Learn Romanian: Pisica este acolo.

In Romanian, the word for 'the' attaches to the end of the noun. The base word for a cat is pisică, which is feminine and ends in -ă. To say 'the cat', you drop the -ă and add the suffix -a, giving you pisica.

Does changing pisică to pisica change how it sounds?

Yes! The ending -ă in pisică sounds like the short 'uh' in 'sofa'. When it becomes pisica, the ending -a sounds like a clear, open 'ah', like in 'father'.

Could I use e instead of este in this sentence?

Yes, absolutely. Both este and e mean 'is'. The word e is just a shorter, more conversational version of este, and both are completely correct here.

If acolo means 'there', how do I say 'The cat is here'?

To say 'here', you use the word aici. The sentence would simply change to Pisica este aici.