1. Possessive Adjectives

The easiest and perhaps the most familiar form of possession corresponds to 'my', 'your', 'his', etc.

English	Masculine Singular	Masculine Plural	Feminine Singular	Feminine Plural
my	meu	mei	mea	mele
your	tău	tăi	ta	tale
his/her	său	săi	sa	sale
his	lui	lui	lui	lui
her	ei	ei	ei	ei
our	nostru	noştri	noastră	noastre
y'all's	vostru	voştri	voastră	voastre
your (formal)	dumneavoastră	dumneavoastră	dumneavoastră	dumneavoastră

Remember that words of neutral gender behave like masculine nouns in the singular and like feminine nouns in the plural. Note also that the thing that is owned MUST be in the definite form: The nominative of "dog" is "cîine". The definite for masculine nouns ending in e is "-le" thus "the dog" would be "cîinele". The word is masculine so you use the masculine singular from the chart above: "meu". The possessive adjective follows the noun: "my dog" = "cîinele meu". For the definite form of "maşină" (car) you would change the ă into an a: "the car" = "maşina". Then just add the corresponding possessive adjective from the chart above: "maşina mea"(my car). The neuter word Hotel would take the masculine possessive adjective in the singular: "Hotelul meu"(my hotel) and the feminine plural in the plural: "Hotelurile mele". This is of course much simpler for "his", "her", or "their" because "lui", "ei" and "lor" do not change for plural or gender. Example Sentences:

Ceasul meu e stricat.	My watch is broken.
Unde e maşina ta?	Where is your car?
Aceştia nu sînt pantalonii mei.	These are not my pants.
Dă-mi banii tăi, cheile tale, şi portofelul tău!	Give me your money, keys and wallet!
Casa noastră e mai mare decît casa voastră.	Our house is bigger than your house.

"A Friend of Mine"

Sometimes, just for the heck of it, you might want to say something like: "A friend of mine". This especially comes in handy since the word prietenă (friend) could mean 'girlfriend' in the right (or wrong!) context. But saying 'a friend of mine' always means "just a friend". The same, of course, is true for prieten meaning 'boyfriend'. To say this in Romanian, you can say de for 'of' :

A	friend	of	mine.
O	prietenă	de	a mea

An alternate usage is to leave out the "de": Niste prieteni ai mei Some friends(masculine or mixed) of mine. Niste prietene ale mele Some friends(feminine) of mine. Niste scrisori ale lor Some letters of theirs. You can add the de without change of meaning: Nişte prieteni de ai mei Some friends(masculine or mixed) of mine. Nişte prietene de ale mele Some friends(feminine) of mine. Nişte scrisori de ale lor Some letters of theirs.

The third method of expressing ownership is to use the Dative/Genetiv case. This case, like the definite article, is a suffix.

Gender	Singular	Plural
masculine	-ui	-lor
feminine	-ei*	-lor

*Often this ending is "-ii". We'll cover the important words that take this special ending. The masculine dative/genetive suffix is added to the singular definite form of any masculine or neuter word in the singular, and the feminine suffix is added to the plural indefinite of feminine words. The following chart shows three typical feminine words in the singular Dative/Genetive:

Nominative/Accusative	Plural	Dative/Genetive
fată	fete	fetei
decleraţie	decleraţii	decleraţiei
casă	case	casei

The following chart shows three masculine words and one neuter word in the singular Dative/Genetive:

Nominative/Accusative	Definite	Dative/Genetive
bărtbat	bărbatul	bărbatului
cîine	cîinele	cîinelui
om	omul	omului
hotel*	hotelul	hotelului

*"Hotel" is neuter but remember that neuter words act masculine in the singular. For any word in the plural regardless of gender you add "-lor" to the plural indefinite form.

Singular	Plural	Dative/Genetive
băiat	băieţi	băieţilor
om	oameni	oamenilor
familie	familii	familiilor
fată	fete	fetelor
hotel	hoteluri	hotelurilor

And now to cover those pesky "-ii" words. Unfortunately there is no solid rule, you'll just have to learn which words take it. One great help is that ALL words ending in "-tate" change to "-tăţii", and words ending in "-are" change to "-ării". Examples: stare -> stării (state of being) facultate -> facultăţii (university) omenire -> omenirii (humanity) Other important words that take the -ii suffix: maşină -> maşinii (car) biserică -> bisericii (church) limbă -> limbii (tongue, language) ţară -> ţării IMPORTANT GRAMMAR NOTE: Adjectives can also take the dative/genitive endings! Don't forget that objects owned must be definite! And now for some example sentences! (yey!) Maşina bunului meu prieten. The car of my good friend. Prinţul păcii. The prince of peace. Cauciucul maşinii albastre*. The blue car's tire. Păstorul bisericii noastre*. The pastor of our church. Casa tatălui meu. My father's house. Toate cuvintele ale limbi Române*. All the words of the Romanian language. A fost rucsacul soţului meu. That was my husband's backpack. *REMEMBER that to get the Dative/genetive form of feminine words you must build off of the plural form, even when the word is in the singular. Keeping that in mind, adjectives following singular feminine nouns take plural endings: Fata frumoasă = The beautiful girl Fete frumoase = Beautiful girls Fetei frumoase = of/to the beautiful girl Fetelor frumoase = of/to the beautiful girls

One last note: When using the Dative/Genetive form of people's names you use the word "lui" (i.e. not the suffix) for men's names and the regular suffix for feminine names: Casa lui Florin. Florin's house. Fiul lui Emil. Florin's son. Casa Magdalenei. Magdalena's house. Fiul Mariei. Maria's son. For simplicity's sake, in the spoken language it is very common to hear people use "lui" with female names as well as men's names. This is especially true for foriegn women's names that don't end in an "a" anyways: Casa lui Ingrid. Fiul lui Maria.

If you want to say 'mine', 'yours', or 'his' you must use the AL construction:

	Male	Female	Neutral
singular	al	a	al
plural	ai	ale	ale

GRAMMAR NOTE: Notice that words of neutral gender in the singular behave like masculine words, but they behave like feminine words when in the plural. You will see this pattern often. Now let me try and make sense of that graph for you! If the object owned is masculine and singular, for example, you would use al instead of the object, followed by the corresponding meu form. For example: prietenul meu (my friend) becomes al meu (mine) This is why you need it: If you don't use it, you will sound like a robot, as has been avoided in the following example sentences: "My friend isn't here yet" "Mine isn't either." "Neither mine nor yours is here." "Thank you captain obvious!" In Romanian that would be: "Prietenul meu încă nu este aici." "Nici al meu." "Nici al meu nici al tău nu este aici." ('nici' means 'nor' and is repeated before each noun) HINT: try to think of al meu as just being the English word 'mine' although it is two words and feels kind of strange.