Farm Animals and Definite Articles
When talking about familiar farm animals, you will often use the definite article ("the"). In Romanian, this article attaches to the end of the noun. Masculine nouns usually add -ul, while feminine nouns add -a.
| The horse is big and black. | Calul este mare și negru. |
| The cow eats a lot. | Vaca mănâncă mult. |
To talk about more than one animal, you need the plural. Most masculine and many feminine animal plurals end in -i. If you want to say "the" with a feminine plural noun, you attach the suffix -le to the end of the plural form.
| We see two beautiful horses. | Noi vedem doi cai frumoși. |
| The white sheep sleeps in the garden. | Oaia albă doarme în grădină. |
| The girl loves the sheep. | Fata iubește oile. |
Wildlife and Forest Animals
Forest and wild animals follow the same patterns. Masculine animals like the bear (ursul) and the wolf (lupul) take the masculine -ul ending in the singular, and their plurals end in -i.
| The big bear sleeps in the winter. | Ursul mare doarme iarna. |
| The dog sees two wolves. | Câinele vede doi lupi. |
Feminine nouns like the fox (vulpea) and the bird (pasărea) use the feminine -a ending in the singular. Notice how the feminine plural definite article -le attaches to the plural form păsări (birds) to make păsările (the birds).
| The fox is intelligent and beautiful. | Vulpea este inteligentă și frumoasă. |
| The birds are in the tree. | Păsările sunt în copac. |
Animals Ending in -e
Some masculine animal names naturally end in -e in their base form, such as fish (pește) and mouse (șoarece). To say "the" for these nouns, you add the suffix -le instead of -ul.
| The fish is in the water. | Peștele este în apă. |
When you are talking about an animal in general (like eating fish), you simply drop the -le suffix to use the base form.
| The child wants to eat fresh fish. | Copilul vrea să mănânce pește proaspăt. |
| The cat looks for the mouse. | Pisica caută șoarecele. |