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Romanian grammar
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===Gender=== Romanian [[noun]]s are categorized into three [[grammatical gender|genders]]: masculine, feminine, and neuter. The neuter behaves like the masculine in the singular and the feminine in the plural, unlike the neuter in [[Latin]] which had distinct forms.<ref>{{cite book|title=Gender across languages |author1=Marlis Hellinger |author2=Hadumod Bussmann |year=2001 |isbn=978-90-272-1841-4|page=231|publisher=John Benjamins }}</ref> Nouns which in their dictionary form ([[grammatical number|singular]], [[nominative case|nominative]], with no [[Article (grammar)|article]]) end in a [[consonant]] or the [[vowel]]/[[semivowel]] '''-u''' are mostly masculine or neuter; if they end in '''-ă''' or '''-a''' they are usually feminine. In the [[plural]], the ending '''-i''' corresponds generally to masculine nouns, whereas feminine and neuter nouns often end in '''-e'''. In [[Synchronic analysis|synchronic]] terms, Romanian [[neuter nouns]] can also be analysed as "ambigeneric", that is as being masculine in the singular and feminine in the plural (see below)<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://people.exeter.ac.uk/kschulte/Schulte-MorphologyOfTheEggs.pdf |title=Morphology of the eggs, and what it can tell us about Romanian nominal inflection |last=Schulte |first=Kim |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20110725165224/http://people.exeter.ac.uk/kschulte/Schulte-MorphologyOfTheEggs.pdf |archive-date=2011-07-25 |url-status=dead |access-date=2009-11-11}}</ref> and even in [[Historical linguistics|diachronic]] terms certain linguists have argued that this pattern, as well as that of case differentiation, was in a sense "re-invented" rather than a "direct" continuation of the Latin neuter.<ref>{{Cite web |url=http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~lingdept/Romanian_MIT%20reprint.pdf |title=Romanian as a Two-Gender Language |last1=Bateman |first1=Nicoleta |last2=Polinsky |first2=Maria |archive-url=https://web.archive.org/web/20100803100804/http://www.fas.harvard.edu/~lingdept/Romanian_MIT%20reprint.pdf |archive-date=2010-08-03 |url-status=dead}}</ref> However, most noun genders correspond to Latin categorization, such as [[first declension]] which remained feminine. Similarly [[third declension]] nouns retained the gender from Latin, neuter included, most likely reinforced by the Latin plural form -ores which gave the feminine plural -uri in Romanian. [[Second declension]] nouns were reanalysed on their semantic characteristic (cervus >cerb "stag" remained masculine but campus >câmp "field" became neutral). As for the [[fourth declension]], the nouns were analysed in regards to their plural endings as the declension collapsed into the second, being reassigned as neutral based on the -ores plural form. The change of gender can thus be explained by syncretism and homophony.<ref>{{Cite web |last=Nicolae |first=Andreea |last2=Scontras |first2=Gregory |date=2015 |title=The progression of gender from Latin to Romanian |url=https://www.academia.edu/19563354/The_progression_of_gender_from_Latin_to_Romanian_Harvard_Working_Papers_in_Linguistics_2015_ |access-date=6 September 2023 |website=Academia.edu}}</ref> Examples: * Masculine: {{Lang|ro|om}} ('man, human being'), {{Lang|ro|bou}} ('ox'), {{Lang|ro|copac}} ('tree'); * Neuter: {{Lang|ro|drum}} ('road'), {{Lang|ro|cadou}} ('present, gift'), {{Lang|ro|exemplu}} ('example'); * Feminine: {{Lang|ro|bunică}} ('grandmother'), {{Lang|ro|carte}} ('book'), {{Lang|ro|cafea}} ('coffee'). For nouns designating people the grammatical gender can only be masculine or feminine, and is strictly determined by the biological sex, no matter the phonetics of the noun. For example, nouns like {{Lang|ro|tată}} (father) and {{Lang|ro|popă}} (priest) are masculine as they refer to male people, although phonetically they are similar to typical feminine nouns. For native speakers, the general rule for [[Romanian nouns#Gender|determining a noun's gender]] relies on the "one-two" test, which consists in inflecting the noun to both the singular and the plural, together with the [[Romanian numbers|numbers]] ''one'' and ''two''. Depending on the gender, the numbers will have different forms for each of the three genders: masculine nouns will be {{Lang|ro|un-doi}}; feminine nouns, {{Lang|ro|o-două}}; neuter nouns, {{Lang|ro|un-două}}. * Masculine: {{Lang|ro|un om}}'','' {{Lang|ro|doi oameni}} ('one human being', 'two human beings'), {{Lang|ro|un iepure}}'','' {{Lang|ro|doi iepuri}} ('one rabbit', 'two rabbits'). In this case both {{Lang|ro|un}} and {{Lang|ro|doi}} are in their masculine forms. * Feminine: {{Lang|ro|o fată}}'','' {{Lang|ro|două fete}} ('one girl', 'two girls'), {{Lang|ro|o pasăre, două păsări}} ('one bird', 'two birds'). In this case both {{Lang|ro|o}} and {{Lang|ro|două}} are in their feminine forms. * Neuter: {{Lang|ro|un corp}}'','' {{Lang|ro|două corpuri}} ('one body', 'two bodies'), {{Lang|ro|un sertar}}'','' {{lang|ro|două sertare}} ('one drawer', 'two drawers'). In this case {{Lang|ro|un}} is in its masculine form while {{Lang|ro|două}} is in its feminine form. This is the only case in which the two numbers have different genders. [[Romanian numbers]] generally have a single form regardless of the gender of the determined noun. Exceptions are the numbers {{Lang|ro|un/o}} ('one') {{Lang|ro|doi/două}} ('two') and all the numbers made up of two or more digits when the last digit is 1 or 2; these have masculine and feminine forms. In Romanian there is no gender-neutral form for numbers, adjectives or other noun determiners.
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