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carti

books /ˈkərt͡sʲ/

noun#5684 most common

Also: cards (in the phrase 'cărți de joc', playing cards), of the book / to the book (genitive-dative singular of 'carte')

Example sentences

Eu citesc cărți.
I read books.
Copiii au multe cărți acasă.
The children have many books at home.
Mergem la bibliotecă să împrumutăm cărți noi.
We go to the library to borrow new books.
Profesorul ne-a recomandat câteva cărți despre istoria României.
The teacher recommended a few books about Romania's history to us.
Colecția lui de cărți rare valorează o avere.
His collection of rare books is worth a fortune.
Deși rafturile erau pline de cărți vechi, niciuna nu conținea informația de care aveam nevoie.
Although the shelves were full of old books, none contained the information I needed.

Declension

CaseSingularPlural
Nominativecartecărți
Genitivecărțicărților
Accusativecartecărți
Vocativecartecărților

Word family

cartebook
cărticicăbooklet, small book
cărturarscholar, learned person
cartoforgambler, card player (from 'cărți de joc')
carte de vizităbusiness card

Etymology

The singular form 'carte' comes from Latin 'charta', meaning a sheet of papyrus or paper, which Latin borrowed from Greek 'khartēs'. The plural 'cărți' developed through regular Romanian sound changes: the stem vowel shifted from 'a' to 'ă', and the plural marker '-i' palatalized the final 't' into 'ț'. The Greek word's own origin is unclear, so no further root can be traced with confidence.

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