Cardinal Numbers 20 and Above

Counting above twenty in Romanian is mechanically easy — the tens are transparent, the compounds glue together with a single word, and hundreds and thousands behave predictably. But there is one rule that has no English parallel and that learners violate constantly: from twenty up, the number attaches to its noun with the little word de. Cinci ani (five years) takes no de, but douăzeci de ani (twenty years) must have it. This page builds the numbers and then nails down that threshold, because de is the audible signature of "twenty-plus" counting in Romanian.

The tens: "X-zeci" = X tens

The tens are formed by attaching -zeci (the plural of zece, "ten") to the digit. Literally, treizeci is "three-tens". The pattern is regular, with only minor spelling adjustments where the digit's final sound meets -zeci.

Two of these are slightly irregular and worth a hard look. 20 is douăzeci (not *doizeci) — it uses the feminine două, because the counted unit zeci is feminine. 60 is șaizeci, not \șasezeci: the șase loses its -se before -zeci (the same reduction you saw in the teen șaisprezece). Everything else is the digit plus -zeci*.

Compounds: glue the tens to the digit with și

For numbers between the tens — 21, 35, 47 — Romanian joins the ten and the digit with și ("and"). This is unlike English "twenty-one" (a hyphen, no "and") and matches the way you'd say "twenty and one".

Notice 21: the final digit still inflects for gender just as the standalone unu/una does — douăzeci și unu before a masculine/neuter count, douăzeci și una before a feminine one. The same is true of compounds ending in 2 (douăzeci și doi / douăzeci și două). That gender persistence inside big numbers is the subject of its own agreement page; here, just register that the și never disappears.

Hundreds, thousands, and millions

Above the tens, Romanian counts in units of sută (hundred), mie (thousand), milion (million). The first two are feminine nouns, so "one hundred" and "one thousand" use the feminine article o, and "two hundred / two thousand" use the feminine două. Milion is neuter.

Because sută and mie are real feminine nouns, they pluralize like any feminine: o sută → două sute, o mie → două mii. And because they are feminine, "two hundred" is două sute, never *doi sute. Romanian writes large numbers with a period as the thousands separator (1.000, 25.000) — the opposite of the English comma — but that is a writing convention covered on the large-numbers page.

The big rule: de before the noun from 20 up

Here is the single most important fact on this page. Romanian splits counting at exactly twenty:

• 1–19 take the noun bare: cinci ani, nouăsprezece ani (nineteen years).
• 20 and above insert de between the number and the noun: douăzeci de ani, o sută de ani.

So nouăsprezece ani (19 years, no de) but douăzeci de ani (20 years, with de) — the cutoff is right there at the boundary between the teens and the tens. And it stays on for everything above: hundreds, thousands, millions all take de.

Why does the cutoff fall at twenty? The grammatical logic is that the numbers 1–19 still function as adjective-like quantifiers that sit directly on the noun, the way mulți (many) or câțiva (a few) do. From twenty up, the numeral behaves more like a noun of quantity ("a twenty of years", "a hundred of years"), and Romanian links a quantity noun to what it counts with de — exactly as in un kilogram de mere (a kilo of apples) or un pahar de apă (a glass of water). So douăzeci de ani is structurally "a twenty of years". Once you hear de as the marker of this quantity-noun construction, the rule stops feeling arbitrary.

In compounds, de attaches once — at the very end

In a compound like 25, 134, or 1.250, when de is required it attaches once, right before the noun. You never repeat it inside the number — trei sute douăzeci și patru *de pagini, not *trei sute de douăzeci de patru de pagini*.

There is one subtlety worth flagging: what decides de is the last group of the number, not the total. If the number ends in a digit 1–19, the noun stays bare even when the whole value is in the hundreds or thousands — o sută cinci lei (105 lei, no de), o mie trei oameni (1,003 people, no de). The de reappears only when the final element is itself 20 or above, or is a round sută/mie/milion: o sută douăzeci *de lei (120, ends in *douăzeci), două sute *de lei* (200, round hundred). So read to the end of the number, look at its last group, and apply the same 20-threshold there.

Common Mistakes

English has no de, so English speakers reliably forget it above twenty:

Don't add de below twenty by overcorrecting — the teens take the bare noun:

Don't use the masculine doi for hundreds and thousands — sută and mie are feminine:

Don't drop the și in compounds — Romanian needs the connector:

Don't say \șasezeci for 60 — șase reduces to șai- before -zeci*:

Key Takeaways

• Tens are digit + -zeci (treizeci, patruzeci); watch douăzeci (fem. două) and șaizeci (reduced șase).
• Compounds join the ten and the digit with și: douăzeci și cinci, treizeci și doi.
• Hundreds and thousands are feminine nouns: o sută → două sute, o mie → două mii; milion is neuter (un milion → două milioane).
• The threshold rule: 1–19 take a bare noun (cinci ani), but 20 and above take de (douăzeci de ani, o sută de lei). The de is the audible marker of twenty-plus counting and has no English equivalent.