Masculine Plurals (-i) | Romanian Grammar

Masculine plurals are the most regular corner of the whole Romanian noun system: with very few exceptions, a masculine noun forms its plural by adding -i. Pom → pomi, elev → elevi, student → studenți. There is no -e / -i / -uri decision to agonize over the way there is with feminines and neuters — it is -i, full stop. The catch is what that -i does to the stem. Because -i is a front vowel, it palatalizes (softens) the final consonant: d becomes z, t becomes ț, s becomes ș. And here is the twist that surprises every learner: the final -i itself is frequently whispered — barely voiced, almost silent — so the entire audible signal of the plural lives in that softened consonant. You don't really hear the -i in pomi; you hear the soft, palatal quality of the m and a faint trailing -i.

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The masculine plural ending is uniformly -i, but the -i is often whispered to near-silence. The real, audible marker of the plural is the palatalization of the final consonant: brad → brazi (d→z), urs → urși (s→ș), perete → pereți (t→ț). Train your ear on the consonant, not the vowel.

The plain cases: just add -i

When the final consonant has no palatalized counterpart to shift to, you simply add -i and move on. Consonants like m, n, l, r, v, p, b take the -i without changing themselves (though the -i still affects pronunciation).

Singular	Plural	Meaning
pom	pomi	fruit trees
elev	elevi	pupils
profesor	profesori	teachers
leu	lei	lions / lei (currency)

Toți elevii au venit la ședință, mai puțin doi care erau bolnavi.

All the pupils came to the meeting, except two who were sick. (elev → elevi)

Pomii din livadă au fost altoiți acum trei ani.

The trees in the orchard were grafted three years ago. (pom → pomi)

The palatalizing cases: the consonant changes

This is the heart of the page. When the stem ends in d, t, s, st (and a few others), the -i drags the consonant forward into its palatal partner. These are completely regular — the same consonant always shifts the same way — so learn them as families, not as one-off exceptions.

Alternation	Singular	Plural	Meaning
d → z	brad	brazi	fir trees
d → z	ied	iezi	kids (young goats)
t → ț	student	studenți	students
t → ț	perete	pereți	walls
s → ș	urs	urși	bears
st → șt	artist	artiști	artists
c → c (soft)	copac	copaci	trees

Note on copac → copaci: the spelling looks unchanged (c stays c), but the c is now read as a soft č ("ch") sound before -i, exactly as in Italian amico → amici. So even when the letter doesn't change, the sound does.

Brazii de Crăciun se vând deja prin piețe de la jumătatea lui decembrie.

Christmas trees are already on sale in the markets from mid-December. (brad → brazi: d→z)

Studenții stau la coadă în fața secretariatului de o oră.

The students have been queuing in front of the registrar's office for an hour. (student → studenți: t→ț)

Am numărat patru urși pe versantul de nord.

I counted four bears on the north slope. (urs → urși: s→ș)

Nouns ending in -e: same -i, same softening

A second group of masculine nouns ends in -e in the singular (frate, perete, câine, munte). To form the plural, the -e is replaced by -i, and the final consonant palatalizes just as before. So perete → pereți (t→ț) and frate → frați (t→ț) follow the exact same logic as the -consonant nouns; they just start from an -e instead of a bare consonant.

Singular (in -e)	Plural	Alternation	Meaning
frate	frați	t → ț	brothers
perete	pereți	t → ț	walls
munte	munți	t → ț	mountains
câine	câini	n stays, e→i	dogs

Cei doi frați nu mai vorbesc unul cu celălalt de la moștenire.

The two brothers haven't spoken to each other since the inheritance. (frate → frați)

Câinii din curte latră la fiecare mașină care trece.

The dogs in the yard bark at every car that passes. (câine → câini)

Note the word-internal â in câine / câini — it is â, not î, because it sits inside the word (the rule is î word-initially and word-finally, â in the middle).

Why the consonant softens (the underlying mechanism)

If you treat each pair (brad/brazi, urs/urși) as a separate fact, masculine plurals feel like rote memorization. They aren't. The ending -i is a front vowel, articulated with the tongue high and forward. When a back-leaning consonant like d, t, s meets it, the tongue position "leaks" into the consonant and pulls it forward: d fronts to z, t to ț, s to ș. This is the same phonetic process — palatalization — that turned Latin centum into Italian cento ("chento"). Because it is a sound law, it is exceptionless within each family: you will never find a masculine noun where d fails to become z before plural -i. That predictability is a gift — learn the six or seven families and you can generate the plural of any masculine noun on sight.

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Palatalization is a one-way street: before plural -i, d always → z, t always → ț, s always → ș, st always → șt. There are no exceptions inside a family. So you never need to memorize individual masculine plurals — just recognize the final consonant and apply its fixed shift.

Source-language comparison

For an English speaker the danger is twofold. First, English never softens the consonant — cat → cats leaves the t exactly as it was — so the instinct is to bolt -i onto an unchanged stem (*bradi, *ursi). Second, because the -i is barely audible, learners often think they've heard a singular when a native says the plural, since the only cue was a soft consonant they weren't listening for. The fix for both is the same: focus your attention on the final consonant. That is where Romanian hides the plural.

În curte erau doi copaci bătrâni și o bancă ruptă.

In the yard there were two old trees and a broken bench. (copac → copaci, with soft c)

Artiștii locali expun la galeria din centru luna asta.

The local artists are exhibiting at the downtown gallery this month. (artist → artiști: st→șt)

Common Mistakes

Don't add -i without palatalizing the consonant:

❌ doi bradi

Incorrect — d must soften to z before -i: brazi.

✅ doi brazi

two fir trees

Don't leave t unchanged — it must become ț:

❌ trei studenti

Incorrect — t palatalizes to ț: studenți.

✅ trei studenți

three students

Don't forget s → ș:

❌ doi ursi

Incorrect — s softens to ș: urși.

✅ doi urși

two bears

Don't reach for an -s plural out of English habit:

❌ elevs / pomes

Incorrect — masculine plurals take -i, never -s: elevi, pomi.

✅ elevi / pomi

pupils / fruit trees

Don't treat -e masculine nouns as if they keep the -e in the plural:

❌ doi frate

Incorrect — the -e is replaced by -i and the t softens: frați.

✅ doi frați

two brothers

Key Takeaways

Masculine plurals are uniformly -i — there is no ending to choose.
The -i palatalizes the final consonant: d→z, t→ț, s→ș, st→șt; c stays written but is read soft.
The -i is often whispered, so the audible plural marker is the softened consonant — listen there.
Nouns ending in -e (frate, munte, câine) replace -e with -i and palatalize the same way.
Palatalization is a sound law with no exceptions inside a family, so masculine plurals are fully predictable once you know the families.

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