time / occasion
Counted occurrences: o dată, prima dată, ultima dată, de fiecare dată.
prima dată
the first time
de fiecare dată
every time
#127 · Noun
dată
In Romanian, dată means “time / occasion”. It’s the #127 most frequently used Romanian word. Below you’ll find how to use it, its forms, real example sentences, and common word pairings.
Meaning & Use
Dată is one noun with two lives. As an occasion it means "time": o dată "once", de două ori is the other way to count, and de fiecare dată "every time". As a calendar entry it means "date", and its plural date means "data". Rank 127, feminine, and the article decides which one you have said.
neutralonce (o dată)
Two words for "one time". Written as one word, odată means "once upon a time" or "at once".
încă o dată
once more
o dată pe săptămână
once a week
date (calendar)
Almost always definite: data. Ce dată e azi? asks the day of the month.
data nașterii
date of birth
Ce dată e azi?
What's the date today?
data (plural, date)
The technical sense — information. Same plural form as the occasion sense.
date personale
personal data
Forms you’ll actually hear
Ranked by how often each form shows up in spoken Romanian. The top 2 forms cover about 91% of everyday use — learn these first.
dată50%
data41%
Show 4 more forms
date5%
datele4%
datelor<1%
datei<1%
Noun Forms
- Gender
- feminine
- Countability
- countable
| singular indefinite | dată | |
|---|---|---|
| singular definite | data | |
| plural indefinite | date | |
| plural definite | datele | |
| genitive dative singular | datei | |
| genitive dative plural | datelor |
A regular feminine noun in -ă: dată, data, date, datele. The two senses are not separate words but they split by form in practice — the occasion sense lives in the bare dată (o dată, prima dată), while the calendar sense is nearly always the definite data. Note also that dată is the feminine participle of a da, "given", which is a third thing the same spelling can be.
Examples
Am fost acolo o dată.
I went there once.
dată - Two words. Written as one, odată would shift the meaning towards "once upon a time".
E prima dată când vin aici.
It's the first time I've come here.
dată - prima dată takes când, not că, to introduce the clause that follows.
De fiecare dată uită.
He forgets every time.
dată - A fixed adverbial. fiecare is invariable in front of a singular noun.
Care e data de azi?
What's today's date?
data - The calendar sense, definite. For the day of the week the question is Ce zi e azi?
Nu dau date personale.
I don't give out personal data.
date - The plural in its technical sense, with the adjective agreeing in the feminine plural.
O dată and odată are different words. O dată (two words) is "one time": Am fost o dată. Odată (one word) means "once upon a time" or "at once": Odată, demult… Read aloud they sound alike, so the space carries the whole difference in writing.
In expressions
Common phrases built around dată — worth learning as whole units.
de data asta— this time
lit. “of the-time this”