After wrestling with the singular genitive-dative — where masculine and neuter nouns take -lui (omului) but feminine nouns take -ei/-ii built on the plural stem (fetei, cărții) — the plural comes as a genuine relief. In the plural, the genitive-dative is uniform across all three genders: it ends in -lor, full stop. Copiilor, fetelor, trenurilor — masculine, feminine, neuter — all take the same ending. Where the singular forces you to track gender, the plural lets you forget it.
One ending, all genders
In the singular you had to ask "is this masculine or feminine?" before you could form the genitive-dative. In the plural that question disappears. Take the definite plural and the gen-dat is simply that form with -lor instead of the plural article.
| Gender | Definite plural (nom/acc) | Genitive-dative plural | Meaning |
|---|---|---|---|
| masculine | copiii | copiilor | of / to the children |
| masculine | oamenii | oamenilor | of / to the people |
| feminine | casele | caselor | of / to the houses |
| feminine | florile | florilor | of / to the flowers |
| feminine | fetele | fetelor | of / to the girls |
| neuter | trenurile | trenurilor | of / to the trains |
| neuter | caietele | caietelor | of / to the notebooks |
The mechanical recipe: take the bare plural (copii, case, flori, trenuri) and add -lor. You can also think of it as taking the definite plural (copiii, casele, florile) and swapping the article (-i, -le) for -lor. Either route lands you in the same place.
Cărțile copiilor sunt împrăștiate prin toată casa.
The children's books are scattered all over the house.
Le-am dat copiilor câte un măr.
I gave the children an apple each.
The first sentence is genitive (copiilor tells you whose books — it modifies cărțile), the second is dative (copiilor is the recipient of am dat, doubled by the clitic le). Exactly as in the singular, the form is the same and only the role in the sentence differs.
Genitive vs dative: still the same form, still parsed by function
Everything from the syncretism page carries over unchanged. Florilor is both "of the flowers" and "to the flowers." You tell which one you are looking at by asking the same question as in the singular: does the -lor word modify another noun (genitive) or feed the verb (dative)?
Parfumul florilor umplea toată camera.
The scent of the flowers filled the whole room. (genitive — florilor modifies parfumul)
Apa florilor trebuie schimbată zilnic.
The flowers' water needs changing daily. (genitive)
Le-am mulțumit colegilor pentru cadou.
I thanked my colleagues for the gift. (dative — le doubles colegilor)
Profesorul le-a explicat elevilor regula de trei ori.
The teacher explained the rule to the pupils three times. (dative)
Notice the dative examples carry the plural clitic le in front of the verb — the same obligatory doubling you learned in the singular (where it was îi). The plural clitic le anticipating an -lor noun is a near-certain dative signal.
The indefinite plural: unor
So far we have used the definite plural ("the children", "the flowers"). When the possessor or recipient is indefinite — "some children", "a few friends" — Romanian does not put -lor on the noun itself. Instead the gen-dat marking jumps onto the indefinite article niște/unii, which surfaces in the genitive-dative as unor, and the noun stays in its bare plural.
| Nominative indefinite | Genitive-dative indefinite | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| niște copii | unor copii | of / to some children |
| niște prieteni | unor prieteni | of / to some friends |
| niște fete | unor fete | of / to some girls |
So the contrast is copiilor (definite, "of/to the children") versus unor copii (indefinite, "of/to some children"). In the definite version the case lives on the noun; in the indefinite version it lives on the determiner unor and the noun is left bare. This parallels the singular, where definite unui copil / unei fete carry the case on unui/unei.
Părerea unor colegi conta mai mult decât a altora.
The opinion of some colleagues counted more than that of others. (indefinite genitive)
Le-am promis unor prieteni că vin la nuntă.
