noun in douăzeci de cărți or douăzeci și trei de cărți.
Do not insert și between a hundred and a following tens expression: o sută douăzeci, not o sută și douăzeci.

Test yourself

1 / 5

Which phrase correctly means “one female student”?