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

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.
copilă,	‘girl;’	copilo, copilelor.