Learn Romanian: Acolo sunt doisprezece studenți. - There are twelve students there.

Acolo sunt doisprezece studenți.

There are twelve students there.

Breakdown of Acolo sunt doisprezece studenți.

to be (sunt, ești, este, suntem, sunteți, sunt)

Questions & Answers about Acolo sunt doisprezece studenți.

How do you build a word like doisprezece?

In Romanian, numbers from 11 to 19 are built like a little math equation. The word doisprezece literally means "two towards ten": doi (two) + spre (towards) + zece (ten).

Does the number twelve change depending on whether the noun is masculine or feminine?

Yes! Because studenți (students) is a masculine plural noun, we use doisprezece (which starts with the masculine doi). If we were counting feminine nouns, we would use douăsprezece (starting with the feminine două). Twelve is the only number between 11 and 19 that changes for gender.

Why is there no de between the number and studenți?

You only need to add the word de (meaning "of") between a number and a noun for numbers 20 and above. For numbers from 1 to 19, the number goes directly next to the noun, just like in English. Since 12 is less than 20, we simply say doisprezece studenți.

Does Acolo sunt mean "There are" in the same way we use it in English?

Not exactly. In English, "there are" can just be a grammar placeholder to mean that something exists. In Romanian, acolo strictly points to a physical place (over there). If you just wanted to say "Twelve students exist," you would only say Sunt doisprezece studenți. Adding acolo tells us exactly where they physically are.