Așteptăm afară acum.

Because Romanian often leaves out the subject pronoun when the verb already shows who is doing the action.

Here, așteptăm means we wait / we are waiting.
The ending -ăm tells you it is 1st person plural (we).

So:

• Așteptăm afară acum. = We are waiting outside now.
• Noi așteptăm afară acum. also works, but noi is usually added only for emphasis or contrast.

Așteptăm is the present tense, 1st person plural form of the verb a aștepta (to wait).

A quick pattern:

• eu aștept = I wait
• tu aștepți = you wait
• el/ea așteaptă = he/she waits
• noi așteptăm = we wait
• voi așteptați = you all wait
• ei/ele așteaptă = they wait

In this sentence, it corresponds naturally to English we are waiting, even though Romanian uses the simple present form.

It can mean either, depending on context.

Romanian often uses the present tense where English might use either:

• we wait
• we are waiting

With acum (now), the meaning is clearly something happening at the moment, so English usually translates it as we are waiting outside now.

Here, afară is an adverb, and it means outside / outdoors.

It tells you where the waiting is happening.

So:

• așteptăm = we are waiting
• afară = outside
• acum = now

Romanian often uses afară by itself in exactly this kind of sentence.

Yes. Romanian word order is fairly flexible, although some versions sound more natural than others depending on emphasis.

The neutral sentence is:

• Așteptăm afară acum.

But you could also hear:

• Acum așteptăm afară.
• Așteptăm acum afară.
• Afară așteptăm acum. — more marked, with emphasis on outside

The basic meaning stays similar, but the focus changes a little. The original sentence sounds natural and straightforward.

Yes, you could leave it out.

• Așteptăm afară. = We are waiting outside.
• Așteptăm afară acum. = We are waiting outside now.

Adding acum makes the time more explicit and emphasizes that this is happening right now.

A simple learner-friendly pronunciation guide would be:

Așteptăm ≈ ush-tep-TUM
afară ≈ a-FA-rə
acum ≈ a-KOOM

A few important sounds:

• ș sounds like English sh
• ă is a short neutral vowel, like the a in sofa
• c in acum is a normal hard k sound

So the whole sentence is roughly:

ush-tep-TUM a-FA-rə a-KOOM

Because the verb is a aștepta, and its noi form is așteptăm.

This follows a regular present-tense pattern for this type of verb:

• infinitive: a aștepta
• stem used here: aștept-
• noi ending: -ăm

So:

• aștept + ăm = așteptăm

The spelling may look a little dense because Romanian keeps consonant clusters that are normal in the language.

Yes, absolutely.

Noi așteptăm afară acum is grammatically correct. But Romanian often drops subject pronouns when they are not needed.

Using noi can add emphasis, for example:

• Noi așteptăm afară acum, nu ei.
  We are waiting outside now, not them.

Without emphasis, Așteptăm afară acum is more natural.

Not exactly.

• afară usually means outside / outdoors
• în afară often means outside of, except for, or is part of longer expressions

In this sentence, you want the simple adverb afară:

• Așteptăm afară acum.

Using în afară here would not sound right unless it were part of a different structure.

Yes. It is short, clear, and natural.

A Romanian speaker might also say similar things like:

• Așteptăm afară.
• Stăm afară acum.
• Suntem afară acum. — depending on the exact situation

But Așteptăm afară acum is perfectly normal if the idea is specifically that we are waiting and we are doing it outside now.