"bărbatul"

Translation: the man

[arf101088]

I notice that "bărbat" is in the sentence, ended by "ul". For reference to others, I assume this is a suffix "-ul" defining a specific object, using the English "the". I'm a bit confused on this, but this is my guess. Correct me if I'm wrong.

[MarksAaron]

You're totally correct. In fact this suffix shows up in the famous name "Dracula". This was originally 'Drac-ul', "the dragon", the title of Vlad II of Wallachia. His son, Vlad III - the ruler associated with the Dracula legend - was then called "Dracula", a Slavicized form meaning "(son) of the dragon".

[ziyayerlik]

-ul is the definite article used for some masculine and neuter nouns. bărbat > bărbatul (man > the man), băiat > băiatul (boy > the boy), fruct > fructul (fruit > the fruit) etc.

[arf101088]

Thank you for your answer, but that leaves me at another confusion. I'm familiar with gender-specific nouns (being partial to German), but how do I determine what nouns are masculine, feminine, and neuter?

[BogdanZegh]

Hi, Eric_Allen. If the noun ends in "e", "ă" or "a" you know it is feminine. For the one ending in "i" it is not that simple: zi - day (feminin), ardei - pepper (masculin). The rest are masculin or neuter which behave similar (have the same article "ul").

In my head, I cannot find exceptions to this rule right now.

[potestasity]

I'd to add that there exist masculine nouns ending in "e" and "ă" (although there are very few with "ă"):
conte - count
tată - father

The noun "cinema" is neutral and ends in "a" (maybe there's more, but I can't think of it right now).

[BrasovDesign]

Actually, there is no clear cut rule. As in German, or French, you have to learn the gender of every noun.

[BrasovDesign]

It can be masculine with -e ending too: un păduche, un grăunte, un munte etc.

[craaash80]

Just like in Scandinavian languages, e.g. Norwegian

"mann" = man

"Mannen" = The man

[raztud]

Note also, in the normal speaking sometimes you can't hear the ending l.

[Jinxedfoxy]

That is the mistake I made. I didn't hear the ending in normal speed. I always have to listen to the slow version to get it. Sometimes that voice is so hard to understand even then!

[ziniamanto]

Once thee can hear it on the slow speed, always go back to the regular speed until thee can hear it (but don't despair if thee can't; sometimes it's actually not there!). This will help immensely when thee finally gets to chat with native speakers. Thee won't need to interrupt them every 2 seconds to ask them to speak slower :)

[Grandilocuente]

Romanian is the only romance language whose definite articles come after the word! Very interesting!

[Ars_inveniendi]

Strictly speaking, the article doesn't come after the word. The article is an enclitic, it attaches to the end of the word.

[Ars_inveniendi]

I was going to try to summarize the noun-gender rules, but they were a little more complicated than I gleaned from my text. Take a look here https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Romanian_nouns

[dhonciuc07]

So everything that ends in "ul" just means "the" and then the part that precedes "ul"?

[BrasovDesign]

There are words that end in -ul in their non-articulated form and add another one when articulated (tumul = tumulus, tumulul = the tumulus). But most of the time you can GUESS that a word ending in -ul is masculine/neuter and articulated.

[Kon29580]

c

[LovRailWay]

I dont ❤❤❤❤ understand hw diffrnts between barbat barbatul copil copilul mar marul laptele lapte ❤❤❤❤ :/