Page:A simplified grammar of the Roumanian language.djvu/29

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ADJECTIVES.
17

Those ending with ŭ preceded by i change that ŭ into e:

viŭ, ‘living;’ vie.
viṣiniŭ, ‘cherry-coloured;’ viṣinie, etc.

Those ending in e remain unchanged in the feminine.

Relation of Substantive and Adjective.

In general use the adjectives follow the nouns:

ziua bu, ‘(the) good day.’
séra bu, ‘(the) good evening.’
nópte bu, ‘good night.’

In this case the substantive alone is declined, while the adjective takes no modification except the mark of number:

om bun, ‘good man;’ ómenĭ bu, ‘good men.’
a omuluĭ bun, ‘of the good man;’ a ómenilor bu, ‘of the good men.’
omuluĭ bun, ‘to the good man;’ ómenilor bu, ‘to the good men.’

etc.

The only exception is in the case of feminine adjectives, whose form in the genitive and dative singular depart a little from that of the nominative:

cassă bu, ‘good house;’ casse bune.
a casseĭ bune, a casselor bune.
casseĭ bune, casselor bune.

When the noun takes the article, the adjective can be preceded by the demonstrative cel (feminine cea), ‘this,’ ‘that.’ This takes all the modifications of gender, number, and case, but should be omitted in translation into English

omul cel bun, cassa cea bu. etc.
a omuluĭ celuĭ bun, a casseĭ celeĭ bune, etc.