După ce olarul arde ceramica, glazura este lucioasă.

Because după ce is the normal way to say after when it introduces a whole clause with a verb.

• după
  • noun = after
    • noun
      Example: după masă = after the meal
• după ce
  • verb = after
    • clause
      Example: după ce olarul arde ceramica = after the potter fires the ceramics/pottery

So here, since arde is a verb, după ce is the correct choice.

Olarul means the potter.

The ending -ul is the Romanian definite article, attached to the end of a masculine singular noun:

• olar = potter
• olarul = the potter

Unlike English, Romanian usually puts the at the end of the noun instead of before it.

In both cases, -a is the definite article for a feminine singular noun.

• ceramică = ceramic / pottery / ceramics

• ceramica = the ceramic / the pottery / the ceramics

• glazură = glaze
• glazura = the glaze

So all three nouns in the sentence are definite:

• olarul = the potter
• ceramica = the pottery / the ceramic
• glazura = the glaze

Yes. A arde basically means to burn, but it can also be used in contexts like ceramics to mean to fire or to bake in a kiln.

So in this sentence, olarul arde ceramica is best understood as:

• the potter fires the pottery
• or more literally, the potter burns the ceramic

In English, fire is the natural translation in this context, even though the Romanian verb is the general verb a arde.

Romanian often uses the present tense for general truths, habitual actions, and process descriptions, just like English can.

So this sentence sounds like a general statement about what happens:

• După ce olarul arde ceramica, glazura este lucioasă.
• After the potter fires the pottery, the glaze is shiny.

It is not necessarily describing one specific event happening right now. It can describe a normal result or a general fact.

Because the sentence begins with a subordinate clause:

• După ce olarul arde ceramica = dependent clause
• glazura este lucioasă = main clause

In Romanian, as in English, it is normal to separate this kind of introductory clause with a comma.

Romanian word order is fairly flexible, but this order is natural and clear:

1. time clause first: După ce olarul arde ceramica
2. main statement second: glazura este lucioasă

This is very similar to English:

• After the potter fires the pottery, the glaze is shiny.

You could rearrange parts in Romanian in other contexts, but this version is the most straightforward.

Because it agrees with glazura, which is a feminine singular noun.

In Romanian, adjectives usually agree with the noun in gender and number.

• masculine singular: lucios
• feminine singular: lucioasă
• masculine plural: lucioși
• feminine plural: lucioase

Since glazura is feminine singular, the correct form is lucioasă.

Yes. Lucios / lucioasă can mean:

• shiny
• glossy
• lustrous
• sometimes polished-looking

The best translation depends on context. With glazura, glossy is often a very natural choice, because glaze commonly has a glossy surface.

Grammatically, ceramica is singular, because it comes from ceramică, a feminine singular noun.

However, in meaning it can refer to:

• ceramic material
• pottery
• sometimes ceramics in a collective sense

So even though the Romanian form is singular, English may translate it with pottery or ceramics, depending on context.

Romanian often does not need subject pronouns if the subject is already clear.

Here the subject is not a pronoun anyway; it is the noun olarul = the potter.

Also, Romanian verb endings often make the subject clear on their own. So pronouns like el = he are only used when needed for emphasis or contrast.

The main letters English speakers notice here are:

• ă = a short central vowel, something like the a in sofa
• â or î = a close central vowel that English does not really have
• ș = sh
• ț = ts

In this sentence:

• după: the final ă is a short, unstressed sound
• ceramică: the final ă is the same kind of short vowel
• lucioasă: the ă at the end is also that same sound

So paying attention to ă will help your pronunciation a lot.

Yes, but the meaning shifts slightly.

• este lucioasă = is shiny / glossy
• devine lucioasă = becomes shiny / glossy

The original sentence states the resulting condition.
If you use devine, you emphasize the change into that condition.

So:

• După ce olarul arde ceramica, glazura este lucioasă = after firing, the glaze is shiny
• După ce olarul arde ceramica, glazura devine lucioasă = after firing, the glaze becomes shiny

Both are possible, but the original is simpler and more matter-of-fact.