Possessive Adjectives — Romanian Grammar

Possessive adjectives say whose something is: my, your, his, her, our, their. In Romanian they come after the noun, and the noun normally carries the definite "the" ending.

They Agree With the Thing Owned

This is the key point: a possessive agrees in gender and number with the thing possessed, not with the owner. "My" therefore has four shapes:

(masculine sg): - my friend (male)
(feminine sg): - my friend (female)
(masculine pl): - my friends (male)
(feminine pl): - my friends (female)

The Full Set

my - / / /
your (one person) - / / /
his or her - / / / (see the next section)
our - / / /
your (plural) - / / /
their - (one form, never changes)

casa noastră
our house
părinții mei
my parents
camera lor
their room

His and Her: Two Ways

Romanian has two ways of saying "his" and "her", and they work differently.

The first way is (his) and (her). These follow the owner: they say whether the owner is a man or a woman, and they never change for the thing owned:

cartea lui
his book
cartea ei
her book
cărțile lui
his books

This means "her". The subject pronoun meaning "they" is a different word that happens to be spelt the same; its position after the noun marks this one as "her".

The second way is / / / . These work exactly like : they agree with the thing owned, and they do not show whether the owner is a man or a woman:

cartea sa
his book / her book
cărțile sale
his books / her books

Which One to Use

In everyday speech you mostly hear and . and sound more formal and are common in writing. They most often point back to the subject of the sentence, the person the sentence is about:

Prietenul meu i-a făcut un cadou mamei sale.
My friend gave his (own) mother a present.

There is no such form for several owners: "their" is always .

'Of' and 'To' With a Possessive

When a feminine noun takes its "of / to" form (see Genitive and Dative Cases), a feminine possessive after it changes as well, and looks like its plural:

→ , → , → , →

casa mamei mele
my mother's house
mamei sale
to his / her mother

The masculine and plural possessives keep their shape: (to my friend), (to our children).

In the course

Sentences from Lingora’s Romanian course

78 of the course's 500 sentences use this, the first in lesson 2. A few of them, with the words “Possessive Adjectives” is about in bold:

Ea este prietena mea, Anna. Este studentă.
This is my friend, Anna. She is a student.
Lesson 2
Tatăl meu a cumpărat un cadou pentru mama mea.
My father bought a present for my mother.
Lesson 225
Unde este fiica noastră? - Este la școală.
Where is our daughter? - She's at school.
Lesson 242

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