Utilitățile sunt scumpe.

Here, utilitățile means the utilities — usually things like electricity, gas, water, heating, internet, and sometimes the related household service costs in general.

In everyday Romanian, it can refer to:

• the utility services themselves, or
• the utility expenses/bills, depending on context.

Because Romanian puts the definite article at the end of the noun, not before it like English the.

So:

• utilități = utilities
• utilitățile = the utilities

The ending -le is the definite article used here for a feminine plural noun.

The singular is:

• utilitate = utility
• utilitatea = the utility

The full pattern is:

• singular indefinite: utilitate
• singular definite: utilitatea
• plural indefinite: utilități
• plural definite: utilitățile

Sunt means are and is the 3rd person plural form of a fi (to be).

Because utilitățile is plural, Romanian uses the plural verb:

• Utilitățile sunt scumpe. = The utilities are expensive.

Compare:

• Utilitatea este scumpă. = The utility is expensive.

Because adjectives in Romanian usually agree with the noun in gender and number.

Utilitățile is feminine plural, so the adjective must also be feminine plural:

• masculine singular: scump
• feminine singular: scumpă
• masculine plural: scumpi
• feminine plural: scumpe

So:

• utilitățile → feminine plural
• scumpe → feminine plural

You usually learn the noun together with its gender, but the forms in the sentence also help you.

Clues here:

• the plural definite form utilitățile
• the adjective scumpe, which is feminine plural

Those forms show that utilitate is a feminine noun.

The normal, neutral order is:

• Utilitățile sunt scumpe.

Romanian word order is fairly flexible, so Scumpe sunt utilitățile is possible, but it sounds more emphatic or literary, like Expensive are the utilities.

For most everyday situations, the standard order is best.

Romanian often uses the definite article in places where English uses a bare plural for general statements.

So Utilitățile sunt scumpe can very naturally mean something like:

• Utilities are expensive
• The utilities are expensive

In other words, Romanian may sound more definite on the surface, even when the meaning is fairly general.

A rough pronunciation guide is:

oo-tee-lee-TUH-tsi-leh soont SKOOM-peh

A few key sounds:

• ț = ts as in cats
• ă = a short central vowel, somewhat like the a in sofa
• u in sunt is pronounced, unlike in French
• sc before u is a hard sk sound: scumpe = skoom-pe

Not exactly.

• utilități = utilities / utility services
• facturi = bills / invoices

But in real life, when someone says Utilitățile sunt scumpe, they may be talking about the overall cost of utilities, which can feel close to The utility bills are expensive.

If you specifically mean bills, Romanian would more directly use facturile.

No. In this sentence, sunt must be there.

Romanian normally does not drop the verb to be in this kind of present-tense sentence.

So:

• correct: Utilitățile sunt scumpe.
• not correct: Utilitățile scumpe.

Grammatically, the singular version would be:

• Utilitatea este scumpă. = The utility is expensive.

Notice the changes:

• utilitățile → utilitatea
• sunt → este
• scumpe → scumpă

That said, the plural is much more natural in everyday use, because people usually talk about utilities as a group.