Pune furculița pe masă, lângă farfurie.

Pune is the 2nd person singular imperative of a pune = to put.

So it is used when speaking to one person informally:

• Pune furculița... = Put the fork...

If you were speaking to:

• more than one person, or
• one person formally,

you would usually say Puneți instead.

Example:

• Puneți furculița pe masă...

The -a is the definite article attached to the end of the noun.

• furculiță = a fork
• furculița = the fork

Romanian usually puts the definite article at the end of the noun, unlike English, which uses a separate word like the.

This is a very common thing learners notice.

In Romanian, especially in short everyday instructions or location phrases, a noun after a preposition can appear without the definite article even when English would naturally use the.

So:

• pe masă can mean on the table
• lângă farfurie can mean next to the plate

If you want to make them sound more explicitly specific, Romanian can also use the definite forms in the right context:

• pe masa aceea = on that table
• lângă farfuria albastră = next to the blue plate

So the bare noun here sounds natural and concise.

Because pe and la do different jobs here.

• pe masă = on the table / onto the table surface
• la masă = at the table

So if you are placing an object onto the surface, pe masă is the right choice.

Compare:

• Cartea e pe masă. = The book is on the table.
• Suntem la masă. = We are at the table.

Lângă means next to, beside, or near.

It is a preposition, so it introduces a place relationship:

• lângă farfurie = next to the plate

You can use it with many nouns:

• lângă ușă = next to the door
• lângă scaun = next to the chair

The comma is mainly marking a small pause or separating an extra location detail.

So:

• Pune furculița pe masă, lângă farfurie.

sounds a bit like:

• Put the fork on the table, next to the plate.

In everyday writing, you may also see it without the comma:

• Pune furculița pe masă lângă farfurie.

That version is also natural. The comma is not changing the basic meaning much.

Here, pe is just the normal preposition meaning on or onto.

That matters because Romanian also has another use of pe as a marker for certain direct objects, especially with people:

• Văd pe Maria. = I see Maria.

But in your sentence:

• furculița is the direct object
• pe masă is a prepositional phrase meaning on the table

So this pe is about location, not object marking.

The main special letters here are:

• ă in masă and lângă
• ț in furculița

A simple guide:

• ă is a short neutral vowel, similar to the a in sofa for many English speakers.
• ț is pronounced ts, like the end of cats.

Very rough pronunciation guide:

• Pune ≈ POO-neh
• furculița ≈ foor-koo-LEE-tsa
• masă ≈ MA-suh
• lângă ≈ LUN-guh or LUHN-guh as a rough approximation
• farfurie ≈ far-foo-REE-eh

These are only approximations, but they are useful for getting started.

The given order is the most neutral and natural one for a simple instruction:

• Pune furculița pe masă, lângă farfurie.

Romanian word order is somewhat flexible, but changing it usually adds emphasis or sounds less neutral.

For example:

• Lângă farfurie, pune furculița pe masă.

This is possible, but it emphasizes lângă farfurie more strongly.

So for a basic command, the original order is the best one to learn first.

You would change Pune to Puneți.

So:

• Puneți furculița pe masă, lângă farfurie.

This can mean:

• speaking politely to one person, or
• speaking to several people

That is a very common Romanian pattern:

• Pune = informal singular
• Puneți = formal singular or plural

Then you would use the indefinite form:

• Pune o furculiță pe masă, lângă farfurie.

Compare:

• furculița = the fork
• o furculiță = a fork

So the sentence you were given refers to a specific fork, not just any fork.