year (a period of twelve months)
The countable unit — counted, planned, remembered.
anul trecut
last year
doi ani
two years
#75 · Noun
an
In Romanian, an means “year (a period of twelve months)”. It’s the #75 most frequently used Romanian word. Below you’ll find how to use it, its forms, real example sentences, and common word pairings.
Meaning & Use
An is "year", rank 75, masculine. The measured data has a clear winner: the plural ani outnumbers the singular five to one, because Romanian states age with it — Am treizeci de ani, "I am thirty". The birthday wish La mulți ani! ("many years!") is built from the same plural and is the first full sentence most learners memorise.
neutralyears old (age)
Romanian has age, it does not be it: Am 30 de ani, literally "I have 30 years".
Câți ani ai?
How old are you?
Am douăzeci de ani.
I'm twenty.
year (of study or of an institution)
A school or university year.
Sunt în anul doi.
I'm in the second year.
in greetings (La mulți ani!)
Covers birthday, name day and New Year — one wish for all three occasions.
La mulți ani!
Happy birthday! / Happy New Year!
Forms you’ll actually hear
Ranked by how often each form shows up in spoken Romanian. The top 2 forms cover about 86% of everyday use — learn these first.
ani71%
an15%
Show 4 more forms
anul8%
anii3%
anului2%
anilor1%
Noun Forms
- Gender
- masculine
- Countability
- countable
| singular indefinite | an | |
|---|---|---|
| singular definite | anul | |
| plural indefinite | ani | |
| plural definite | anii | |
| genitive dative singular | anului | |
| genitive dative plural | anilor |
A regular masculine noun: the definite article is attached at the end (an → anul, ani → anii, with the plural -i plus the article -i written as a double i). The genitive-dative adds -ului in the singular and -lor in the plural.
Examples
Câți ani ai?
How old are you?
ani - The standard age question, built on a avea. Answering with sunt instead of am is the classic beginner slip.
Am treizeci de ani.
I'm thirty years old.
ani - Numbers above nineteen insert de before the noun: treizeci de ani, but nouă ani with no de.
Anul trecut am fost în Grecia.
Last year I was in Greece.
anul - A definite time noun used adverbially, with no preposition — the same pattern as ziua and seara.
La mulți ani!
Happy birthday!
ani - Literally "to many years". A fixed wish, and one of the biggest single sources of this word’s frequency.
La începutul anului e mai liniște.
At the start of the year it's quieter.
anului - The genitive anului after începutul. Romanian marks "of the year" on the noun itself, with no separate word.
În ultimii ani s-a schimbat mult.
In recent years a lot has changed.
anii - When an adjective comes first, it takes the definite article and the noun stays bare: ultimii ani.
Age uses a avea, not a fi: Am 25 de ani, never *Sunt 25 de ani. And from twenty upwards the number needs de — douăzeci de ani, but nouăsprezece ani. Both rules are invisible to an English speaker and both are noticed immediately by a Romanian one.