Learn Hardcore Romanian: De obicei, culcarea copiilor începe la ora nouă. - Usually, the children's bedtime starts at nine o'clock.

At the beginning (as in your sentence) is very common:
De obicei, culcarea copiilor începe la ora nouă.
It can also come after the subject or even after the verb in spoken language:
Culcarea copiilor, de obicei, începe la ora nouă.
Culcarea copiilor începe, de obicei, la ora nouă.

Putting it at the beginning sounds very natural and neutral, just like “Usually, …” in English.

Why is culcarea copiilor used instead of a verb like “to put the children to bed”?

Romanian often uses a verbal noun instead of a finite verb to describe regular activities.

The verb is a culca = to put to bed / to lay down.
The corresponding noun is culcare = putting to bed / going to bed.
With the definite article it becomes culcarea = the putting to bed / the bedtime.

So:

Culcarea copiilor începe la ora nouă.
literally: “The putting to bed of the children starts at nine o’clock.”

A more “verb-y” version would be:

De obicei, culc copiii la ora nouă.
“Usually, I put the children to bed at nine o’clock.”

Culcarea copiilor turns the action into a thing/event (“bedtime routine”), not just an action someone does.

What grammatical form is copiilor, and why is it used here?

Copiilor is the genitive plural form of copii (children).

Nominative/Accusative plural: copii – “children”
Genitive/Dative plural: copiilor – “of the children / to the children”

In Romanian, many nouns that express an action (like culcarea) are followed by a noun in the genitive to show who undergoes that action:

culcarea copiilor = the putting to bed of the children
structurally similar to English: “the children’s bedtime”

So copiilor appears because culcarea is a noun, and it governs the genitive: “bedtime of the children.”

What exactly is culcarea? Is it like a gerund?

Culcarea is a verbal noun with a definite article, not a gerund in the English sense, but it plays a similar role.

Verb: a culca – to put (someone) to bed
Verbal noun: culcare – (the act of) putting to bed
Definite form: culcarea – the putting to bed / the bedtime

Romanian uses these verbal nouns frequently to talk about:

habitual actions: Culcarea copiilor începe la ora nouă.
other activities: Citirea cărții a durat două ore. – “The reading of the book lasted two hours.”

So yes, functionally, culcarea is close to English “putting (them) to bed” used as a noun, or to “bedtime”.

Why is the definite article attached at the end in culcarea and not in front like in English?

Romanian uses a postposed definite article: the article is a suffix attached to the noun, not a separate word.

culcare = (a) putting to bed / bedtime (indefinite)
culcarea = the putting to bed / the bedtime (definite)

Similarly:

copil = child → copilul = the child
carte = book → cartea = the book

So in culcarea copiilor, the -a at the end of culcarea means “the”, and copiilor stays without an article because the phrase already has one main definite noun.

Why is it la ora nouă and not something else? What does la do here?

La is the usual preposition used for clock times in Romanian.

la ora nouă = at nine o’clock
la ora opt = at eight o’clock
la ora trei și jumătate = at half past three

So:

începe la ora nouă = starts at nine o’clock

You can also sometimes hear:

la nouă without ora, especially in casual speech, but la ora nouă is the fully explicit and neutral form.

Why is it nouă here? Isn’t nouă also the feminine of “new”?

Nouă can be two different things:

The cardinal number 9: nouă – “nine”
The feminine singular form of the adjective nou – “new”

In la ora nouă, it’s the number “nine,” agreeing with ora (hour), which is feminine:

ora unu – one o’clock (special form)
ora două – two o’clock
ora trei – three o’clock
ora nouă – nine o’clock

Context makes it clear that nouă here means “nine (o’clock)”, not “new.”

Is the comma after De obicei necessary?

Yes, in standard writing it’s normal and recommended.

De obicei here is an introductory adverbial phrase (“usually”), and Romanian punctuation usually separates such elements with a comma when they appear at the beginning:

De obicei, culcarea copiilor începe la ora nouă.
În general, plecăm devreme.
Uneori, uit cheia acasă.

In very informal writing or text messages, people sometimes drop the comma, but in correct written Romanian it should be there.

Could I say De obicei, culc copiii la ora nouă instead? What’s the difference?

Yes, that is a perfectly natural sentence:

De obicei, culc copiii la ora nouă.
= “Usually, I put the children to bed at nine o’clock.”

Differences in nuance:

Culcarea copiilor începe la ora nouă.
Focuses on the event/routine (the bedtime process) in a general, impersonal way. It doesn’t mention who does it.
Culc copiii la ora nouă.
Focuses on you/the subject doing the action; it’s more direct and personal.

Both are correct; choose the first when you care more about the schedule of the routine, and the second when you care about who is doing the action.

How do you pronounce culcarea copiilor, and where is the stress?

Approximate pronunciation (Romanian is very phonetic):

culcarea → /kul-ˈka-re-a/
- kul as in “cool” but shorter
- stress on KA: kul-KA-re-a
copiilor → /ko-ˈpi-i-lor/
- sounds like ko-PEE-ee-lor (two i sounds)
- stress on PII: ko-PII-lor

Full phrase:
culcarea copiilor → kul-KA-re-a ko-PII-lor

Stress pattern:

culCArea coPIIlor