Dacă uităm ouăle, bunica nu poate pregăti micul dejun mâine.

Dacă means if. It introduces a conditional clause: Dacă uităm ouăle = If we forget the eggs.

So the sentence has two parts:

• Dacă uităm ouăle = the condition
• bunica nu poate pregăti micul dejun mâine = the result

This is very similar to English If we forget the eggs, grandma can’t prepare breakfast tomorrow.

Romanian often uses the present tense for a future situation after dacă, just as English does after if.

Compare:

• English: If we forget the eggs tomorrow, ...
• Romanian: Dacă uităm ouăle, ...

So uităm is grammatically present, but in this context it refers to a possible future action.

The same thing happens in the main clause too: nu poate pregăti literally looks present, but here it means will not be able to prepare.

Because Romanian verbs usually show the subject in their ending.

uităm already means we forget:

• uit = I forget
• uiți = you forget
• uită = he/she forgets
• uităm = we forget

So Romanian often leaves out the subject pronoun unless it is needed for emphasis or contrast.

You could say Dacă noi uităm ouăle, but noi would sound more emphatic, like If we are the ones who forget the eggs.

Ouăle is the definite plural form, meaning the eggs.

Forms:

• ou = egg
• ouă = eggs
• ouăle = the eggs

Romanian uses a suffixed definite article, so instead of a separate word like English the, the article is attached to the noun.

In this sentence, ouăle suggests specific eggs that are relevant to the breakfast.

Bunica means grandma / the grandmother. The -a at the end is the definite article.

• bunică = a grandmother / grandmother
• bunica = the grandmother / grandma

With family members, Romanian often uses the definite form when referring to a known person in the family. So bunica is very natural here.

This is a modal construction:

• poate = can / is able to
• pregăti = to prepare

So:

• poate pregăti = can prepare
• nu poate pregăti = cannot prepare

A useful point: after a modal verb like a putea, Romanian uses the infinitive directly, without an extra word like English to in surface structure.

So Romanian says:

• poate pregăti

not something like:

• poate să pregăti in this sentence

In Romanian, nu normally goes directly before the conjugated verb.

So:

• poate = can
• nu poate = cannot

This is the regular way to make a verb negative.

Examples:

• are = has

• nu are = does not have

• merge = goes
• nu merge = does not go

Micul dejun is the standard expression for breakfast. It is best learned as a set phrase.

Literally, it comes from:

• mic = small
• dejun = lunch / midday meal

But synchronically, learners should just treat micul dejun as the normal Romanian word group for breakfast.

Also, the form is definite here. In Romanian, some common expressions appear very naturally in the definite form, and micul dejun is extremely common as the standard phrase.

Yes, mâine can move. Romanian word order is fairly flexible.

In this sentence, putting mâine at the end is perfectly natural:

• bunica nu poate pregăti micul dejun mâine

But you could also say:

• Mâine, bunica nu poate pregăti micul dejun
• Dacă mâine uităm ouăle, bunica nu poate pregăti micul dejun

The end position is common because it lets the sentence flow from condition to result, then finishes with the time word.

Because the sentence begins with a subordinate conditional clause.

• Dacă uităm ouăle = subordinate clause
• bunica nu poate pregăti micul dejun mâine = main clause

In Romanian, when a subordinate clause comes before the main clause, it is normally separated by a comma. This is very standard punctuation.

Yes, Romanian can use future forms, but the present tense is very natural and common in this kind of sentence.

So the original sentence:

• Dacă uităm ouăle, bunica nu poate pregăti micul dejun mâine

naturally means:

• If we forget the eggs, grandma won’t be able to prepare breakfast tomorrow

A more explicit future version is possible:

• Dacă vom uita ouăle, bunica nu va putea pregăti micul dejun mâine

But this sounds more explicit or formal. For everyday Romanian, the present-tense version is often the most natural choice.