Poliția ajunge la închisoare.

In Romanian, the definite article is usually attached to the end of the noun.

• poliție = police
• poliția = the police

So Romanian normally says poliția, not a separate word for the before the noun.

For this noun, the base form is poliție, and the definite form is poliția.

Grammatically, poliția is singular in Romanian, even though English the police often behaves like a plural expression.

That is why the verb is also singular:

• Poliția ajunge = The police arrives / gets there (Romanian singular grammar)

If you want to talk about individual police officers, you would use a different noun, such as polițiștii = the police officers.

Ajunge is the 3rd person singular present tense of the verb a ajunge.

Here are a few present-tense forms:

• eu ajung = I arrive / I get
• tu ajungi = you arrive / you get
• el/ea ajunge = he/she arrives / gets
• poliția ajunge = the police arrives / gets

So ajunge matches the singular subject poliția.

No. A ajunge is a very common verb with several meanings, depending on context. Some common ones are:

• to arrive / reach
• to get to
• to end up
• sometimes even to be enough

So in different sentences, ajunge can mean slightly different things. In your sentence, the context tells you which meaning is intended.

Examples:

• Ajung acasă la șase. = I get home at six.
• A ajuns doctor. = He became / ended up being a doctor.
• Banii nu ajung. = The money is not enough.

La is very often used in Romanian for a destination, especially with places, institutions, or people.

So la închisoare literally means something like:

• to the prison
• at the prison
• or, depending on context, in prison

Romanian uses la in many cases where English might use to, at, or sometimes no preposition at all.

Other examples:

• merg la școală = I go to school
• ajung la gară = I arrive at the station
• vine la mine = he/she comes to my place

Because Romanian often leaves the noun without the definite article after a preposition when talking about a place in a general sense.

So:

• la închisoare = to prison / at prison / in prison, in a general sense
• la închisoarea aceea = at that prison
• la închisoarea din oraș = at the prison in town

This is similar to English contrasts like:

• go to prison
• but go to the prison

The version without the article often sounds more general or institutional.

Yes. On its own, a ajunge la închisoare can sometimes mean either:

• to arrive at the prison
• or to end up in prison

The exact meaning depends on context.

So if a learner sees this sentence alone, it is normal to wonder about that. Romanian allows this kind of ambiguity, and the surrounding situation usually makes the meaning clear.

This is the most neutral word order:

• subject + verb + place

So:

• Poliția = subject
• ajunge = verb
• la închisoare = place/destination

Romanian word order is fairly flexible, so you can move things around for emphasis:

• La închisoare ajunge poliția.
• Ajunge poliția la închisoare.

These are possible, but the basic version you have is the most straightforward one for learners.

A simple learner-friendly approximation is:

• poliția ≈ po-lee-TSI-a
• închisoare ≈ în-ki-SOA-re

A few useful pronunciation points:

• ț sounds like ts in cats
• ch before i or e sounds like k
• ă is a short neutral vowel, like the a in about
• î is a specifically Romanian vowel that does not have a perfect English equivalent

So:

• poliția has the ts sound in the middle
• închisoare begins with în and has ch = k

Yes, they matter a lot.

In your sentence:

• ț in poliția is a different letter from t
• ă and î in închisoare are also different letters from plain a and i

If you leave out diacritics, people will often still understand you from context, but correct Romanian spelling uses them:

• correct: Poliția ajunge la închisoare.
• without diacritics: Politia ajunge la inchisoare.

The second version is common in casual typing, but it is not the standard written form.

If you are studying Romanian cases, la normally takes the accusative.

In this sentence:

• la închisoare

is an accusative construction. In many Romanian nouns, the accusative form looks the same as the basic dictionary form, so there is no visible change to închisoare here.

So the important thing for a beginner is mostly just:

• learn la as a very common preposition for destination/location
• remember that the noun often does not visibly change after it