Copilul vrea să trăiască.

The -ul is the definite article attached to the end of the noun. So:

• copil = child / a child
• copilul = the child

Romanian usually puts the definite article at the end of the noun, unlike English, which puts the before it.

After many Romanian verbs, especially verbs of wanting, ordering, or possibility, Romanian often uses să + subjunctive instead of an infinitive.

So:

• vrea să trăiască = wants to live

Literally, it is closer to wants that he/she live, but in normal English we translate it as wants to live.

Romanian does have an infinitive form, a trăi, but after a vrea, the normal pattern is să + subjunctive.

Because trăiască is the subjunctive form, while trăiește is the indicative present form.

Compare:

• Copilul trăiește. = The child lives / is alive.
• Copilul vrea să trăiască. = The child wants to live.

After să, Romanian usually uses the subjunctive form, not the regular present indicative.

Vrea is present tense, third person singular, from the verb a vrea = to want.

So:

• eu vreau = I want
• tu vrei = you want
• el/ea vrea = he/she wants

In this sentence, copilul is singular, so vrea matches it.

A helpful approximation is truh-YAS-kuh.

A few pronunciation points:

• ă is a short central vowel, like the a in about
• ia in trăiască forms a syllable like ya
• scă here sounds roughly like skuh

So the word breaks roughly as:

• tră-ias-că

Romanian stress in this word falls on ias: tră-IAS-că.

The infinitive is a trăi, which means to live.

So:

• a trăi = to live
• să trăiască = that he/she live, or more naturally in English here, to live

You will often learn Romanian verbs with a in front:

• a vrea = to want
• a trăi = to live

It means the child wants himself/herself to live.

In Copilul vrea să trăiască, the subject of vrea and the understood subject of trăiască are normally the same person: the child.

If you wanted to say that the child wants someone else to live, Romanian would usually make that other person explicit, for example:

• Copilul vrea ca mama lui să trăiască. = The child wants his mother to live.

Yes, but the meaning changes slightly.

• Copilul vrea să trăiască. = The child wants to live.
• Un copil vrea să trăiască. = A child wants to live.

So the difference is the same basic one as in English: the child refers to a specific child, while a child is indefinite.

The normal, neutral order is:

• Copilul vrea să trăiască.

Romanian word order is somewhat flexible, but changing it usually adds emphasis or sounds more marked.

For example:

• Vrea să trăiască copilul. could be possible in a special context, but it is not the most neutral way to say it.

For learners, the safest default is:

• subject + verb + să + subjunctive

It can mean both, depending on context.

• a trăi = to live, in the sense of to be alive
• it can also mean to live in a broader sense, as in to lead one’s life

But for to live somewhere, Romanian often prefers a locui:

• Locuiesc în București. = I live in Bucharest.

In your sentence, Copilul vrea să trăiască, the meaning is clearly to stay alive / to live.

Yes. Să is extremely common and important in Romanian grammar. It often introduces the subjunctive.

In sentences like this one:

• vrea să trăiască
• poate să vină
• trebuie să plece

it often corresponds to English to or to a clause like that ... should.

So while English says:

• wants to live

Romanian often says:

• wants that he/she live, using să
  • subjunctive

That is a very normal Romanian structure.