Learn Hardcore Romanian: Noaptea, stăm pe scaun și numărăm stelele de pe cer. - At night, we sit on a chair and count the stars in the sky.

Noaptea literally means the night, but when used without a preposition at the start of a sentence it functions as an adverb meaning at night. Romanian turns certain time nouns into adverbs by adding the definite article (here -a to noapte). You don’t need la or în. Note that la noapte would mean tonight, which is slightly different.

Why isn’t there a pronoun like noi in front of stăm or numărăm?

Romanian is a pro-drop (null-subject) language. The verb endings already indicate the subject. Here stăm and numărăm are both first-person plural, so adding noi (“we”) is optional and only used for emphasis or contrast.

What does stăm mean in this sentence?

stăm is the first-person plural present tense of a sta, which in everyday speech means to sit or to stay. In this context, stăm pe scaun translates as we sit on (a/the) chair.

Why is it pe scaun without an article, and what does pe do here?

pe is the preposition for on in Romanian, indicating location on a surface (here, the seat of the chair). The article is omitted because the action is generic—we sit on chairs rather than on one specific chair. If you meant a particular chair, you could say pe un scaun (on a chair) or pe scaunul (on the chair).

What does și mean in stăm… și numărăm?

și is the standard coordinating conjunction and in Romanian. It simply links the two actions: we sit and we count.

What is numărăm, and where does it come from?

numărăm is the first-person plural present of a număra, which means to count. Therefore, numărăm stelele = we count the stars.

Why is it stelele instead of stele, and what does that mean?

In Romanian, the definite article attaches to the end of the noun. stele (stars) becomes stelele (the stars) with the plural definite suffix -le. So numărăm stelele means we count the stars, with the built into the word.

Why do we say de pe cer with two prepositions? Can’t we just say pe cer or în cer?

This follows the same pattern as a lua ceva de pe masă (to take something off the table). pe marks the surface where the stars are, and de marks origin or removal from that surface. You could hear numărăm stelele pe cer (we count the stars on the sky), but de pe cer is more idiomatic. în cer doesn’t work because cer (sky) is treated like a surface, not a container.

Is the comma after Noaptea necessary? What’s its role?

The comma separates the introductory time expression from the main clause, adding a slight pause (like writing At night, we sit… in English). It’s not strictly required, but it’s common when you place an adverbial phrase at the beginning of a sentence for clarity or emphasis.