"un copil, doi copii"

Translation: a child, two children

[ESCDritero]

When do you use "doi" and when do you use "două?"

[sebastianmolin]

doi is used for masculine plural words, două is feminine plural words or neutral plural words :-)

[Hector290697]

Just like Portuguese. Dois for male plural, duas for female plural. Not like us Spanish speakers who only have "dos" for both plural genders.

[Orcaguy]

Două is the feminine form of doi, e.g. "două mere", "two apples"

[Vlaedimir]

măr is neutral

[Ars_inveniendi]

Neuter words take the feminine form in the plural and the masculine in the singular

[reareaumbi]

Can you explain this? Neuter nouns in the plural form takes the feminine plural or singular form? And neuter nouns in the singular takes the masculine singular or plural?

[asmith630]

In a lengthier and more linguistic explanation, I assume that very early on, masculine, feminine, and neuter had very different forms, like in Latin. However, over centuries of use, the sounds and spellings of Romanian changed in such a way that the neuter words most resembled masculine in their singular forms, but feminine in their plural forms. Which is how they are often described today.

[Momzi]

Yes, neuter singular takes the form of masculine singular, and the same neuter at plural takes the feminine plural

[OsoGegenHest]

You’ll find it’s the same in Italian.

[BrasovDesign]

The singulare of any neuter noun IS and behave like a masculine. The plural of any neuter noun is feminine and inflected as such.

Example: one juice = un suc (masculine)

the juice = sucul (masculine)

two juices = două sucuri (feminine) (not „doi” as it would be for masculine plural)

the juices = sucurile

[_hagopian_patil_]

Doi is for male. Două is for female.

[CristianoPoa]

Why does "copii" sound like "copin"?

[asmith630]

Probably a not so good speech software.

[blDraX]

So the correct way to pronounce it is just 'copi' with a long i?

[Jinxedfoxy]

I think it is more like "copee", but I could be wrong. :)

[Robbadob]

Copii should be pronounce /koˈpij/. Whether that's what you mean by "copee" I'm not sure. It's like how "copee" would be pronounced in English but with a little push at the end, which is what CristianoPoa is hearing.

[2019/04/20]

[Jinxedfoxy]

I don't know. I didn't pick up on that. Listening to it again, it sounds like copeen now lol!

[Zerr_]

Do all the numbers change by gender like this?

[potestasity]

No. Only one, two, twelve, and all numbers ending in them:

Two forms for one:
I have one pig. - Am un porc.
How many pigs do you have? One. - Câți porci ai? Unu.

I have one cow. - Am o vacă.
How many cows do you have? One. - Câte vaci ai? Una.

Two:
I have two pigs. - Am doi porci.
I have two cows. - Am două vaci.

Twelve:
I have twelve pigs. - Am doisprezece porci.
I have twelve cows. - Am douăsprezece vaci.

Numbers ending in one/two/twelve:
I have twenty one pigs. - Am douăzeci și unu* de** porci.
I have twenty one cows. - Am douăzeci și una de vaci.

I have twenty two pigs. - Am douăzeci și doi de porci.
I have twenty two cows. - Am douăzeci și două de vaci.

I have a hundred and twelve pigs. - Am o sută doisprezece porci.
I have a hundred and twelve cows. - Am o sută douăsprezece vaci.

* note that the două in "douăzeci" agrees in gender with the word "zeci" (tens).
** you can ignore the "de" particle for now :)

[Zerr_]

Excellent explanation. Mersi!

[AnCatDubh]

Isn’t there a special mix for neuter nouns?

[BrasovDesign]

What do you mean by mix?

A neuter noun is a noun that have a masculine form and behaviour in its singular form and a feminine form and behaviour when in plural form.

[LaurelForever]

This is confusing. Duolingo doesn't explain it well enough.

[RoyalBryan]

I'm right there with you. Numbers and gender can be hard to grasp.