Zgarda gri este veche.

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

• zgardă = a collar
• zgarda = the collar

So in this sentence, zgarda already includes the idea of the.

The dictionary form is zgardă. That is the indefinite singular form, meaning a collar.

When Romanian makes it definite, it adds the article to the end:

• zgardă → zgarda

This is very normal for Romanian feminine nouns.

With many feminine nouns ending in -ă, the definite singular form ends in -a instead.

So:

• zgardă = a collar
• zgarda = the collar

This is not random spelling; it is part of the normal pattern of how the definite article works with this type of noun.

In Romanian, adjectives often come after the noun, especially color adjectives.

So:

• zgarda gri = the gray collar

This is one of the most common adjective positions in Romanian. English usually says gray collar, but Romanian often prefers collar gray in word order.

Because gri is an invariable adjective in Romanian. That means it stays the same regardless of gender or number.

So you can have:

• zgardă gri
• cămașă gri
• pantofi gri

Not all Romanian adjectives behave like this, but gri does.

Because veche is the feminine singular form of the adjective vechi (old).

The noun zgardă / zgarda is feminine singular, so the adjective must agree with it:

• masculine singular: vechi
• feminine singular: veche

So:

• un colier vechi = an old necklace (masculine)
• o zgardă veche = an old collar (feminine)

You usually learn noun gender together with the noun itself, but the ending can give you a clue. Many Romanian nouns ending in -ă are feminine, and zgardă is one of them.

You can also see it from agreement:

• o zgardă (not un zgardă)
• veche (feminine adjective form)

So the sentence itself gives you evidence that the noun is feminine.

Este means is. It is the 3rd person singular present form of a fi (to be).

So:

• Zgarda gri este veche.
• The gray collar is old.

In everyday speech, Romanians often say e instead of este:

• Zgarda gri e veche.

Both are correct; e is just shorter and more conversational.

It follows a very straightforward pattern:

Subject + verb + adjective

• Zgarda gri = subject
• este = verb
• veche = predicate adjective

So the structure is literally:

• The gray collar
  • is
    • old

A rough English-friendly pronunciation is:

ZGAR-da gree YES-te VEH-keh

A few useful details:

• gri sounds like gree
• este sounds like YES-te
• veche has ch pronounced like k, so it sounds like VEH-keh

The zg at the beginning of zgarda may feel unusual for English speakers, but just pronounce both sounds: z + g.