Just as with feminine nouns, masculine and neuter singular nouns use the exact same form for both the Genitive case (showing possession) and the Dative case (indicating the recipient).
The "-ului" Ending
To form the definite Genitive and Dative for masculine and neuter singular nouns, add -ui to the end of the definite noun. The standard definite article -ul becomes -ului.
In the Genitive case, this shows possession (e.g., "of the officer" or "the officer's"):
| The officer's boss asked for some documents. | Șeful ofițerului a cerut niște documente. |
You will often see this pattern used to describe official institutions and roles:
| The minister's report explains the government's goal. | Raportul ministrului explică scopul guvernului. |
| The mayor's decision changed the state budget. | Decizia primarului a schimbat bugetul statului. |
The Dative Case
When giving something to someone or reporting to an authority figure, use this exact same -ului ending for the recipient.
Remember that Dative sentences also require the unstressed pronoun îi right before the verb. When the following word is an auxiliary verb (like a or ai in the past tense), îi shortens to i-:
| The officer reports the situation to the mayor. | Ofițerul îi raportează primarului situația. |
| Did you send the summary to the manager? | Tu i-ai trimis rezumatul managerului? |
Because the forms are identical, you can easily use both cases in the same sentence to express complex ideas, such as explaining the problem of the budget (Genitive) to the manager (Dative):
| I explain the budget problem to the manager. | Îi explic managerului problema bugetului. |