Prietenii coboară către refugiu.

Because prietenii means the friends.

A quick breakdown:

• prieten = friend
• prieteni = friends
• prietenii = the friends

For this noun, the first i helps make it plural, and the second i is the attached definite article. Romanian usually puts the at the end of the noun instead of using a separate word.

Approximately: prye-TE-nee.

A few helpful notes:

• The stress is on -te-.
• The ending -ii is not silent.
• In normal speech, that final part often sounds like a long ee or two very closely connected i sounds.

So prietenii does not sound exactly like prieteni.

Coboară is the present-tense form of a coborî, which means to go down / to descend.

Here it is 3rd person:

• el/ea coboară = he/she goes down
• ei/ele coboară = they go down

Romanian often uses the same present-tense form for both he/she and they.

Because the subject is prietenii, which is plural: the friends.

Even though coboară can mean either he/she goes down or they go down, the noun tells you which one is intended.

So:

• prietenii coboară = the friends go down

Către means toward / towards / in the direction of.

It emphasizes movement in a direction, not just arrival at a place.

So coboară către refugiu suggests:

• they are descending toward the refuge/shelter

It is a directional word.

They can overlap, but they are not exactly the same.

• către = toward, in the direction of
  
  • often feels a bit more directional or slightly more formal/written
• spre = toward
  
  • very common and often close in meaning to către
• la = to, at
  
  • often focuses more on destination/location than on the direction of movement

So:

• către refugiu = toward the shelter/refuge
• spre refugiu = toward the shelter/refuge
• la refugiu = to the shelter/refuge

In this sentence, către highlights the direction of descent.

Because Romanian normally does not use a separate word like English the before a noun. It usually attaches the definite article to the end of the noun.

Compare:

• refugiu = refuge / shelter
• refugiul = the refuge / the shelter

So if Romanian wanted to mark the noun clearly as definite, it could use refugiul.
Here, the sentence uses the bare noun refugiu after the preposition.

In English, depending on context, you may still translate it naturally as the shelter.

It is in the accusative after the preposition către.

But in Romanian, the accusative often looks exactly the same as the basic dictionary form of the noun, so you do not see a special ending here.

That is why it stays:

• refugiu

Yes. Romanian word order is more flexible than English word order.

The neutral order here is:

• Prietenii coboară către refugiu.

But other orders are possible for emphasis, for example:

• Către refugiu coboară prietenii.

That sounds more marked and puts extra focus on către refugiu.

For a learner, the original sentence is the most neutral and natural pattern to start with:

• subject + verb + prepositional phrase

Refugiu can mean refuge, shelter, or sometimes a mountain shelter/hut, depending on context.

In outdoor or hiking contexts, it often refers to a place where people can stop safely, rest, or protect themselves from bad weather.

So in a sentence like this, refugiu often suggests a shelter in the mountains or some kind of safe stopping place.

A rough English-friendly pronunciation is:

prye-TE-nee ko-BOA-rə KUH-tre re-FOO-jyoo

A few points:

• ă sounds like the a in about
• oa in coboară is a diphthong, so say it together
• stress:
  • prieTEnii
  • coBOAră
  • CĂtre
  • reFUgiu

So the rhythm is roughly:

prye-TE-nee ko-BOA-rə KUH-tre re-FOO-jyoo