Once you can count, the next layer is the numbers between the whole ones — fractions, decimals, and percentages. Romanian handles all three with systems that are internally tidy but trip up English speakers on two points: decimals are read with a comma, not a point (3,14 is trei virgulă paisprezece), and fractions beyond "half" and "quarter" are built from ordinal-derived nouns ending in -ime (treime = a third, pătrime = a quarter). Get the comma habit right and the rest follows logically.
The decimal comma — the single biggest trap
In Romanian, the decimal separator is a comma (virgulă), and the thousands separator is a period — exactly the reverse of English. So the number English writes as 3.14 is written 3,14 in Romanian and read trei virgulă paisprezece (literally "three comma fourteen").
| Written | Read aloud | English equivalent |
|---|---|---|
| 3,14 | trei virgulă paisprezece | 3.14 |
| 2,5 | doi virgulă cinci | 2.5 |
| 0,75 | zero virgulă șaptezeci și cinci | 0.75 |
| 1.250,50 | o mie două sute cincizeci virgulă cincizeci | 1,250.50 |
Notice two things. First, the word virgulă literally is the comma — you say it where English says "point". Second, the digits after the comma are usually read as a whole number (trei virgulă paisprezece, "three comma fourteen", not "three comma one four"), though reading them digit by digit is also heard for long strings. The thousands-period (1.250) is just a visual grouping and is never spoken.
Sticla conține doi virgulă cinci litri de apă.
The bottle contains two point five litres of water.
Temperatura medie a fost de zece virgulă trei grade luna trecută.
The average temperature was ten point three degrees last month.
Half and quarter: the special words
The two most common fractions have their own dedicated nouns, not built on ordinals:
These are full nouns, so they connect to what they measure with de: o jumătate *de oră (half an hour), un sfert **de kilogram* (a quarter kilo).
Mai stăm o jumătate de oră și plecăm.
We'll stay another half an hour and then leave.
Adaugă un sfert de litru de lapte în aluat.
Add a quarter litre of milk to the dough.
Trei sferturi din clasă au luat examenul.
Three quarters of the class passed the exam.
That last example shows the plural: trei sferturi ("three quarters"). Note sfert is neuter, so its plural sferturi uses the standard neuter -uri.
Other fractions: the -ime nouns from ordinals
Beyond half and quarter, Romanian builds fraction names by adding -ime to the ordinal stem. The result is a feminine noun meaning "an Nth part".
| Fraction | Romanian (sing.) | Plural (for 2+/X-ths) |
|---|---|---|
| 1/3 | o treime | treimi |
| 1/4 | o pătrime | pătrimi (or use sfert) |
| 1/5 | o cincime | cincimi |
| 1/10 | o zecime | zecimi |
| 1/100 | o sutime | sutimi |
To say "two thirds", you put the cardinal in front and pluralize the -ime noun: 2/3 = două treimi, 3/5 = trei cincimi, 7/10 = șapte zecimi. The numerator is the counting number; the denominator is the -ime noun. This is transparent once you see it: treime literally means "a third-part", so două treimi is "two third-parts" = two thirds.
Aproape o treime dintre angajați lucrează de acasă.
Almost a third of the employees work from home.
Două treimi din buget merg pe salarii.
Two thirds of the budget goes on salaries.
Doar o zecime din populație locuiește la sat acum.
Only a tenth of the population lives in villages now.
A note on register: in everyday speech you'll often hear jumătate and sfert rather than o doime and o pătrime — doime (1/2) and pătrime (1/4) are the technical/musical-notation forms (a half-note is a doime, a quarter-note a pătrime), while jumătate and sfert are the ordinary words for portions. Use jumătate and sfert in conversation; doime/pătrime in arithmetic or music.
