Vreau lapte pentru cafea.

I want milk for coffee.

Breakdown of Vreau lapte pentru cafea.

• pentru: for
• cafeaua: the coffee
• laptele: the milk
• a vrea: to want

Questions & Answers about Vreau lapte pentru cafea.

Why is there no article before lapte?

In Romanian, mass or uncountable nouns like lapte (“milk”) appear without a definite or indefinite article when speaking in a general sense. You have a few options if you want to specify quantity or make it indefinite:

• niște lapte = “some milk”
• un pahar de lapte = “a glass of milk”
  But Vreau lapte pentru cafea is the most natural way to say “I want milk for coffee.”

Why does Romanian use pentru here, and not de, cu, or la?

Romanian prepositions have specific uses:

• pentru
  • noun = “for” (purpose): lapte pentru cafea (“milk for coffee”)
• de = “of/from” (material, origin): lapte de soia (“soy milk”) or o sticlă de lapte (“a bottle of milk”)
• cu = “with” (accompaniment): cafea cu lapte (“coffee with milk”)
• la = context/place/time: you might hear lapte la cafea colloquially to mean “milk for coffee time,” but the standard purpose construction is with pentru.

Why is cafea singular? Can I ever use cafele?

Here cafea refers to coffee in the abstract (the substance), which is uncountable and stays singular. If you want to talk about individual servings, you use the plural cafele:

• Două cafele = “two (cups of) coffee”
  But Vreau lapte pentru cafea means “I want milk to put in coffee,” not specifying how many cups.

Is Vreau too direct? Should I use Aș vrea or Îmi doresc to sound more polite?

• Vreau (present indicative) is direct (“I want”) and perfectly fine in informal contexts or among friends.
• Aș vrea (conditional) = “I would like” is more polite in a café or with strangers: Aș vrea lapte pentru cafea, vă rog.
• Îmi doresc is more formal/literary: Îmi doresc lapte pentru cafea (“I wish for milk for coffee”).

Why is the pronoun eu omitted before vreau?

Romanian is a pro-drop language: verb endings indicate person and number. Vreau ends in -u, marking 1st person singular, so eu (“I”) is unnecessary and usually dropped unless you want to emphasize the subject:

• (Eu) vreau lapte pentru cafea.

Can I change the word order, for example Pentru cafea vreau lapte?

Yes, Romanian allows some flexibility for emphasis:

• Vreau lapte pentru cafea. (neutral)
• Pentru cafea vreau lapte. (emphasizes purpose)
  However, the neutral and most common structure is Vreau lapte pentru cafea.

How do I pronounce vreau, lapte, pentru, and cafea?

Approximate pronunciations (English-friendly):

• vreau: vreh-oo (the ea is a diphthong like “hear” + “oo”)
• lapte: LAP-teh (clear t, short vowels)
• pentru: pen-TROO (soft e, roll the r)
• cafea: ka-FEH-ah (three syllables, stress on the first: CA-fe-a)

What gender is lapte, and does it affect the sentence?

Lap­te is masculine. In this sentence there are no adjectives or articles that change form for gender, so you don’t see agreement here. If you did add an adjective, it would agree in gender and number:

• lapte rece (cold milk) – rece stays the same for masculine singular.