Once you can count, Romanian gives you three richer families of number words that English handles with loose, separate constructions: collectives ("both", "all three"), approximators ("about ten", "dozens of"), and multiplicatives ("double", "three times over"). Each family carries its own grammar — collectives agree for gender and grab the definite noun, approximators reuse the little word vreo, and multiplicatives split between a one-word "double" and the de … ori "times" frame. This page is where counting stops being mechanical and starts sounding like a native.
"Both": amândoi / amândouă
English "both" is a single frozen word. Romanian amândoi (masculine) / amândouă (feminine and neuter) agrees for gender exactly like the number doi/două it contains — and it does something English never does: it demands that the following noun be in its definite (article) form.
So "both children" is amândoi copiii — with copiii (the children, definite) — not *amândoi copii. The collective behaves like a quantity that points at a known, specific pair, so the noun must be definite.
| English | Romanian | Note |
|---|---|---|
| both boys | amândoi băieții | masc.; definite băieții |
| both girls | amândouă fetele | fem.; definite fetele |
| both windows | amândouă ferestrele | neuter → fem. form |
| both of us | amândoi / amândouă (noi) | matches the group's gender |
Amândoi copiii au adormit deja, putem vorbi liniștiți.
Both children have already fallen asleep, we can talk in peace.
Le-am mulțumit amândurora pentru ajutor.
I thanked both of them for their help. (oblique form amândurora)
Amândouă surorile lucrează în străinătate acum.
Both sisters work abroad now.
Note that second example: amândoi has an oblique/genitive-dative form — amânduror(a) — used when the phrase is a recipient (dative) or a possessor (genitive), e.g. casa amândurora ("the house of both of them"). It is the gender-collapsed form (one shape for both genders), and you will mostly meet it in amândurora ("to both of them"). A common everyday synonym for amândoi is ambii / ambele, which is slightly more formal and bookish.
"All three", "all four": tustrei, tuspatru, câteșitrei
For collectives above two, Romanian has a compact set built on tus- (from toți, "all") or the more literary câteși-. They mean "all three/four (of them) together".
| English | Everyday (tus-) | Literary (câteși-) |
|---|---|---|
| all three | tustrei / tustrele | câteșitrei / câteșitrele |
| all four | tuspatru | câteșipatru |
| all five | tuscinci | câteșicinci |
The tus- forms keep a feminine variant for three (tustrele) but flatten out from four up (tuspatru serves both genders). Like amândoi, they pair with a definite noun: tustrei copiii ("all three children"). The câteși- set is (literary) — you will read it, but in speech tustrei or simply toți trei ("all three") is the norm.
Tustrei frații au plecat la muncă în aceeași zi.
All three brothers left for work on the same day.
Ne-am așezat tuspatru la aceeași masă.
The four of us sat down at the same table.
Câteșitrele surorile au moștenit casa. (literary)
All three sisters inherited the house.
Approximation: vreo, cam, aproape
Romanian has a whole toolkit for "roughly" — and the most characteristic is vreo placed before a number, meaning "about, some". This vreo is the same word you meet as the indefinite "any/some" (vreo idee = "any idea"); before a numeral it shifts to "approximately". Crucially, vreo is invariable here — you say vreo zece whether the noun is masculine or feminine.
| Romanian | English | Register |
|---|---|---|
| vreo zece | about ten | neutral, very common |
| cam douăzeci | roughly twenty | informal |
| aproape o sută | almost a hundred | neutral |
| vreo două ore | a couple of hours | neutral |
| peste o sută | over a hundred | neutral |
Au venit vreo zece oameni, nu mai mulți.
About ten people came, no more than that.
Mai durează cam douăzeci de minute până se coace.
It'll take roughly twenty more minutes to bake.
Aproape o sută de mașini erau blocate în trafic.
Almost a hundred cars were stuck in traffic.
Notice that the de threshold still applies underneath the approximator: vreo zece oameni (no de, because ten is under twenty) but cam douăzeci *de minute (with *de, because twenty is the cutoff). The approximator sits on top of the number-noun rules from the cardinals page; it does not switch them off.
"Dozens of", "hundreds of": zeci de, sute de
When you want vague large quantities, Romanian pluralizes the round number and links it with de: zeci de ("dozens of", literally "tens of"), sute de ("hundreds of"), mii de ("thousands of"). English says "dozens" from twelve; Romanian builds the same idea on "ten" (zeci).
| Romanian | English |
|---|---|
| zeci de oameni | dozens of people |
| sute de cărți | hundreds of books |
| mii de mesaje | thousands of messages |
| zeci de mii de euro | tens of thousands of euros |
There is also o duzină ("a dozen", literally twelve) — a real feminine noun that takes de: o duzină de ouă (a dozen eggs). It is less idiomatic than English "a dozen"; Romanians more often just say douăsprezece or reach for zeci de when they mean "loads".