Percentages: la sută and procent
A percentage is la sută (literally "per hundred") or, more formally, procent. The number stays a plain cardinal in front, and the noun being measured links with din ("of"): cincizeci la sută din elevi (fifty percent of the pupils).
| Written | Read aloud |
|---|---|
| 50% | cincizeci la sută |
| 20% | douăzeci la sută |
| 100% | o sută la sută |
| 3,5% | trei virgulă cinci la sută |
The form procent ("percent" as a noun) is used especially for counted percentage points: Inflația a crescut cu trei procente (Inflation rose by three percentage points). And o sută la sută (a hundred percent) doubles as an idiom for "absolutely, completely".
Magazinul are reducere de cincizeci la sută la toate hainele de iarnă.
The shop has a fifty percent discount on all winter clothes.
Sunt o sută la sută sigur că am încuiat ușa.
I'm a hundred percent sure I locked the door.
Dobânda la credit a urcat cu două procente anul acesta.
The loan interest rate went up by two percentage points this year.
Source-language comparison
Two habits collide for English speakers. First, the separator swap: English 1,250.5 becomes Romanian 1.250,5, so a price tag reading 3.000 means three thousand, not three. Misreading this in a shop or a contract is a real-world hazard, not a textbook nicety. Second, English builds most fractions on the ordinal too ("a third", "two thirds"), which is reassuring — but Romanian's -ime nouns are a distinct word class (treime, not *al treilea used as a fraction), and "half"/"quarter" use the unrelated jumătate/sfert. So the system rhymes with English but uses its own building blocks.
Common Mistakes
Reading the decimal with "point" instead of virgulă:
❌ trei punct paisprezece
Incorrect — Romanian decimals use the comma: trei virgulă paisprezece.
✅ trei virgulă paisprezece
3.14 (three point one four)
Writing a decimal with a point, English-style:
❌ Cântărește 2.5 kilograme.
Incorrect — the decimal separator is a comma: 2,5 kilograme.
✅ Cântărește 2,5 kilograme.
It weighs 2.5 kilos.
Forgetting that jumătate and sfert take de before a noun:
❌ o jumătate oră
Incorrect — these quantity nouns need 'de': o jumătate de oră.
✅ o jumătate de oră
half an hour
Failing to pluralize the -ime noun for "two thirds":
❌ două treime din buget
Incorrect — pluralize the fraction noun: două treimi.
✅ două treimi din buget
two thirds of the budget
Using the technical pătrime where everyday speech wants sfert:
❌ Mai am o pătrime de oră liberă.
Marked/technical — in conversation use sfert: un sfert de oră.
✅ Mai am un sfert de oră liber.
I've got a quarter of an hour free.
Key Takeaways
- Decimals use a comma: 3,14 = trei virgulă paisprezece. Never punct. The thousands separator is the reverse — a period (1.000).
- Half = o jumătate, quarter = un sfert; both take de before a noun (o jumătate de oră).
- Other fractions use -ime nouns from ordinals (treime, cincime, zecime); "two thirds" = două treimi (cardinal + pluralized -ime).
- Percentages are la sută (cincizeci la sută) or, formally, procent; the measured noun links with din.
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- Ordinal Numbers (primul, al doilea)A2 — Romanian ordinals from 'second' up wrap the cardinal in a gendered frame — al…lea (masc.) / a…a (fem.) — while 'first' is the irregular primul/prima, and 'întâi' is an invariable alternative 'first' used in dates and after a noun.
- Cardinal Numbers 20 and AboveA1 — The tens (douăzeci…nouăzeci), compound numbers built with 'și' (douăzeci și unu = 21), hundreds and thousands, and the rule that defines Romanian counting above twenty: from 20 up, the number connects to its noun with 'de'.
- Reading Large Numbers and StatisticsB1 — Thousands, millions, and billions in Romanian — written with a PERIOD as the thousands separator (1.000.000) and a COMMA for decimals (3,14), the exact reverse of English; plus 'de' with mie/milion/miliard (milioane DE oameni) and reading percentages.
- Telling Dates and TimeA2 — Dates use plain cardinals plus a month (pe 5 martie) — except the 1st, which is the special ordinal 'întâi'; clock time uses 'și' for minutes past the hour (trei și zece) and 'fără' ('without') for minutes to the hour (patru fără cinci).
- 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.