Romanian numbers are almost entirely invariable — trei, patru, cinci never change no matter what they count. The exceptions are one and two, which inflect for gender, and they do so with surprising stubbornness: they keep agreeing even when buried inside a four-digit compound. Thirty-two books is treizeci și *două de cărți (feminine), because the "two" at the end still points at *cărți. This page consolidates two rules that together govern almost every counted phrase you will ever say: the gender agreement of 1 and 2, and the de threshold at twenty.
Only 1 and 2 agree — everything else is frozen
In English no number agrees with anything ("one cat", "one dog" — same "one"). Romanian is almost as simple, but not quite: unu and doi have separate masculine, feminine, and neuter behaviour, while 3 through 19 and all the round tens are completely invariable.
| Number | Masculine | Feminine | Neuter |
|---|---|---|---|
| 1 | un / unu | o / una | un / unu |
| 2 | doi | două | două |
| 3 | trei | trei | trei |
| 4 | patru | patru | patru |
| 5+ | invariable — cinci, șase, șapte … all unchanging | ||
So you decide the gender of the noun, set "one" and "two" accordingly, and then never think about gender again for any larger digit.
Am un creion și o gumă în penar, dar nu și un caiet.
I have a pencil and an eraser in my pencil case, but no notebook.
La masă stăteau doi băieți și două fete.
Two boys and two girls were sitting at the table.
"One": un/o before a noun, unu/una when counting alone
The number one has two shapes depending on whether a noun follows. Directly before a noun it is the indefinite-article form un (masc./neuter) or o (fem.) — identical to "a/an". Standing alone, when you are reciting or answering "how many", it is unu (masc./neuter) or una (fem.).
— Câte cafele ai băut azi? — Doar una.
— How many coffees did you drink today? — Just one.
Mai am un singur leu în buzunar.
I've only got one single leu left in my pocket.
This un/o vs unu/una split matters because it carries straight into compounds: 21 is douăzeci și unu counting alone but douăzeci și *una de cărți* before a feminine noun.
"Two": doi (masc.) vs două (fem. AND neuter)
The number two is where errors cluster. Masculine is doi; feminine is două. The crucial, counter-intuitive fact is that the neuter also takes două, not doi.
| Gender of noun | "two" + noun | Meaning |
|---|---|---|
| masculine | doi băieți | two boys |
| masculine | doi metri | two metres |
| feminine | două fete | two girls |
| feminine | două ore | two hours |
| neuter | două scaune | two chairs |
| neuter | două trenuri | two trains |
Why does the neuter behave like the feminine here? Because the Romanian neuter is not a third gender with its own forms — it is "masculine in the singular, feminine in the plural". A neuter noun like scaun (chair) takes masculine agreement when singular (un scaun) but feminine agreement when plural (două scaune, scaunele). Since counting "two" of anything is inherently plural, the neuter shows its plural — that is, feminine — face. So două scaune is not an exception to memorize; it falls straight out of how the neuter works. (See the four-form adjective page for the same logic applied to adjectives.)
Am cumpărat două bilete pentru spectacolul de sâmbătă.
I bought two tickets for Saturday's show. (bilet is neuter → două)
Mai sunt două ouă în frigider, ajung pentru o omletă.
There are two eggs left in the fridge, enough for an omelette. (ou is neuter → două)
The agreement survives inside compounds
Here is the rule that learners forget once numbers get big: a compound number that ends in 1 or 2 still agrees with its noun. The final unu/una or doi/două points at the counted noun and must match its gender, no matter how large the whole number is.
| Number | Masculine noun | Feminine noun |
|---|---|---|
| 21 | douăzeci și unu de lei | douăzeci și una de cărți |
| 32 | treizeci și doi de băieți | treizeci și două de fete |
| 42 | patruzeci și doi de ani | patruzeci și două de ore |
| 101 | o sută unu bărbați | o sută una femei |
So "thirty-two girls" is treizeci și *două de fete — the *două there is doing the same gender work it does in the standalone două fete, just at the tail end of a bigger number. The mental habit to build: look at the last digit and the noun together. If the number ends in one or two, set that final word to the noun's gender before you say it.
În bibliotecă am găsit treizeci și două de cărți despre subiect.
In the library I found thirty-two books on the subject. (cărți fem. → două)
Excursia costă douăzeci și una de mii de lei de persoană.
The trip costs twenty-one thousand lei per person. (mii fem. → una)
And the de threshold rides along
Tied up with all this is the de rule from the previous page: numbers 2–19 take a bare noun, but 20 and above insert de. The two rules combine cleanly:
- două fete — feminine "two", bare noun (under 20).
- douăzeci și două de fete — feminine "two" at the tail, plus de because the whole number is over 20.
Doi colegi au lipsit azi, dar douăzeci de colegi au fost prezenți.
Two colleagues were absent today, but twenty colleagues were present.
Pe raft sunt patru pahare, iar în dulap încă douăzeci de pahare.
There are four glasses on the shelf, and another twenty glasses in the cupboard.
Common Mistakes
The classic error: using masculine doi with a feminine or neuter noun:
❌ doi cărți
Incorrect — carte is feminine: două cărți.
✅ două cărți
two books
The neuter trap — neuters take două, not doi:
❌ doi scaune
Incorrect — scaun is neuter, which goes feminine in the plural: două scaune.
✅ două scaune
two chairs
Forgetting agreement at the end of a big compound:
❌ treizeci și doi de fete
Incorrect — the final 'two' must match fete (fem.): treizeci și două.
✅ treizeci și două de fete
thirty-two girls
Over-agreeing a number that does not inflect — only 1 and 2 change:
❌ treie fete / patrue fete
Incorrect — trei and patru are invariable; gender never touches them.
✅ trei fete, patru fete
three girls, four girls
Mixing up un/o (before a noun) with unu/una (standing alone):
❌ Am unu frate.
Incorrect — before a noun, 'one' is the article form: un frate.
✅ Am un frate.
I have one brother.
Key Takeaways
- Only 1 and 2 inflect for gender (un/o, unu/una, doi/două); 3 and up are frozen.
- The neuter counts with the feminine două (două scaune) because the neuter goes feminine in the plural.
- Gender agreement persists in compounds: treizeci și două de fete, douăzeci și una de cărți — check the last digit against the noun.
- The de threshold rides along: bare noun for 2–19, de for 20+ — so două fete but douăzeci de fete.
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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.
- 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'.
- Four-Form Adjectives (bun, bună, buni, bune)A1 — The largest Romanian adjective class, with four distinct forms for masculine/feminine singular and plural, and the vowel and consonant alternations it shares with nouns.
- Feminine Plurals (-e, -i)A2 — Feminine plurals are Romanian's trickiest: the ending splits between -e and -i, and a root-vowel shift (a→e in masă→mese, oa→o in poartă→porți, a→ă in carte→cărți) usually fires at the same time. This same plural stem is what the feminine genitive-dative singular is built on.
- Masculine Plurals (-i)A2 — Romanian masculine nouns form their plural with a single ending — -i — but that -i triggers palatalization of the final consonant (brad→brazi, perete→pereți, urs→urși), and the audible change is in the consonant, not the often-whispered final -i.
- Numbers in Age, Time, and MeasurementA2 — Romanian states age with 'a avea' + de + ani (Am treizeci de ani = 'I have thirty years'), not 'a fi'; clock time, distances, weights, and prices all obey the same number-plus-'de' threshold at twenty (cinci ani but douăzeci de ani).