Mi-au scris zeci de oameni după interviu.
Dozens of people wrote to me after the interview.
Are sute de cărți, nu mai are loc pe rafturi.
He has hundreds of books, there's no more room on the shelves.
Am cumpărat o duzină de ouă de la piață.
I bought a dozen eggs at the market.
Multiplicatives: dublu, întreit, and de … ori
Finally, "twice as much", "double", "three times over". Romanian splits this into two patterns. For a fixed multiple as an amount, there are adjective/noun forms: dublu (double), triplu (triple), and the older Latinate-free îndoit (doubled), întreit (tripled). For frequency — "how many times" — Romanian uses the frame de … ori (covered in depth on the idioms page): de două ori (twice), de trei ori (three times).
| Concept | Romanian | Use |
|---|---|---|
| double (amount) | dublu / îndoit | "pay double" — dublu |
| triple (amount) | triplu / întreit | "triple the price" |
| twice (frequency) | de două ori | "I called twice" |
| three times (frequency) | de trei ori | "read it three times" |
A trebuit să plătesc dublu pentru biletul de ultim moment.
I had to pay double for the last-minute ticket.
Câștigă întreit cât câștigam noi acum zece ani.
He earns triple what we used to earn ten years ago.
Te-am sunat de două ori, dar n-ai răspuns.
I called you twice, but you didn't answer.
The key boundary: dublu/triplu answer "how much", de două ori/de trei ori answer "how many times". English blurs them ("double" can be amount or, loosely, "do it double"), but Romanian keeps the amount word and the frequency frame distinct.
Common Mistakes
English "both of the children" tempts a literal "of the" — but Romanian folds it into the definite noun:
❌ amândoi de copii
Incorrect — no 'de'; the noun goes definite: amândoi copiii.
✅ amândoi copiii
both children
Using the masculine amândoi with feminine or neuter nouns:
❌ amândoi fetele
Incorrect — fete is feminine: amândouă fetele.
✅ amândouă fetele
both girls
Inflecting vreo to match the noun — before a number it is frozen:
❌ vrei zece băieți
Incorrect — the approximator is invariable: vreo zece băieți.
✅ vreo zece băieți
about ten boys
Confusing the amount word with the frequency frame:
❌ Te-am sunat dublu.
Incorrect — 'twice' is frequency: de două ori, not the amount word dublu.
✅ Te-am sunat de două ori.
I called you twice.
Forgetting the noun stays bare under twenty even with an approximator:
❌ vreo zece de oameni
Incorrect — ten is under 20, so no 'de': vreo zece oameni.
✅ vreo zece oameni
about ten people
Key Takeaways
- "Both" = amândoi/amândouă — it agrees for gender and takes the definite noun (amândoi copiii); the neuter uses the feminine form. Oblique: amândurora.
- "All three/four" = tustrei/tuspatru (everyday) or câteșitrei (literary); in speech, toți trei is always safe.
- Approximation: vreo
- number ("about ten" = vreo zece, vreo frozen), cam (roughly), aproape (almost); zeci de / sute de / mii de for "dozens/hundreds/thousands of".
- Multiplicatives: dublu/triplu for amounts, de … ori for frequency (de două ori = twice) — keep the two apart.
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Start learning Romanian→Related Topics
- Cardinal Numbers 0–20A1 — Counting from zero to twenty in Romanian — the base numbers, why 1 and 2 are gendered (un/o, doi/două), and how the teens are transparent 'X-upon-ten' compounds (unsprezece, paisprezece, șaisprezece) whose spelling hides phonetic reductions.
- Number-Noun Agreement and 'de'A2 — Only 1 and 2 inflect for gender in Romanian (un/o, doi/două) — but they keep agreeing even inside huge compounds (treizeci și două de cărți), and the neuter counts with the feminine form. This page also consolidates the 'de' threshold at twenty.
- Numbers in Idioms and CountingB1 — The 'de N ori' frequency frame (de trei ori = three times), the meaning-changing spelling split between 'o dată' (once) and 'odată' (once upon a time), counting people 'în doi' (as a pair), and a handful of number idioms Romanians actually use.
- Predeterminers and Totality (tot, amândoi, întreg)B1 — Romanian's predeterminers and totality words — tot/toată/toți/toate (all), întreg/întreagă (whole), amândoi/amândouă (both), and fiecare (each) — and why tot sits outside the article so the noun keeps its definite ending: toți copiii, 'all the-children'.
- Quantifiers (mult, puțin, tot, câțiva)B1 — Romanian quantifiers — mult/puțin (much/little), destul (enough), tot (all), câțiva (a few), atât (so much) — with their agreement as determiners versus their invariable adverbial use, the trap that makes one word run on two grammars.