Learn Hardcore Romanian: Ana nu joacă niciodată acest joc dificil.

In Romanian the particle nu precedes the finite verb to form negation. You cannot say joacă nu. This rule applies in all simple tenses and moods: you always have nu + verb. Moreover, Romanian typically uses double negation, so when you add negative words like niciodată, the nu stays in place.

What exactly is joacă, and why isn’t it joace or something else?

Joacă is the third person singular present indicative form of the verb a juca (“to play”). The ending -ă signals 3rd sg. in the present tense. You’ll see:

eu joc
tu joci
el/ea joacă

So Ana joacă means “Ana plays.”

What does niciodată mean, and why do we need both nu and niciodată to say “never”?

Niciodată literally means “never.” Romanian requires nu + negative word (double negation), so you say nu joacă niciodată. If you drop nu and say Ana joacă niciodată, it sounds ungrammatical or contradictory, because niciodată by itself doesn’t replace the negation particle.

Why is it acest joc dificil and not jocul acesta dificil?

Acest is the demonstrative adjective meaning “this,” placed before the noun. If you wanted the article + postposed demonstrative, you could say jocul acesta, but that’s more colloquial or emphatic (“this very game”). The pattern here is simply acest (this) + joc (game).

Why is dificil placed after joc, and how does agreement work?

In Romanian, most adjectives follow the noun. Dificil agrees with joc in gender (masculine) and number (singular). Masculine singular adjectives in the nominative/accusative often have no ending or an -l ending, hence joc dificil.

If I want to say “a difficult game” instead of “this difficult game,” what changes?

You’d replace the demonstrative acest with the indefinite article un:
un joc dificil
This means “a difficult game.” The rest (word order, agreement) stays the same.

Could I move niciodată to a different position in the sentence?

Yes, but with slight emphasis changes. The neutral order is Ana nu joacă niciodată acest joc dificil. You could say Ana nu joacă acest joc dificil niciodată, but it sounds more emphatic on niciodată (stressing “never, at all”).

Why isn’t there a definite article on Ana?

Proper names in Romanian do not take a definite article in the subject position. You say simply Ana. (Some regional or informal speech may use Anei or Ana, but that’s for possessive or vocative; it doesn’t affect the basic sentence.)

Why is the verb a juca not reflexive here (i.e., se joacă)?

A juca is transitive when you “play something” (you have a direct object). You say joacă un joc. A se juca is intransitive (“to be playing,” no specific object) as in copiii se joacă (“the children are playing”). Since Ana plays a specific game, we use joacă without se.