Jardiniera este lângă fereastră.

A word-by-word breakdown is:

• jardiniera = the planter / the window box
• este = is
• lângă = near / next to / beside
• fereastră = window

So the sentence means something like The planter is next to the window or The window box is near the window, depending on context and on how jardinieră is being used.

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

• jardinieră = a planter
• jardiniera = the planter

So the -a here is functioning as the.

The dictionary form is jardinieră.

That final ă changes when the definite article is added:

• jardinieră = a planter
• jardiniera = the planter

This is normal for many feminine Romanian nouns.

Yes, it is a feminine noun.

A few clues:

• Many Romanian nouns ending in -ă in the basic form are feminine.
• Its definite singular form is -a at the end: jardiniera.
• If you used an adjective with it, the adjective would also take feminine agreement.

So a learner should think of jardinieră as a feminine singular noun.

Lângă means near, next to, or beside.

In this sentence, it shows location: the planter is positioned close to the window.

It is a preposition, so it works like English near or beside. In grammar terms, it is followed by the accusative, but in this sentence you do not see any special visible change because fereastră has the same form in nominative and accusative here.

This is a very natural question.

• fereastră = window / a window
• fereastra = the window

As written, fereastră is the bare singular form. Literally, that is closer to a window. However, in Romanian, location expressions after prepositions can sometimes sound natural without making the noun overtly definite in the way English does.

If you want to make the window fully explicit, lângă fereastra is more clearly definite.

So:

• lângă fereastră = near a window or sometimes simply near the window, depending on context
• lângă fereastra = more explicitly near the window

Este is the 3rd person singular of a fi, meaning to be. So it means is.

Yes, in everyday Romanian, e is very common instead of este:

• Jardiniera este lângă fereastră.
• Jardiniera e lângă fereastră.

Both are correct. E sounds a bit more natural in casual speech.

The basic order here is:

• subject + verb + location
• Jardiniera este lângă fereastră.

That is the most neutral order.

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

• Lângă fereastră este jardiniera.

This puts more focus on the location. It is still understandable, but the original sentence is the most straightforward for a learner.

A rough English-friendly pronunciation is:

• jardiniera ≈ zhar-dee-NYE-ra
• este ≈ YES-te
• lângă ≈ luhn-guh
• fereastră ≈ feh-REAS-truh

A couple of important sound notes:

• j in Romanian sounds like the s in measure
• ă is a short neutral vowel, like the a in sofa
• â has no exact English equivalent; it is a central vowel specific to Romanian

So the full sentence is roughly: zhar-dee-NYE-ra YES-te luhn-guh feh-REAS-truh

Here are the useful forms:

For jardinieră:

• o jardinieră = a planter
• jardiniera = the planter
• jardiniere = planters
• jardinierele = the planters

For fereastră:

• o fereastră = a window
• fereastra = the window
• ferestre = windows
• ferestrele = the windows

These are worth learning early, because Romanian articles are attached to the noun rather than placed before it.