Cuvântul este clar.

Because Romanian usually puts the definite article at the end of the noun.

• cuvânt = word
• cuvântul = the word

So English uses a separate word, the, but Romanian often attaches it as a suffix. Here, -ul is the definite article for this singular noun.

Cuvânt is a neuter noun in Romanian.

That can be confusing for English speakers, because Romanian neuter nouns behave:

• like masculine in the singular
• like feminine in the plural

So in the singular, cuvântul takes the adjective form you would expect with a masculine singular noun:

• cuvântul este clar

In the plural, it changes like a feminine plural:

• cuvintele sunt clare

Because it agrees with cuvântul in number and gender.

Here, the noun is singular, and since cuvânt behaves like a masculine noun in the singular, the adjective is clar.

Compare:

• masculine/neuter singular: clar
• feminine singular: clară
• masculine plural: clari
• feminine/neuter plural: clare

So cuvântul este clar is the correct agreement.

A rough pronunciation is koo-VUHN-tool, with the stress on vân.

More exactly:

• cu sounds like koo
• vânt contains â, a Romanian vowel that does not exist in standard English
• tul sounds roughly like tool, but shorter and cleaner

The sound written â is a central vowel, often written phonetically as /ɨ/. English speakers usually need practice with it. It is not the same as uh in English, though uh is a decent first approximation.

In this sentence, este is the verb is, from a fi = to be.

Romanian normally does not omit the verb here. So:

• Cuvântul este clar = correct
• Cuvântul clar = not correct for this meaning

You need the copula verb when an adjective is the predicate of the sentence.

Yes. E is the short, very common form of este.

So both are correct:

• Cuvântul este clar = a bit more formal or careful
• Cuvântul e clar = very common in everyday speech

For a learner, it is useful to recognize both.

Because here clar is not directly describing the noun inside a noun phrase; it is part of the predicate.

This sentence is structured like:

• Cuvântul = subject
• este = verb
• clar = predicate adjective

So it means that the word is clear.

Compare that with an adjective directly attached to a noun:

• cuvântul clar = the clear word

That is a noun phrase, not a full sentence.

This is the most neutral and natural word order.

Romanian does allow some flexibility, but changing the order usually adds emphasis or sounds more marked. For normal statements, Subject + Verb + Adjective is the safest choice here:

• Cuvântul este clar.

A learner should treat that as the standard pattern.

The plural is:

• Cuvintele sunt clare.

Here is what changed:

• cuvântul → cuvintele = the words
• este → sunt = are
• clar → clare

The adjective changes because cuvinte is the plural of a neuter noun, and neuter nouns behave like feminine in the plural.

Because the noun is the thing being made definite: the word.

In Cuvântul este clar, clar is just a predicate adjective, so it does not take a definite article.

Romanian can attach the definite article to adjectives in some other structures, but not in this simple sentence pattern. Here the only definite element is the noun: cuvântul.