I promised some friends I'd come to the wedding. (indefinite dative — note the noun copii/prieteni stays bare)
Why the plural is the easy one
Here is the satisfying part for a learner. The singular genitive-dative is the messiest case form in Romanian because it splits by gender: omului but fetei, trenului but cărții. The plural throws all of that away. Latin already pointed the way — its plural genitive (-orum, -arum, -um) and dative (-is) were distinct, but across the Romance shift Romanian collapsed them into a single inherited -lor (from Latin illorum, "of those"), and that form became gender-blind in the process.
For an English speaker this is the cleanest possible deal: English plurals add -s and then of the or 's with no case ending at all (the children's books, the books of the children). Romanian asks you to learn exactly one suffix, -lor, attach it to the plural you already know, and you have covered both possession and the indirect object for every plural noun in the language. There is no gender table to memorize and no irregular subclass. If you can pluralize a noun, you can already form its genitive-dative plural.
Drepturile cetățenilor sunt garantate prin constituție.
The rights of citizens are guaranteed by the constitution. (formal register, genitive)
Statul le datorează pensionarilor banii la timp.
The state owes pensioners their money on time. (dative)
Common Mistakes
❌ Cărțile copilor sunt aici.
Incorrect — using the singular-style stem; the plural gen-dat is built on the full plural copii → copiilor.
✅ Cărțile copiilor sunt aici.
The children's books are here.
❌ Le-am dat copilului mere la toți. (meaning 'to the children')
Incorrect — copilului is singular ('to the child'); for a plural recipient you need copiilor.
✅ Le-am dat copiilor mere.
I gave the children apples.
❌ Părerea unor colegilor conta mult.
Incorrect — you cannot stack unor and -lor; indefinite drops -lor and keeps the bare plural.
✅ Părerea unor colegi conta mult.
The opinion of some colleagues counted a lot.
❌ Casa florilor de pe balcon (meaning 'the houseplants' pot')
Watch the gender trap in reverse — there is no separate feminine plural ending; florilor is correct, but learners sometimes invent *florelor by analogy with the singular florii.
✅ Ghiveciul florilor de pe balcon.
The pot of the flowers on the balcony.
Key Takeaways
- The plural genitive-dative is -lor for every gender — copiilor, fetelor, trenurilor — with no gender table to learn.
- Build it by adding -lor to the bare plural (or swapping the plural article for -lor).
- Genitive and dative remain one form; tell them apart by function (modifies a noun = genitive; feeds the verb = dative), and watch for the doubling clitic le.
- The indefinite plural moves the case onto unor and leaves the noun bare: unor copii, never unor copiilor.
Now practice Romanian
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Start learning Romanian→Related Topics
- Genitive-Dative SyncretismB1 — Why Romanian's genitive and dative are a single form — fetei means both 'the girl's' and 'to the girl' — and how syntax, not morphology, tells you which case you're looking at.
- The Genitive (possession, 'of')B1 — How Romanian expresses possession and the 'of'-relation by inflecting the possessor — masculine -lui, feminine -ei/-ii — with no preposition, plus proper names with lui and the genitival article al/a/ai/ale.
- The Dative (indirect object, 'to')B1 — The dative marks the recipient or beneficiary of an action ('to/for someone') using the same form as the genitive — with obligatory clitic doubling and a set of verbs whose government you learn one by one.
- Dative Clitic Pronouns (îmi, îți, îi, ne, vă, le)A2 — The dative clitics — îmi, îți, îi, ne, vă, le — mark the recipient ('to/for me'). They power Îmi place, Îți spun, Îi dau; they OBLIGATORILY double a full dative noun (Îi spun Mariei); and 'îi' is a double agent meaning both 'to him/her' and 'them' (acc. masc.).
- The Possessive Dative (Mă doare capul)B1 — For body parts and close belongings Romanian marks the owner with a CLITIC — dative or accusative — plus the definite article, not a possessive adjective: MĂ doare capul (not capul MEU mă doare), MI-am rupt piciorul. So 'my head hurts' literally becomes 'the head hurts ME', the owner riding on the verb as a clitic. This page teaches when to use the clitic, dative vs accusative, and why the overt possessive sounds wrong.