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catevă
a few /kɨˈte.va/
adjective#1618 most common
Also: several, some
Example sentences
Am câteva mere.
I have a few apples.
Vin câteva prietene la mine diseară.
A few (female) friends are coming to my place tonight.
Am nevoie de câteva minute ca să mă gândesc.
I need a few minutes to think.
Le-am dat câtorva colegi vestea cea bună.
I gave a few colleagues the good news.
După câteva luni de căutări, a găsit în sfârșit un apartament.
After a few months of searching, she finally found an apartment.
Opinia câtorva specialiști nu poate răsturna concluziile studiului.
The opinion of a few specialists cannot overturn the study's conclusions.
Declension
| Case | Singular | Plural |
|---|---|---|
| Nominative | - | câteva |
| Genitive | - | câtorva |
| Accusative | - | câteva |
| Vocative | - | - |
Word family
câțivaa few (masculine)
câthow muchcâțihow many (masculine)câtvasome, a certain amount (archaic, masculine singular)cevasomethingEtymology
Câteva is built from câte, the feminine/neuter plural of cât ("how much/many"), itself from the Latin quantus, quanta group. To this root is added the old indefinite particle -va, the same element seen in ceva ("something") and cineva ("someone"). Together câte plus va shifted from a question word into an indefinite marker: not "how many" but "some undetermined few". The exact source of -va is debated among Romanian etymologists, so no single origin is given here.
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