Azi merg la piață cu o listă scurtă.

Romanian often leaves out subject pronouns because the verb ending already shows who is doing the action.
Merg means I go or I am going, so eu is not necessary.

You could say Eu merg la piață... if you want emphasis, for example to contrast yourself with someone else, but normally Romanian just says merg.

Azi means today. It is very common in everyday speech.

Astăzi also means today, but it sounds a little more formal or careful. In most situations, they are interchangeable.

So:

• Azi merg la piață. = Today I’m going to the market.
• Astăzi merg la piață. = same meaning

Merg is the 1st person singular form of the verb a merge, which means to go.

Present tense of a merge:

• eu merg = I go
• tu mergi = you go
• el/ea merge = he/she goes
• noi mergem = we go
• voi mergeți = you go
• ei/ele merg = they go

So merg la piață literally means I go to the market.

Depending on context, Romanian present tense can also translate as I’m going to the market.

The preposition la is often used for going to a place, especially in everyday Romanian.

So:

• merg la piață = I’m going to the market
• merg la școală = I’m going to school
• merg la magazin = I’m going to the store

Here, la works much like to in English.

Not always. Piață can mean:

• market
• public square / plaza

The meaning depends on context.

In merg la piață cu o listă scurtă, the meaning is clearly market, because going with a shopping list fits that context.

Because listă is a feminine singular noun.

That affects both the article and the adjective:

• o = the feminine singular form of a/an
• listă = list
• scurtă = short, in feminine singular form

So:

• un is used with masculine/neuter singular nouns
• o is used with feminine singular nouns

And adjectives must agree with the noun:

• un drum scurt = a short road
• o listă scurtă = a short list

Romanian adjectives change form to agree with the noun in gender and number.

The base adjective is scurt = short.
With a feminine singular noun like listă, it becomes scurtă.

Examples:

• un text scurt = a short text
• o listă scurtă = a short list
• niște texte scurte = some short texts
• niște liste scurte = some short lists

So scurtă is simply the feminine singular form required by listă.

In this sentence, piață and listă are in the form normally used for the accusative after prepositions like la and cu.

• la piață = to the market
• cu o listă scurtă = with a short list

For many Romanian nouns, the accusative form looks the same as the basic dictionary form, so you do not see much change here.

This is why learners often just memorize the preposition + noun combination first, and study the case system gradually.

Romanian does not always use the definite article where English does.

In English, we often say to the market.
In Romanian, la piață is the normal idiomatic expression.

You may also see definite forms in other contexts, but for this everyday destination phrase, la piață is standard.

Also remember that Romanian puts the definite article at the end of the noun:

• piață = market
• piața = the market

But in this sentence, the natural expression is simply la piață.

Cu means with.

So:

• cu o listă scurtă = with a short list

It shows accompaniment or something you have with you.

Other examples:

• cu un prieten = with a friend
• cu bani = with money
• cu mașina = by car / with the car

Yes. Romanian word order is fairly flexible, although some orders sound more natural than others.

The original sentence:

• Azi merg la piață cu o listă scurtă.

You could also say:

• Merg azi la piață cu o listă scurtă.
• La piață merg azi cu o listă scurtă.
  This gives extra emphasis to la piață.

The original version sounds very natural because it starts with the time word azi, then the verb, then the destination.

A rough pronunciation guide is:

AH-zee merg lah PYA-tsuh koo oh LEES-tuh SKOOR-tuh

A few important sounds:

• z in azi sounds like the z in zoo
• ț sounds like ts in cats
• ă is a short central vowel, something like a relaxed uh
• ia in piață is pronounced together, roughly pya

So piață is approximately PYA-tsuh, not pee-AH-tsa.

It is grammatically present tense, but Romanian present tense can translate in English in more than one way depending on context.

So merg can mean:

• I go
• I am going

In this sentence, because of azi, English will often naturally translate it as:

• Today I’m going to the market with a short list.

But the Romanian form itself is just the normal present tense.