Jucătorul trimite mingea cu o lovitură de dreapta.

In Romanian, the definite article is usually attached to the end of the noun instead of appearing as a separate word before it.

So:

• jucător = player
• jucătorul = the player

This is completely normal in Romanian. For masculine singular nouns, the definite article is often -ul or -l.

For the same reason: mingea means the ball, while minge means just ball.

So:

• minge = ball
• mingea = the ball

With feminine nouns like minge, the definite form is often made with -a, and the spelling combines into one word: mingea.

Trimite is the 3rd-person singular present tense of a trimite.

So it means:

• he sends
• she sends
• it sends

In context, it can also be understood more naturally as sends, is sending, or in sports language plays/sends the ball.

Romanian often leaves out subject pronouns when they are not needed.

The verb form trimite already shows that the subject is singular, and here the noun jucătorul is already named, so adding el would usually be unnecessary.

This is very common in Romanian.

Yes, the basic meaning of a trimite is to send.

But in sports Romanian, it is very natural to say trimite mingea. This is often used for hitting, passing, or playing the ball somewhere. It focuses on the result: the player causes the ball to go somewhere.

So even if English might sometimes prefer hits or plays, Romanian can naturally use trimite here.

Because lovitură is a feminine singular noun, and the feminine singular indefinite article is o.

Compare:

• un for masculine/neuter singular
• o for feminine singular

So:

• o lovitură = a hit / a shot / a stroke

Here o is an article, not the number one in the usual sense.

The preposition cu usually means with.

In this sentence, cu o lovitură tells you the means or manner of the action: the ball is sent with a certain kind of shot.

So it answers a question like How does the player send the ball?

Because de dreapta is part of a fixed expression describing the type of shot.

A useful contrast is:

• lovitură dreaptă = a straight/right shot
  
  • here dreaptă is a normal adjective agreeing with lovitură
• lovitură de dreapta = a forehand/right-side shot
  
  • here de dreapta names the category of shot

So dreapta is not acting like a regular adjective that has to agree with lovitură.

After de, Romanian often uses a bare noun or fixed phrase to show type, purpose, material, or classification.

That is what is happening in lovitură de dreapta. The phrase means what kind of shot it is, not the right side as a separate fully definite noun phrase.

So the lack of an article is normal in this kind of expression.

Yes. This is the neutral, standard order:

• Jucătorul = subject
• trimite = verb
• mingea = direct object
• cu o lovitură de dreapta = manner/means phrase

Romanian word order is fairly flexible, but this version is the most straightforward and natural.

For emphasis, Romanian could also move the last phrase:

• Cu o lovitură de dreapta, jucătorul trimite mingea.

That is grammatical too, but the original sentence is the neutral one.

A few useful pronunciation points:

• j sounds like the s in measure
• ă is a short neutral vowel, similar to the a in sofa
• likely stress:
  • jucăTOrul
  • triMIte
  • MINgea
  • loviTUra
  • DREAPta

Very rough English-style approximations:

• jucătorul ≈ zhoo-kuh-TOR-ool
• lovitură ≈ loh-vee-TOO-ruh
• dreapta ≈ DRYAP-ta

These are only approximations, but they can help you get started.