Counting in Romanian follows a very logical pattern with just a few unique rules.

Understanding these numbers is essential for daily tasks like shopping, telling time, or sharing your age.

Romanian numbers have Latin roots but also feature a unique Slavic influence in the teens.

This guide will walk you through exactly how to count in Romanian from zero to the thousands.

Numbers from 1 to 10

The best place to start is with the basic numbers from one to ten.

You’ll use these core numbers to build almost all of the larger numbers later on.

Pay special attention to the numbers one and two.

These two numbers change depending on the gender of the noun you’re counting.

For the number one, you use unu when counting masculine or neuter nouns, and o for feminine nouns.

For the number two, you use doi for masculine nouns and două for feminine or neuter nouns.

Numbers from 11 to 19

Romanian forms the teen numbers differently than other Romance languages like Spanish or Italian.

It uses a counting formula borrowed directly from Slavic languages.

The formula is the single digit, followed by the word spre (towards), and ending with zece (ten).

For example, eleven literally translates to “one towards ten”.

You’ll notice a small sound change for the numbers fourteen and sixteen.

The middle consonants are dropped to make the words much easier to pronounce.

Many Romanians also shorten these teen numbers in casual, everyday speech.

Depending on the region, you’ll often hear people say unșpe instead of unsprezece or doișpe instead of doisprezece.

Counting from 20 to 99

Once you reach twenty, the pattern changes to a simple Latin structure.

You just say the single digit followed by the word zeci, which is the plural of ten.

For example, twenty translates literally to “two tens” and thirty translates to “three tens”.

To say a compound number like twenty-five, you just combine the tens and the single digits.

You connect them using the Romanian word for and, which is și.

Therefore, twenty-five becomes douăzeci și cinci.

The important rule for the word “de”

There’s a very important grammar rule you must remember when counting physical objects.

Whenever you count 20 or more items, you must place the preposition de between the number and the noun.

This rule applies to all nouns regardless of their gender.

Here’s an example to show you how this works with a small number.

Because the number is under 20, we don’t use the word de.

Here’s the exact same sentence using a larger number.

The only exception to this rule is if a large number ends in the digits 01 through 19.

For example, the number 101 ends in a one, so it doesn’t require the word de.

Hundreds and thousands

Counting in the hundreds and thousands follows the exact same logic.

The Romanian word for hundred is sută.

Because sută is a feminine noun, you must use the feminine forms of one and two.

One hundred is o sută and two hundred is două sute.

The word for thousand is mie, which is also a feminine noun.

One thousand is o mie and two thousand is două mii.

You simply string the words together to form larger numbers without needing the word și.