A possessive determiner says whose something is — English my, your, his, her, our, their. Romanian has the full set, but with two structural surprises for an English speaker. First, the possessive agrees with the thing owned, not the owner: "my" is meu before a masculine noun and mea before a feminine one. Second, the possessive normally follows a definite noun — Romanian says cartea mea, literally "the-book my", not "my book". Both habits run against English, where my is a single frozen word that replaces "the". This page lays out the forms and the frame; for the special his/her tangle see său/sa vs lui/ei.
The full paradigm
Five of the six possessives agree across four forms (masc. sg. / fem. sg. / masc. pl. / fem. pl.), matching the possessed noun. Lor ("their") is the lone exception — it is invariable, never changing for anything.
| Owner | masc. sg. | fem. sg. | masc. pl. | fem. pl. |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| my | meu | mea | mei | mele |
| your (sg.) | tău | ta | tăi | tale |
| his / her | său | sa | săi | sale |
| our | nostru | noastră | noștri | noastre |
| your (pl./formal) | vostru | voastră | voștri | voastre |
| their | lor | lor | lor | lor |
Two columns to read carefully. The masculine plurals end in -i with the orthographic î/â unaffected: mei, tăi, săi, but noștri and voștri (with ș + tri). And the "our/your-plural" stems alternate o → oa in the feminine: nostru → noastră, voștri → voastre. Get the diacritics right — tău has ă, noștri has ș.
Telefonul meu s-a descărcat, pot să-l folosesc pe al tău?
My phone died — can I use yours?
Prietenii mei vin la cină, dar prietenele tale unde sunt?
My friends are coming for dinner, but where are your friends?
Casa noastră e mai mică decât a voastră.
Our house is smaller than yours.
Agreement is with the thing owned, not the owner
This is the single most important idea, and it is the mirror image of English. In English, my never changes no matter what you own — "my book, my dog, my friends" all use my. The variation, if any, is about the owner (his vs her). In Romanian, the possessive changes to match the possessed noun, and for first/second person it tells you nothing about the owner because the owner is already fixed by the word itself (meu is always "my").
So "my" is meu when the thing is masculine singular and mea when it is feminine singular:
câinele meu
my dog (câine is masculine → meu)
pisica mea
my cat (pisică is feminine → mea)
copiii mei
my children (copii is masculine plural → mei)
ideile mele
my ideas (idei is feminine plural → mele)
Notice that the English is "my" in all four — only the Romanian flexes, and it flexes to the noun. This is why you cannot learn one word per English possessive; you learn a four-form mini-paradigm and let the noun choose.
The frame: definite noun + possessive
In the normal, unmarked construction the possessed noun carries its definite article and the possessive follows it. Carte ("a book") becomes cartea ("the book"), and then cartea mea ("my book", literally "the-book my"). This is the standard everyday shape.
Mașina mea e în service de două săptămâni.
My car has been in the shop for two weeks.
Frații tăi seamănă leit cu tine.
Your brothers look exactly like you.
Părerea voastră contează enorm pentru noi.
Your (plural) opinion matters enormously to us.
Why the article? Because "my book" is a specific, identified book — it is definite — and Romanian marks definiteness on the noun with the enclitic article. The possessive doesn't absorb the article the way English my swallows the; the two coexist. This is the same double-determination logic you saw with postposed demonstratives (omul acesta).
There is one well-defined exception: singular kinship terms can drop the article and let the possessive glue directly on, in a more intimate register — mama mea ("my mom") often appears simply as mama, and you hear soră-mea ("my sister"), frate-meu ("my brother") as fused colloquial forms. These are limited to close-family nouns and are (informal); the safe default for everything else is the articled frame.
Mama mea gătește cele mai bune sarmale din lume.
My mom makes the best sarmale in the world.
Soră-mea s-a mutat la Timișoara anul trecut.
My sister moved to Timișoara last year. (informal fused form)
When the possessive doesn't sit on a definite noun
If the possessed noun is indefinite (un/o/niște) or separated from the possessive by an adjective, the simple frame breaks and Romanian inserts the genitival article al/a/ai/ale — un prieten al meu ("a friend of mine"), cartea cea nouă a mea. That is its own large topic; see the genitival article page. For now, just know that the bare cartea mea frame is the default, and al/a/ai/ale is the repair when the default conditions fail.
