Learn Romanian › câțivă
câțivă
a few /kɨ.t͡siˈva/
adjective#956 most common
Also: several, some
Example sentences
Am câțiva prieteni.
I have a few friends.
Cumpărăm câțiva castraveți de la piață.
We're buying a few cucumbers at the market.
Mai avem nevoie de câțiva voluntari pentru eveniment.
We still need a few volunteers for the event.
I-am dat cartea câtorva studenți interesați.
I gave the book to a few interested students.
Doar câțiva dintre invitați au ajuns la timp.
Only a few of the guests arrived on time.
Părerile câtorva critici influenți au reușit să schimbe percepția publicului asupra filmului.
The opinions of a few influential critics managed to change the public's perception of the film.
Declension
| Case | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | None | câțiva |
| Genitive | None | câtorva |
| Accusative | None | câțiva |
| Vocative | None | None |
Word family
câthow much, how many
câtevaa few (feminine/neuter plural agreement)
câtvasome, a certain amount (archaic/regional singular)câtimequantity, amount
oricâțihowever many, no matter how many
Etymology
Câțiva is built from cât, the Romanian word for "how much/many" (from Latin quantus), and the suffix -va, an old grammaticalized form of the verb a vrea ("to want, will be"). This same -va pattern shows up across Romanian's indefinite pronouns: cineva (someone), ceva (something), careva (some, any). Together câți (plural of cât) plus -va gave a word meaning roughly "however many there might be", which settled into the everyday sense of "a few".
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