Eu aleg supa, iar Ana folosește mai puțină sare decât ieri.

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

• aleg already means I choose
• so Eu aleg and just Aleg can both mean the same thing

When eu is included, it often adds emphasis or contrast. In this sentence, Eu aleg supa, iar Ana... helps set up a contrast between I and Ana.

So here, eu is not required, but it sounds natural if the speaker wants to highlight the two different people.

Aleg is the 1st person singular present tense form of a alege, meaning to choose.

So:

• a alege = to choose
• aleg = I choose

This is an irregular-looking verb, so learners usually just memorize the present forms rather than trying to build them mechanically at first.

Supă means soup in the indefinite form.

• supă = soup / a soup
• supa = the soup

Romanian usually puts the definite article at the end of the noun instead of using a separate word like English the.

So:

• supă = soup
• supa = the soup

The final ă changes to a when the definite article is added here.

Iar often means and, while, or whereas, depending on context.

In this sentence, it connects two clauses and also suggests a mild contrast between them:

• Eu aleg supa, iar Ana... = I choose the soup, while/and Ana...

It is not exactly the same as:

• și = simple and
• dar = but

So iar is useful when you want to link two facts about different subjects, often with a contrastive feeling, but not a strong opposition.

Folosește is the 3rd person singular present tense of a folosi, meaning to use.

So:

• a folosi = to use
• folosește = he/she uses

In this sentence it refers to Ana, so it means Ana uses.

Because sare is a feminine singular noun, and puțin must agree with it.

Here are the important pieces:

• puțin = little / little amount of
• puțină = feminine singular form
• mai puțină = less

Since sare is feminine singular, Romanian uses:

• mai puțină sare = less salt

This is different from English, where less does not change form.

Mai is the word used to form the comparative, similar to more or part of less structures in English.

With puțin, you get:

• puțină sare = a little salt
• mai puțină sare = less salt

So the structure is:

• mai + adjective/determiner form agreeing with the noun

Because sare is feminine singular, the form is puțină.

Here decât means than and is used after a comparative.

So:

• mai puțină sare decât ieri = less salt than yesterday

This is the normal Romanian pattern:

• mai ... decât ... = more/less ... than ...

For learners, this is one of the most useful things to remember:

• mai mare decât = bigger than
• mai puțin decât = less than
• mai puțină sare decât ieri = less salt than yesterday

In Romanian, words like ieri (yesterday) often appear by themselves, without a preposition.

So:

• ieri = yesterday
• decât ieri = than yesterday

This is similar to English, where we also usually just say yesterday, not on yesterday.

Not completely. Romanian word order is fairly flexible, but some versions sound more neutral than others.

The given sentence:

• Eu aleg supa, iar Ana folosește mai puțină sare decât ieri.

is a natural, standard order.

You could change things for emphasis, for example:

• Supa o aleg eu... would emphasize the soup
• Ana folosește ieri mai puțină sare would sound less natural than the original

So Romanian does allow movement, but the original sentence uses a very normal and clear word order.

The special Romanian letters here are:

• ș = sh sound, like in ship
• ț = ts sound, like the end of cats
• ă = a short central vowel, somewhat like the weak vowel in the second syllable of sofa

So roughly:

• folosește ≈ fo-lo-shehsh-te
• puțină ≈ poo-tsi-nuh
• sare ≈ sah-reh

These are only rough guides, but they can help at the beginning.