Căpușa este pe câine.

A good stress pattern is:

că-PU-șa ES-te pe CÂI-ne

A few sound notes:

• ș sounds like sh in ship
• ă is a short neutral vowel, like the a in sofa
• â is a Romanian vowel that does not exist exactly in English
• este is often pronounced close to YES-te in normal speech

So the whole sentence sounds roughly like:

kuh-POO-sha YES-te pe KÂI-ne

That is only an approximation, but it is a helpful starting point.

Because Romanian usually puts the definite article at the end of the noun instead of using a separate word before it.

So:

• căpușă = a tick / tick
• căpușa = the tick

This is one of the biggest differences from English.

The subject căpușa is clearly definite: the tick.

But after prepositions, Romanian often uses a bare noun where English would often say the dog. So pe câine can naturally be translated as on the dog in context.

Compare:

• pe câine = on the dog / on a dog, depending on context
• pe un câine = on a dog
• pe câinele meu = on my dog
• pe câinele acela = on that dog

So the Romanian sentence is normal even though English would usually want the before dog.

Este means is.

It is the 3rd person singular present form of a fi = to be.

So:

• Căpușa este... = The tick is...

In everyday speech, Romanians very often use the shorter form e:

• Căpușa e pe câine.

That is more conversational, while este sounds a bit more neutral or careful.

Here, pe means on.

So:

• pe câine = on the dog

It shows location: the tick is physically on the dog.

No. Here pe is just the normal preposition on.

You may also see pe in another grammar use, where it marks a direct object, especially a person or a specific animate being. That is a different use.

So in this sentence:

• pe = preposition of location, on

Not:

• object marker

The dictionary forms are:

• căpușă = tick
• câine = dog

In the sentence:

• căpușa is the definite form of căpușă
• câine stays in its basic form

This is why recognizing the base noun is important when learning Romanian vocabulary.

In this sentence:

• căpușa is in the nominative, because it is the subject
• câine is in the accusative, because it comes after the preposition pe

A helpful thing to know is that in Romanian, the accusative often looks exactly like the nominative, especially in simple singular forms. So even though the case changes grammatically, the noun may not visibly change.

They are separate Romanian letters, and they matter.

• ă = a short neutral vowel, somewhat like the last sound in sofa
• â = a central vowel specific to Romanian; English does not have an exact equivalent
• ș = sh

So:

• căpușa is not the same as capusa
• câine is not the same as caine

In correct Romanian writing, diacritics should be kept.

The most normal order here is:

Căpușa este pe câine.

That is:

• subject
• verb
• prepositional phrase

Romanian word order is somewhat flexible, but changing it usually adds emphasis or sounds marked. For a learner, the standard order above is the best choice.

Yes, it is perfectly understandable and natural.

In everyday speech, many speakers would simply shorten este to e:

• Căpușa e pe câine.

That is probably the most common spoken version, but Căpușa este pe câine is fully correct.