Page:A simplified grammar of the Roumanian language.djvu/26

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14
ROUMANIAN GRAMMAR.

Those which end with a, e, or i long, add the particle a to the final vowel, inserting u for the sake of euphony:

basma, ‘handkerchief;’ basma-u-a, ‘the handkerchief.’
sté, ‘star;’ stéua, ‘the star.’
belé, ‘grievance;’ beléua, ‘the grievance.’
zi, ‘day;’ ziua, ‘the day.’

Feminine nouns, as we have seen, form their plurals in several ways—nouns which end in ă changing the ă into e in the plural, those ending in e changing the e into ĭ, those ending with a, e, and i long all adding the particle le in the plural. In all cases the plural definite article is formed by the addition of le:

casse, ‘houses;’ cassele, ‘the houses.’
cărṭĭ, ‘books;’ cărṭile, ‘the books.’
basmale, ‘handkerchiefs;’ basmalele, ‘the handkerhicefs.’
stele, ‘stars;’ stelele, ‘the stars.’

Cases of Nouns.

Roumanian grammarians usually arrange the cases as follows:

Nominative. Dative.
Vocative. Accusative.
Genitive. Ablative.

We have already seen the nominative case, this being the noun with or without the article.

The vocative case for the masculine ends in e for the singular, and lor for the plural; to the feminine o for the singular, and lor for the plural:

om, ‘man;’ omule, ómenilor.
copi, ‘girl;’ copilo, copilelor.