Learn Hardcore Romanian: Pisica de pe stradă găsește întotdeauna un loc liniștit în cameră. - The cat from the street always finds a quiet place in the room.

Pisica = the cat (definite, feminine singular)
de pe = from (indicating origin from a surface/location)
stradă = street (indefinite)
Together it literally means the cat from the street or more naturally the street cat.

Why do we combine de and pe to form de pe stradă, instead of just pe stradă or de stradă?

Romanian distinguishes:

pe stradă = on the street (location)
de pe stradă = from on the street (source/origin)
You cannot say de stradă; it’s ungrammatical.

Why does Pisica end in -a? Is that the article?

Yes. In Romanian the definite article is a suffix:

pisică = cat (indefinite)
pisică + a → pisica = the cat (feminine singular)
At the start of the sentence it’s capitalized as Pisica.

What role does întotdeauna play, and is it one word?

întotdeauna is a single adverb meaning always. It modifies the verb and typically appears right after it:

găsește întotdeauna → finds always (i.e. always finds).

How is găsește formed from the infinitive a găsi?

Infinitive: a găsi (to find)
Present-tense conjugation:

eu găsesc
tu găsești
el/ea găsește
noi găsim
voi găsiți
ei/ele găsesc
The ending -ește marks third person singular.

Why is there no pe before un loc liniștit? Shouldn’t direct objects sometimes take pe?

In Romanian, pe is used to mark definite or animate direct objects (usually people or pets by name), e.g.:

L-am văzut pe Andrei.
Here, un loc liniștit is an indefinite inanimate object, so no pe is needed.

Why doesn’t cameră have an article after în?

After prepositions like în, nouns often appear without an article to express a general or context-defined location:

în cameră = in the room (understood from context, generic)
To specify a particular room you could say în camera de oaspeți, for example.

What case is un loc liniștit, and how can I recognize it?

un loc liniștit is in the accusative case (direct object). In Romanian, masculine/neuter singular indefinite accusative has the same form as the nominative and is signaled by the article un.

How do you pronounce the diacritics ă, î, â, ș, and ț in the sentence?

ă = /ə/ (as in about)
î, â = /ɨ/ (a central unrounded vowel not found in English)
ș = /ʃ/ (as in shoe)
ț = /t͡s/ (as in cats)

Can I use another word besides întotdeauna for “always”?

Yes. Common synonyms:

mereu (more colloquial)
tot timpul (all the time)
Example: Pisica de pe stradă găsește mereu un loc liniștit în cameră.