Learn Hardcore Romanian: Copiii vor legume la prânz, dar nu au legume acum. - The children want vegetables at lunch, but they do not have vegetables now.

In this sentence vor is the 3rd person plural present of a vrea (“to want”). It translates as they want. Although vor can look like a future auxiliary, here it directly takes the noun legume (“vegetables”), so it can’t be the future tense.

Could vor ever be a future marker like “they will eat”?

Yes, Romanian can form the future with voi/vei/va/vom/veți/vor + infinitive (e.g. vor mânca = “they will eat”). But that pattern always has an infinitive afterwards. Since we have vor legume (noun, not verb), vor must be from a vrea, not the future auxiliary.

Why is there no article before legume in “vor legume”?

Here legume is an indefinite direct object: “some vegetables.” In Romanian you drop the article when you mean “some” or “any.” If you wanted specific vegetables you’d say legumele (“the vegetables”), with the -le suffix.

Why is Copiii used for “the children”? How do plural definite articles work?

Romanian attaches the definite article as a suffix. For masculine and feminine plural nouns you add -ii or -le, depending on gender. Copil (child) becomes copiii (“the children”). The bare form copii means simply “children” in general.

Why is it la prânz instead of pentru prânz?

With meals Romanian uses the preposition la, not pentru. So you say la micul dejun (“at breakfast”), la prânz (“at lunch”), la cină (“at dinner”). pentru prânz would sound awkward.

Why is the negative “nu au legume” and not something like “nu au nu legume”?

Romanian places the negation nu directly before the verb. You never repeat nu before the object. So “they do not have vegetables” is simply nu au legume.

Could we contract nu au to n-au?

Yes. In informal speech and writing nu + verb often becomes n- + verb. You’ll see n-au:
Copiii vor legume la prânz, dar n-au legume acum.

Could we replace the second legume with a pronoun?

Absolutely. You can substitute the feminine plural direct object with le:
Copiii vor legume la prânz, dar nu le au acum.
Pronouns help avoid repetition.

Why is acum at the end of the sentence?

Adverbs of time like acum (“now”) commonly follow the verb or the entire clause in Romanian. Putting it at the end emphasizes the timing: they don’t have vegetables right now.

What case is legume, and why does it look the same as the nominative?

Legume is feminine plural in the accusative case as the direct object of vor and au. In Romanian the nominative and accusative forms are identical for most feminine and neutral nouns, so you see legume for both.