doua

Doua is the ASCII spelling of the Romanian cardinal numeral două, meaning two. In standard Romanian orthography, două is used before feminine counted nouns, while doi is used before masculine or mixed-gender counted nouns. For example, două fete means two girls, and doi băieți means two boys. The form două is also used in feminine plurals of tens, as in douăzeci de ani for twenty years (often written without diacritics as douazeci de ani in informal text).

The numeral functions as a determiner and numeral in counting and quantification. When counting more than two in Romanian, the form agrees with the gender of the counted noun: feminine nouns take două, masculine or mixed nouns take doi. The feminine form două is used with feminine nouns in plural phrases like două mașini (two cars) or două cărți (two books). The tens for twenty is typically douăzeci (twenty), with non-diacritic renderings such as douazeci.

Etymologically, două derives from the Latin duo and shares cognates with other Romance languages. It is part of a small set of numerals that inflect for gender in Romanian (2, 3, 4), with the form used depending on the gender of the counted noun. In contemporary writing, diacritics are standard in Romanian; doua or douazeci appear when diacritics are omitted, often in informal or digital contexts.

In summary, doua is the unaccented variant of the Romanian numeral for two, its use governed by gender of the counted noun, and it participates in the broader Romanian system of gendered numerals.