# The -ul ending on nouns | definite article



## birder

What is the siginifance of the -ul ending on Romanian nouns?  It is not listed as a plural form in the book I have, but I would appreciate help in what it means.

For instance there a certain parrot called a nanday parrot in English, and I have seen it described in Romanian as:

Papagal cu glugă neagră       and

Papagalul cu glugă neagră

What is the difference?  Thank you.


----------



## kernowseb

It is simply the masculine/neuter (M/N) singular definite article which is a suffix, cf. Macedonian, Bulgarian and Albanian.

Further examples being for M/N nouns ending in a consonant or -u:

om - om*ul* : man - *the* man
drum - drum*ul* : road - *the* road
bou - bo*ul* : ox - *the* ox
cadou - cado*ul* : present/gift - *the* present/gift

If the M/N noun ends in an -e the singular definite article is -le:

nume - nume*le* : name - *the* name
rege - rege*le* : king - *the* king

Hope this makes sense!


----------



## OldAvatar

Good explanation!
However, I should add that the article is only -l (like in other Romance languages: il, el etc), -u is only a connection vowel, forming together the suffix -ul.
Why did this article ended up at the final of a word and not in front of nouns like in the others Romance languages, it is still under debate...

Papagal cu glugă neagră = Parrot with a black hood
Papagalul cu glugă neagră = The parrot with a black hood

Best regards,
OA


----------



## birder

Thank you very much.  Now this is quite clear.  I appreciate the detail.

I think this "article at the end" also occurs in Dansh, an unrelated language.

In Spanish the same thing happens with pronouns used with an infinitiive.  Usually pronouns are placed before the verb. except when the verb is an infinitive. 

*Les* escribo una carta.   I write them a letter.

Voy a escribir*les* una carta.    I am going to write a letter to them.


----------



## Kosh75287

Is there a definite article for feminine nouns? Perhaps "-la" or "-le", rather than just "-l"? Mulţămesc!


----------



## farscape

No, there isn’t  Watch the termination vowel changing below (feminine nouns are always ending in a vowel)

(a) woman -> (o) femeie
the woman -> femeia

(a) house -> (o) casă
the house -> casa


Can you figure out the rule?

(BTW, _mulţămesc_ is an archaic form, the commonly used form is _mulţumesc_.)

f.


----------



## Kosh75287

The trend that *I'M* seeing is that the terminating vowel converts to the "short" sound, to indicate a definite article? I note that the terminating vowel in the noun (a) house is the ä, which is pronounced with more of an "ooh" sound than the "short"a (pronounced "ahh"). I MUST disclaim any real skill with the language. I have always had far more FASCINATION for Română than any actual SKILL in speaking it. For one thing, the Romanian community in Dallas/Fort Worth seems very concentrated and somewhat unsure what to think about non-Romanians who want to learn the culture and the language. 

Perhaps I APPEAR or ACT in some manner that Romanians in particular find intimidating, but I think this unlikely. I briefly considered making a sign saying "Eu nu sunt Securitate!" for occasions on which I might encounter Romanian ex-patriots, but I can also see the potential for my sarcastic gesture being badly misunderstood. 

I'll remember to use the mulţ*ă*mesc spelling from this day forward. But frankly, I am amazed that I was even a little bit close to the correct spelling.

Vä mulţ*ä*mesc pentru ajutor!


----------

