Page:A simplified grammar of the Roumanian language.djvu/25

From Wikisource
Jump to navigation Jump to search
This page has been proofread, but needs to be validated.
THE FEMININE ARTICLE.
13

We have seen that in the plural all masculine nouns end in ĭ. The plural bearing the article will be shown by adding a second ĭ, whereby the former ĭ becomes long i:

Romă, ‘Roumanians;’ Romăniĭ, ‘the Roumanians.’
po, ‘fruit-trees;’ pomiĭ, ‘the fruit-trees.’
re, ‘kings;’ regiĭ, ‘the kings.’
socrĭ, father-in-law;’ socriĭ, the fathers-in-law.’
dumnezeĭ, ‘gods;’ dumneze, ‘the gods.’
po, ‘priests;’ popiĭ, ‘the priests.’
ciocoĭ, ‘parvenus;’ cioco, ‘the parvenus.’
caĭ, ‘horses;’ ca, ‘the horses.’

Note.—Copil, ‘boy,’ has the plural copiĭ, by the omission of l; the articled noun will be of course copi; thus fiŭ, ‘son,’ fiĭ, ‘sons,’ fi, ‘the sons.’

The Feminine Article.

The article is expressed in the feminine by an affixed a, but how this is done depends upon the final letter of the noun itself.

A noun ending in ă will change ă into a:

Romă, ‘Roumanian;’ Romăna, ‘the Roumanian.’
nepó, ‘niece;’ nepóta, ‘the niece.’
professó, ‘teacher;’ professóra, ‘the teacher.’
cassă, ‘house;’ cassa, ‘the house.’
miréssă, ‘bride;’ miréssa, ‘the bride.’

Those ending in e do not change this e, but add the letter a to it; thus—

carte, ‘book;’ cartea, ‘the book.’
păne, ‘bread;’ pănea, ‘the bread.’
curte, ‘court;’ curtea, ‘the court.’