Bunica mă așteaptă în piață acum.

Bunică is the basic dictionary form, meaning grandmother / grandma.

Bunica is the definite form, with the Romanian definite article attached to the end of the noun. So literally it is the grandmother.

Romanian often works like this:

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

With family words, Romanian very often uses the definite form where English may simply say Grandma or my grandma, depending on context.

Romanian often leaves out the possessive if it is obvious from context. So bunica can naturally mean grandma or my grandma when the speaker’s family relationship is understood.

If you want to be fully explicit, you can say:

• bunica mea = my grandma

But in many everyday sentences, just bunica sounds perfectly natural.

Mă means me.

It is an unstressed object pronoun (often called a clitic), and in Romanian these pronouns usually come before the verb:

• mă așteaptă = is waiting for me

So even though the Romanian word order looks a bit like me waits, the real meaning is waits for me.

Because Romanian uses the verb a aștepta differently from English.

In English, you usually wait for someone.
In Romanian, a aștepta normally takes a direct object, so no separate word like for is needed.

Examples:

• Te aștept. = I’m waiting for you.
• Mă așteaptă. = She is waiting for me.

So the mă already functions as the object of the verb.

Așteaptă is the 3rd person singular present form of a aștepta = to wait.

It matches bunica, which is singular.

A few present-tense forms are:

• eu aștept = I wait / I am waiting
• tu aștepți = you wait / you are waiting
• el/ea așteaptă = he/she waits / is waiting

So bunica mă așteaptă means grandma waits for me / is waiting for me.

Romanian often uses the simple present where English prefers the present progressive.

So:

• mă așteaptă can mean waits for me or is waiting for me

The adverb acum = now makes it clear that the action is happening at the present moment, so English naturally translates it with is waiting.

Romanian does not need a separate verb like is to express that idea here.

În means in.

Piață can mean market or square, depending on context. So în piață literally means in the market or in the square.

A useful nuance:

• în piață often suggests being inside that area/place
• la piață often means at/to the market in a more general sense

So în piață feels more specifically located within the place itself.

Yes, acum can move around. Romanian word order is fairly flexible.

All of these are possible:

• Bunica mă așteaptă în piață acum.
• Bunica mă așteaptă acum în piață.
• Acum bunica mă așteaptă în piață.

The version with acum at the end sounds natural and neutral. Moving it usually changes emphasis, not the core meaning.

Yes, more easily than in English.

A neutral order here is:

• Subject + object pronoun + verb + place + time

So:

• Bunica mă așteaptă în piață acum.

But Romanian can also move parts around for focus or style:

• În piață bunica mă așteaptă acum.
• Mă așteaptă bunica în piață acum.

The meaning stays similar, but the emphasis changes. One thing that usually stays stable is that the clitic pronoun mă comes right before the finite verb.

Yes.

Romanian often drops the subject when it is understood:

• Mă așteaptă în piață acum. = She is waiting for me in the market now.

However, in the 3rd person, the verb form așteaptă could mean he/she/it waits, so keeping bunica makes it clear who the subject is.

The main ones are:

• ă = a short neutral vowel, similar to the a in English sofa
• ș = sh
• ț = ts

So roughly:

• mă sounds like muh
• așteaptă sounds roughly like ash-TEAP-tuh
• piață sounds roughly like PYA-tsuh

The stress in așteaptă falls on teap.