Andrei vrea și carne, dar eu prefer legume azi.

In this sentence, și means also / too, not the basic and meaning.

• Andrei vrea și carne = Andrei wants meat too / also wants meat
• It adds carne to something already understood from the context.

Romanian și can mean both:

• and: carne și legume = meat and vegetables
• also / too: Andrei vrea și carne = Andrei wants meat too

So the exact meaning depends on the sentence.

Romanian often leaves out words like some when English would naturally include them.

So:

• carne can mean meat or some meat
• legume can mean vegetables or some vegetables

This is very normal in Romanian, especially with food and other general nouns.

Compare:

• Vreau pâine. = I want bread / some bread
• Prefer legume. = I prefer vegetables

You only add more words if you want to be more specific.

Romanian verb endings already show the subject, so prefer by itself already means I prefer.

That means:

• prefer legume azi = I prefer vegetables today

The pronoun eu is added for emphasis or contrast. Here it contrasts with Andrei:

• Andrei vrea și carne, dar eu prefer legume azi.
• Andrei wants meat too, but I prefer vegetables today.

So eu is not required grammatically, but it sounds natural here because the speaker is contrasting their preference with Andrei’s.

Because the verbs are conjugated differently depending on the subject.

a vrea = to want

Present tense:

• eu vreau = I want
• el/ea vrea = he/she wants

Since Andrei is he, Romanian uses:

• Andrei vrea

a prefera = to prefer

Present tense:

• eu prefer = I prefer
• el/ea preferă = he/she prefers

Since the second clause has eu, Romanian uses:

• eu prefer

So the different forms simply match different subjects.

Legume is the plural form, and it means vegetables.

• singular: legumă = vegetable
• plural: legume = vegetables

In this sentence, the speaker means vegetables in general, so the plural is the natural choice:

• prefer legume = I prefer vegetables

If you said prefer o legumă, that would mean I prefer one vegetable, which is a different idea.

Because carne is usually treated as an uncountable noun, like meat in English.

So:

• carne = meat
• not normally a meat / meats in this kind of sentence

This matches English pretty closely:

• I want meat
• not usually I want meats unless you mean different types

So the contrast is natural:

• carne = uncountable food substance
• legume = countable items, usually spoken of in the plural

Yes, dar usually means but.

In this sentence it connects two contrasting ideas:

• Andrei vrea și carne = Andrei wants meat too
• dar eu prefer legume azi = but I prefer vegetables today

So dar is the normal Romanian word for but in everyday speech.

Azi means today, and Romanian word order is fairly flexible.

So these are all possible:

• Eu prefer legume azi.
• Eu azi prefer legume.
• Azi prefer legume.

The version in your sentence puts azi at the end, which sounds very natural and gives a slight feeling of today in particular.

So:

• prefer legume azi = I prefer vegetables today
• It does not mean anything strange; it is just normal Romanian word order.

Yes. Both mean today.

• azi = shorter, very common in speech
• astăzi = also very common, sometimes slightly more formal or simply fuller

So you could also say:

• Andrei vrea și carne, dar eu prefer legume astăzi.

Both are correct.

Yes:

• Andrei vrea și carne, dar prefer legume azi.

This is grammatically correct, because prefer already tells you the subject is I.

However, keeping eu makes the contrast stronger:

• Andrei wants one thing,
• I prefer something else.

So in this sentence, eu sounds very natural.

The dictionary forms are:

• a vrea = to want
• a prefera = to prefer

The forms in the sentence are present tense:

• vrea = he/she wants
• prefer = I prefer

In Romanian, verbs are usually listed with a in front:

• a vrea
• a prefera

That a is like the to in English infinitives.

Și is pronounced roughly like shee in English.

A few pronunciation points:

• ș = sh
• i here sounds like ee

So:

• și ≈ shee

This word is extremely common in Romanian, so it is worth learning early.

You could say Eu prefer azi legume, and it would still be understandable and grammatical.

But the most natural versions are usually:

• Eu prefer legume azi
• Azi prefer legume
• Eu azi prefer legume

Romanian allows more flexibility than English, but different orders can slightly change emphasis.

• prefer legume azi emphasizes today
• azi prefer legume highlights today earlier
• eu prefer highlights the contrast with Andrei

So the original sentence is natural and well-balanced.

Romanian normally does not need an extra helping verb like English do for ordinary statements.

English can say:

• I prefer vegetables
• I do prefer vegetables

Romanian usually just uses the main verb:

• prefer legume

If you want emphasis, Romanian often uses:

• the subject pronoun: eu prefer
• intonation
• word order
• sometimes extra words depending on context

So eu prefer legume azi already gives a natural contrastive emphasis.