Mă uit la hartă înainte să plec la aeroport.

Because the verb here is a se uita, which means to look or to watch. It is a reflexive verb, so in the 1st person singular it normally appears with mă:

• mă uit = I look / I am looking

This is important because a uita without se usually means to forget, not to look.

So:

• mă uit la hartă = I look at the map
• uit harta would not mean the same thing; it would relate to forgetting

The dictionary form is a se uita.

Here is the present tense of the verb:

• eu mă uit = I look
• tu te uiți = you look
• el/ea se uită = he/she looks
• noi ne uităm = we look
• voi vă uitați = you all look
• ei/ele se uită = they look

So mă uit is simply the 1st person singular present form.

After a se uita, Romanian normally uses la before the thing you are looking at.

So the pattern is:

• a se uita la ceva = to look at something

Examples:

• Mă uit la hartă. = I look at the map.
• Se uită la televizor. = He/She is watching TV.
• Ne uităm la cer. = We are looking at the sky.

So la is the normal preposition required by this verb in this meaning.

Both are possible, depending on context.

• hartă = a map
• harta = the map

In Romanian, after a preposition like la, the noun often appears without the definite article unless you want to make it clearly definite or specific.

So:

• Mă uit la hartă can mean I look at a map or I look at the map, depending on context.
• Mă uit la harta orașului is more clearly I am looking at the city map / the map of the city.

Romanian often leaves definiteness to context more than English does.

Înainte să means before when it introduces a clause with a verb.

In this sentence:

• înainte să plec = before I leave

The word să introduces the subjunctive, which is very common in Romanian after certain expressions, including înainte să.

So the structure is:

• înainte să + verb

Examples:

• înainte să plec = before I leave
• înainte să mănânc = before I eat
• înainte să înceapă = before it starts

Yes. That is a very common alternative.

Both are correct:

• Mă uit la hartă înainte să plec la aeroport.
• Mă uit la hartă înainte de a pleca la aeroport.

The difference is mostly stylistic:

• înainte să plec sounds a bit more direct and conversational
• înainte de a pleca can sound a bit more formal or more explicitly infinitive-like

Both mean the same thing here.

Romanian often uses the present tense after words like before, when, after, and so on, especially in subordinate clauses, even when English might think of the action as future.

So:

• înainte să plec literally looks like before I leave
• In natural English, depending on context, it may also correspond to before I leave in a future sense

This is normal. Romanian does not need a special future form here.

Both can work, but they are not exactly the same.

• a pleca = to leave, to depart
• a merge = to go

So:

• plec la aeroport emphasizes leaving for the airport
• merg la aeroport emphasizes going to the airport

In this sentence, plec la aeroport suggests the speaker is about to head out for the airport, so it fits very naturally.

Here it means to the airport because it follows a verb of movement: plec.

• plec la aeroport = I leave for the airport / I’m heading to the airport

In other contexts, la aeroport can also mean at the airport:

• Sunt la aeroport. = I am at the airport.

So the verb usually tells you whether the phrase expresses movement or location.

No. Să and sa are different words.

• să with the diacritic ă is a grammatical word used to introduce the subjunctive
• sa without the diacritic usually means his/her in expressions like cartea sa = his/her book

So in this sentence, să is purely grammatical:

• înainte să plec

It is not possessive.

Yes, Romanian word order is somewhat flexible, although some versions sound more natural than others.

The original sentence:

• Mă uit la hartă înainte să plec la aeroport.

You could also say:

• Înainte să plec la aeroport, mă uit la hartă.

This version puts more focus on the time relationship: Before I leave for the airport, I look at the map.

Both are correct. The original version is very natural in everyday Romanian.

Uit is pronounced roughly like weet would be in English, but with a Romanian u glide at the start. The whole phrase mă uit sounds approximately like muh oo-eet, said smoothly.

A few helpful pronunciation notes:

• ă in mă is a short central vowel, somewhat like the a in sofa
• ui in uit forms a glide, not two fully separate syllables
• ț in forms like uiți is pronounced ts

So:

• mă uit = one smooth phrase, not something heavily separated word by word

It can be either, depending on context.

• As a general habit: I look at the map before leaving for the airport
• In a specific situation: I’m looking at the map before I leave for the airport

Romanian present tense often allows both readings. If you need to make the future meaning more explicit, Romanian can do that in other ways, but this sentence is already natural and clear.

Yes. A se uita can mean both to look and to watch, depending on context.

Examples:

• Mă uit la hartă. = I’m looking at the map.
• Mă uit la un film. = I’m watching a movie.

So the object tells you which English verb fits best. With hartă, the natural translation is look at.