girl
A female child or a young woman.
o fată tânără
a young girl
fetele din clasă
the girls in the class
#131 · Noun
fată
In Romanian, fată means “girl”. It’s the #131 most frequently used Romanian word. Below you’ll find how to use it, its forms, real example sentences, and common word pairings.
Meaning & Use
Fată is "girl", feminine, rank 131. The trap is not its grammar, which is regular, but its neighbour: față with a ț means "face", and the two sit within a hundred places of each other on this list. One letter separates o fată frumoasă, "a beautiful girl", from o față frumoasă, "a beautiful face".
neutraldaughter
The kinship sense, alongside fiică. In speech fata mea is the ordinary way to say "my daughter".
fata mea
my daughter
girlfriend
With a possessive it can mean a partner, exactly as English "my girl" can.
Are o fată.
He has a girlfriend.
as an address (fată!)
Calling a friend fată is warm and informal between women, like "girl!" in English.
Fată, ce faci?
Girl, how are you?
Forms you’ll actually hear
Ranked by how often each form shows up in spoken Romanian. The top 3 forms cover about 88% of everyday use — learn these first.
fata49%
fată28%
fete11%
Show 3 more forms
fetele8%
fetei2%
fetelor2%
Noun Forms
- Gender
- feminine
- Countability
- countable
| singular indefinite | fată | |
|---|---|---|
| singular definite | fata | |
| plural indefinite | fete | |
| plural definite | fetele | |
| genitive dative singular | fetei | |
| genitive dative plural | fetelor |
A regular feminine noun in -ă, with the usual stem change before the plural: fată → fete. The definite forms attach at the end, fata and fetele, and the genitive-dative is fetei in the singular and fetelor in the plural.
Examples
Fata e la școală.
The girl is at school.
fata - The definite form, with the article attached at the end. It is the most frequent form of this word.
E o fată deșteaptă.
She's a clever girl.
fată - The indefinite with o. The adjective agrees in the feminine: deșteaptă, not deștept.
Fetele au plecat deja.
The girls have already left.
fetele - The definite plural. Note the stem change: fată becomes fete before the plural ending.
Am dat cartea fetei.
I gave the book to the girl.
fetei - The dative fetei. Romanian marks it on the noun, so no preposition for "to" is needed.
Fata mea are șase ani.
My daughter is six.
fata - The kinship sense. Age uses a avea — are șase ani, literally "has six years".
Fată is "girl"; față with a ț is "face". They are different words, not spelling variants. Spăl fața means I wash my face; spăl fata would mean I wash the girl. The comma under the t is doing real work here.