Am ales drumul greșit.

Am ales is the perfectul compus (the Romanian compound past), formed with:

• am = I have
• ales = past participle of a alege (to choose)

So literally it looks like I have chosen, but in normal English it is often best translated as I chose.

In Romanian, perfectul compus is the most common way to talk about completed past actions in everyday speech. So even though it looks like an English present perfect, it often matches the English simple past.

Because Romanian usually forms this kind of past tense with the auxiliary a avea (to have) plus a past participle.

So:

• am ales = I chose / I have chosen
• not am fost ales in this sentence

Be careful: am fost ales would mean I was chosen, which is a completely different structure and meaning.

The base verb is a alege, meaning to choose.

Its past participle is ales.

This verb is somewhat irregular, so learners usually need to memorize its important forms:

• infinitive: a alege
• present: aleg = I choose
• past participle: ales

So am ales is literally I have chosen.

Because drumul means the road / the path, while drum means a road / road.

Romanian usually puts the definite article at the end of the noun instead of using a separate word like English the.

So:

• drum = road / a road
• drumul = the road

The ending -ul is the masculine/neuter singular definite article here.

In Romanian, adjectives often come after the noun.

So:

• drumul greșit = the wrong road

This is the normal, neutral order.

Romanian can sometimes place the adjective before the noun, but that is often more literary, emphatic, or stylistically marked. For a learner, noun + adjective is the safest pattern in cases like this.

Because greșit must agree with drumul.

Drum is a masculine singular noun, so the adjective also appears in the masculine singular form:

• masculine singular: greșit
• feminine singular: greșită
• masculine plural: greșiți
• feminine plural: greșite

So:

• drumul greșit = masculine singular
• calea greșită = feminine singular

Here, greșit means wrong in the sense of not the correct one.

So drumul greșit means:

• the wrong road
• the wrong path
• sometimes figuratively, the wrong course

Romanian greșit can also mean mistaken, incorrect, or wrongly, depending on context, but in this sentence it is simply describing the noun drumul.

Romanian often leaves out the subject pronoun because the verb form already shows who the subject is.

Here, am ales clearly means I chose / I have chosen, so eu (I) is not necessary.

You could say:

• Eu am ales drumul greșit.

But adding eu usually gives extra emphasis, like:

• I chose the wrong road.
• It was me who chose the wrong road.

Without eu, the sentence is neutral and natural.

Yes.

It can be literal:

• choosing the wrong road while traveling

It can also be figurative:

• making the wrong life choice
• taking the wrong direction in a project or situation

Romanian uses drum and cale both literally and figuratively, just like English uses road or path.

Yes. That is also correct.

Compare:

• Am ales drumul greșit = I chose the wrong road/path
• Am ales calea greșită = also I chose the wrong path/way

Very roughly:

• drum often feels more like a road, route, or path
• cale can feel a bit more abstract or formal, and is often used figuratively too

In many contexts, both work.

The normal order is:

• Am ales drumul greșit.

This is the most natural neutral version.

Romanian word order is fairly flexible, but changing it usually changes emphasis.

For example:

• Drumul greșit l-am ales.
  = emphasizes the wrong road
• Eu am ales drumul greșit.
  = emphasizes I
• Am ales greșit drumul.
  = usually sounds more like I chose the road wrongly, which is a different nuance

So for a learner, stick with Am ales drumul greșit unless you specifically want emphasis.

A simple learner-friendly pronunciation is:

ahm ah-LES DROO-mool greh-SHEET

A few notes:

• ales is stressed on the second syllable: a-LES
• drumul sounds roughly like DROO-mool
• greșit is stressed on the last syllable: gre-SHIT
• ș is pronounced like English sh

So the whole sentence has the main rhythm:

am a-LES DRU-mul gre-SHIT