Un coleg al meu lucrează la spitalul județean.
A colleague of mine works at the county hospital. (indefinite → al meu)
Common Mistakes
❌ meu carte
Wrong order AND wrong agreement — the possessive follows a definite noun and matches its gender: cartea mea.
✅ cartea mea
my book
❌ carte mea
Missing the article — the noun must carry its definite article in the standard frame: cartea mea.
✅ cartea mea
my book
❌ pașaportul mea (for 'my passport')
Agreement with nothing real — pașaport is masculine, so 'my' is meu, not mea: pașaportul meu.
✅ pașaportul meu
my passport
❌ cărțile lor lor (trying to make 'their' agree)
Over-inflection — lor is invariable; it never changes for number or gender: cărțile lor.
✅ cărțile lor
their books
❌ noștri casă
Two errors — wrong gender (casă is feminine → noastră) and wrong order (after a definite noun): casa noastră.
✅ casa noastră
our house
Key Takeaways
- The possessives are meu/mea/mei/mele (my), tău/ta/tăi/tale (your), său/sa/săi/sale (his/her), nostru/noastră/noștri/noastre (our), vostru/voastră/voștri/voastre (your pl.), and the invariable lor (their).
- They agree with the possessed noun, not the owner — cartea mea, câinele meu, prietenii mei.
- The standard frame is definite noun + possessive: cartea mea ("the-book my"), with the noun keeping its enclitic article.
- Singular kinship terms can drop the article informally (mama mea, soră-mea).
- When the noun is indefinite or split off by an adjective, the genitival article al/a/ai/ale steps in (un prieten al meu).
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Start learning Romanian→Related Topics
- Determiners: An OverviewA1 — A map of the Romanian determiner system — demonstratives (acest/acel), possessives (meu/tău), the genitival article (al/a/ai/ale), indefinites (vreun, niște, fiecare), interrogatives (care, ce), and quantifiers (tot, mult, puțin). Romanian determiners inflect for gender, number, and sometimes case, and their position interacts with the enclitic article.
- Possessives: său/sa vs lui/eiB1 — Romanian has two ways to say his/her: the agreeing possessive său/sa/săi/sale, which matches the thing owned and leaves the owner's sex unmarked (cartea sa = his OR her book), and the invariable genitive pronouns lui (his) / ei (her), which mark the owner's sex and resolve the ambiguity (cartea lui / cartea ei).
- The Genitival Article (al, a, ai, ale)B1 — The distinctively Romanian genitival article al/a/ai/ale links a possessed noun to its possessor when the two aren't glued together by a definite article — un prieten al meu, o carte a Mariei, prietenii mei și ai tăi. It agrees with the POSSESSED noun, and surfaces when an indefinite, an intervening word, or a standalone possessive breaks the default adjacency.
- Possessive Pronouns (al meu, ai tăi)B1 — A Romanian possessive pronoun ('mine, yours, his') stands in for a whole noun phrase: it is the genitival article al/a/ai/ale + the possessive — al meu, a mea, ai mei, ale mele — and the al/a/ai/ale agrees with the POSSESSED thing, not the owner. Cartea e a mea ('the book is mine'); pantofii sunt ai mei ('the shoes are mine'). Distinct from the possessive DETERMINER cartea mea ('my book').
- Mistake: Translating his/her WrongA2 — English his/her tells you the owner's sex. Romanian *său/sa agree with the thing OWNED, not the owner — *cartea sa* is 'his OR her book' (feminine because *carte* is). Learners write *cartea său. The fix: match său/sa to the possessed noun, and switch to lui/ei when you must mark the owner.
- Double DeterminationB1 — Why Romanian marks definiteness twice — the postposed demonstrative forces the definite article onto the noun (omul acesta) while the preposed one does not (acest om) — and how cel links a definite noun to a following adjective (fata cea frumoasă).