Learn Hardcore Romanian: Stăm toți în camera de zi și ascultăm o poveste scurtă. - We all sit in the living room and listen to a short story.

In the sentence Stăm toți în camera de zi și ascultăm o poveste scurtă, what exactly does stăm mean, and why not use suntem for we are?

Stăm is the 1st person plural (we) form of the verb a sta, which means to stay, to sit, to be located, to remain.

Stăm în camera de zi ≈ We are sitting in the living room / We are staying in the living room.
Suntem is from a fi (to be) and is used for identity, characteristics, professions, nationality, etc.:
- Suntem obosiți – We are tired.
- Suntem înalți – We are tall.

So Stăm în camera de zi focuses on the position / staying there, not on who we are.

Why is there no word for we (like noi) in the Romanian sentence?

Romanian is a pro‑drop language: the verb ending already shows the subject, so the subject pronoun is often omitted.

Stăm by itself already means we stay / we are sitting.
Adding noi gives emphasis or contrast:
- Noi stăm în camera de zi, ei stau în bucătărie.
  We are in the living room, they are in the kitchen.

So Noi stăm toți… would be correct but not necessary unless you want special emphasis on we.

Why is toți after stăm? Can we also say Toți stăm în camera de zi…?

Both orders are correct:

Stăm toți în camera de zi…
Toți stăm în camera de zi…

The difference is mainly nuance:

Stăm toți… sounds like a neutral description, slightly focusing on the action stăm.
Toți stăm… puts a bit more emphasis on toți (all of us), as if you’re stressing that nobody is missing.

In everyday speech, both are very natural.

What does toți add to the meaning? Would Stăm în camera de zi și ascultăm o poveste scurtă be wrong?

Toți means all (of us).

Stăm în camera de zi și ascultăm o poveste scurtă.
We are in the living room and listening to a short story.
→ This just describes what we (unspecified how many) are doing.
Stăm toți în camera de zi și ascultăm o poveste scurtă.
→ Emphasizes that everyone in the group is there, nobody is left out.

The version without toți is still grammatically correct; it just loses the all of us nuance.

How is camera de zi built grammatically, and what does it literally mean?

Camera de zi is a noun phrase made of:

camera – the room
de – a linking preposition (of)
zi – day

Literally, camera de zi = room of day, i.e. daytime room, which corresponds to living room in English.

Grammatically, de often links two nouns where English would use of or a compound:

mașină de spălat – washing machine (machine for washing)
sală de sport – gym (sports hall)
cameră de oaspeți – guest room

Could you also say în sufragerie instead of în camera de zi? Is there a difference?

Yes, you can say:

Stăm toți în sufragerie…
Stăm toți în camera de zi…

Both are often translated as in the living room, but there is a nuance:

sufragerie – traditionally dining room, but in many homes it doubles as (or is used for) the main living area, so people often call their living room sufragerie.
camera de zi – literally daytime room, a more neutral way to say living room.

In everyday speech, many Romanians use sufragerie where English uses living room, so both are acceptable in this context.

Why is în used here (în camera de zi) instead of la? How do you choose between în and la for places?

General rule:

în = in / inside
- în camera de zi – in the living room
- în casă – in the house
la = at / to (more external or general)
- la școală – at school
- la bunici – at the grandparents’ place
- mergem la magazin – we’re going to the shop

Here, în camera de zi is correct because you are inside the room.
La camera de zi would sound wrong or very odd in standard Romanian in this context.

Romanian uses stăm and ascultăm, simple present forms, but the English translation is we are sitting and listening. How can the same tense cover both we sit / listen and we are sitting / are listening?

Romanian has one present tense that covers both:

English present simple: we sit, we listen
English present continuous: we are sitting, we are listening

So:

Stăm în camera de zi.
Can mean:
- We (generally) stay / sit in the living room. (habit)
- We are (right now) sitting in the living room. (current action)

Context tells you whether it’s habitual or happening now. The same is true for ascultăm (we listen / we are listening).

In English we say listen to a story, but in Romanian it’s ascultăm o poveste scurtă, without a preposition. Why?

The Romanian verb a asculta is transitive, meaning it directly takes an object without a preposition.

ascultăm o poveste – we listen to a story
ascult muzică – I listen to music
ascult profesorul – I listen to the teacher / I obey the teacher

So where English uses listen to, Romanian just uses asculta + direct object (accusative) with no extra word like to.

Why is it o poveste scurtă and not o scurtă poveste? Where do adjectives usually go in Romanian?

The neutral, normal order in Romanian is:

noun + adjective

So:

o poveste scurtă – a short story (standard, neutral)
un copil mic – a small child
o casă mare – a big house

Adjectives can come before the noun, but that is:

less common in everyday speech
usually stylistic, poetic, emotional, or emphatic

O scurtă poveste is possible, but it sounds more literary or rhetorical, like a brief tale with a slightly elevated or stylistic tone.

What does the o in o poveste scurtă show? How do indefinite articles work in Romanian?

O is the feminine singular indefinite article, meaning a / an.

Basic indefinite articles:

un – masculine singular:
- un băiat – a boy
- un scaun – a chair
o – feminine singular:
- o fată – a girl
- o poveste – a story

So o poveste scurtă = a short story.

(For the definite article – the – Romanian usually attaches it to the end of the noun:
povestea scurtă = the short story.)

What is the difference between poveste, povestire, istorie, and basm? Could they replace poveste here?

Rough meanings:

poveste – story, tale (most general word)
povestire – short story (more literary, often used for written short stories)
istorie – mainly history, but can also mean story, tale in some contexts
basm – fairy tale (with magical / fantastical elements)

In this sentence:

ascultăm o poveste scurtă – we are listening to a short story (neutral, general).
ascultăm o povestire – emphasizes it as a short literary story; adding scurtă here is usually redundant, because povestire is already short by nature.
ascultăm o istorie scurtă – could work, but sounds a bit more like a short historical account or a story with a historical flavor.
ascultăm un basm scurt – specifically a short fairy tale.

So poveste is the most natural, general choice in the original sentence.