Azi n-am cumpărat gem, pentru că mai avem acasă.

N-am is the shortened form of nu am.

In Romanian, nu often contracts with forms of a avea in everyday speech and writing:

• nu am → n-am
• nu ai → n-ai
• nu are → n-are

So n-am cumpărat means I didn’t buy. The hyphen shows that two words have been compressed together.

It is the perfectul compus, the most common past tense in everyday Romanian.

It is formed with:

• the present tense of a avea as an auxiliary
• plus the past participle

Here:

• am = auxiliary
• cumpărat = past participle of a cumpăra

So:

• am cumpărat = I bought / I have bought
• n-am cumpărat = I didn’t buy / I haven’t bought

In normal conversational Romanian, this is the usual way to talk about completed past actions.

Because the sentence switches grammatical person.

• n-am cumpărat = I didn’t buy
• mai avem acasă = we still have (some) at home

This is very natural. The speaker is talking about their own action first, then about what they and the household/family have available.

So the logic is:

• I didn’t buy jam
• because we still have some at home

English does this too:

• I didn’t buy any, because we still have some.

Romanian often leaves out a repeated object when it is obvious from context.

In this sentence, gem has already been mentioned, so mai avem acasă naturally means:

• we still have (jam) at home
• or we still have some at home

A fuller version would be possible:

• Azi n-am cumpărat gem, pentru că mai avem gem acasă.

But that sounds more repetitive. Leaving the object out is very common and natural.

Because gem is being used in a general, indefinite sense: jam, not the jam.

Romanian often uses a bare noun for an indefinite mass noun:

• cumpăr pâine = I buy bread
• beau apă = I drink water
• cumpărat gem = bought jam

If you wanted the jam, you would use the definite form:

• gemul

But here the meaning is simply that no jam was bought, not that a specific already-known jar of jam was not bought.

Here mai means still.

So mai avem acasă means:

• we still have some at home

This is a very common use of mai.

Compare:

• Mai avem lapte. = We still have milk.
• Mai e timp. = There is still time.

Be careful: mai has several meanings in Romanian depending on context, such as more, again, or still. In this sentence, still is the right interpretation.

Putting azi first gives the time frame right away: today.

Romanian word order is flexible, and azi can appear in different places:

• Azi n-am cumpărat gem...
• N-am cumpărat gem azi...

Both are possible, but the first version emphasizes today from the start. It sounds very natural in everyday speech.

Also, azi is a common shorter form of astăzi, and both mean today.

Yes. Both mean today.

• azi = shorter, very common in speech
• astăzi = a bit more formal or neutral

In most everyday situations, azi sounds perfectly natural.

So:

• Azi n-am cumpărat gem...
• Astăzi n-am cumpărat gem...

Both are correct.

Pentru că means because and introduces the reason.

So the structure is:

• statement: Azi n-am cumpărat gem
• reason: pentru că mai avem acasă

This is the normal, straightforward way to say because in Romanian.

A few examples:

• Am plecat, pentru că era târziu. = I left because it was late.
• N-am cumpărat pâine, pentru că mai avem. = I didn’t buy bread because we still have some.

In standard Romanian writing, a subordinate clause introduced by pentru că is typically separated by a comma.

So:

• Azi n-am cumpărat gem, pentru că mai avem acasă.

This is normal punctuation. It helps mark the reason clause clearly.

Acasă means at home / home.

In this sentence, mai avem acasă means:

• we still have some at home

It refers to the place where the speaker lives or considers home.

It is a very common Romanian word:

• Sunt acasă. = I’m at home.
• Merg acasă. = I’m going home.

So here it tells you where the jam already is: at home.

Romanian often leaves out subject pronouns because the verb ending already shows the person.

For example:

• am clearly shows I
• avem clearly shows we

So Romanian does not need to say:

• Eu n-am cumpărat...
• noi mai avem...

Those pronouns can be added for emphasis, but they are not necessary.

This is why the sentence sounds natural without eu or noi.

Yes. Both are correct.

• nu am cumpărat = full form
• n-am cumpărat = contracted form

The contracted form is extremely common and natural in everyday Romanian. In speech, you will hear it very often.

So these are both fine:

• Azi nu am cumpărat gem...
• Azi n-am cumpărat gem...

The second one sounds a bit more conversational.

Yes. In this sentence, gem is a mass noun, like jam in English.

It does not have to refer to one countable item unless context makes that clear. So n-am cumpărat gem means something like:

• I didn’t buy jam
• I didn’t buy any jam

If you wanted to be more specific, you could say:

• un borcan de gem = a jar of jam

But the sentence does not need that level of detail.

Yes, absolutely. That is the natural interpretation.

Once gem has been mentioned, Romanian can leave it understood in the second clause:

• mai avem acasă = we still have some at home

This kind of omission is very common and sounds natural, not incomplete.