Am verificat fișierul, dar nu l-am trimis imediat.

Am verificat is the Romanian compound past (perfectul compus), which is very common in everyday speech.

It is built with:

• the auxiliary a avea in the present tense: am = I have
• the past participle: verificat = checked/verified

So literally it looks like I have checked, but in normal usage it often matches English I checked.

The same pattern appears later in:

• l-am trimis = I sent it / I have sent it

The -ul is the definite article attached to the noun.

So:

• fișier = a file
• fișierul = the file

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

Dar means but.

So the sentence is divided into two parts:

• Am verificat fișierul = I checked the file
• dar nu l-am trimis imediat = but I didn’t send it immediately

The l- is a direct object pronoun meaning it/him.

Here it stands for fișierul = the file.

So:

• l-am trimis literally = I sent it
• nu l-am trimis = I didn’t send it

Because fișierul is masculine singular, Romanian uses îl / l- for it/him in this role.

Romanian often uses a short unstressed clitic form before the auxiliary.

So instead of saying îl am trimis, Romanian says:

• l-am trimis

The hyphen shows that the pronoun l- is attached to am in pronunciation and writing.

This is the normal way to say it.

In Romanian, nu is the standard word for not, and it normally comes before the verb phrase.

So:

• am trimis = I sent
• nu am trimis = I did not send

When a clitic pronoun is also there, the order becomes:

• nu l-am trimis = I did not send it

So the pattern is: nu + object clitic + auxiliary + participle

Romanian often omits subject pronouns when they are clear from the verb.

Here:

• am verificat
• l-am trimis

Both forms already show first person singular, so I is understood.

You could say Eu am verificat fișierul... if you want emphasis, but it is not necessary.

Romanian, like English, often avoids repeating a noun when it is already clear.

So after saying fișierul, it is natural to refer back to it with l- = it.

Compare:

• Am verificat fișierul, dar nu l-am trimis imediat.
  = natural, smooth
• Am verificat fișierul, dar nu am trimis fișierul imediat.
  = grammatical, but more repetitive

Imediat means immediately / right away.

It is placed at the end because that is a very natural position for an adverb in Romanian.

So:

• nu l-am trimis imediat = I didn’t send it immediately

Romanian word order is somewhat flexible, but this version sounds normal and neutral.

Yes. Both are past participles, used here with am to form the compound past.

• am verificat = I checked
• am trimis = I sent

However, their shapes come from different verbs:

• a verifica → verificat
• a trimite → trimis

So you should learn participles along with verbs, because they are not always formed in exactly the same way.

A rough English-friendly guide is:

fișierul ≈ fee-shee-EH-rul

A few details:

• fi sounds like fee
• ș sounds like English sh
• ie here gives a sound like ye / ee-eh depending on speed and accent
• r is trilled or tapped, not the English r
• ul is the attached definite article

The stress is usually on -e-: fi-și-E-rul

No, that sounds incomplete, because a trimite normally needs an object here: send what?

You need either:

• the noun again: nu am trimis fișierul imediat
• or the object pronoun: nu l-am trimis imediat

Since the file has already been mentioned, nu l-am trimis imediat is the most natural choice.

It sounds neutral and natural. It works well in both spoken and written Romanian.

Nothing in it is especially slangy or especially formal:

• am verificat = standard
• dar = standard
• nu l-am trimis imediat = standard

So it is a very useful everyday model sentence.