Learn Romanian: Cine este acolo?

Cine means "who" and is used exclusively to ask about people. If you wanted to ask about an object or an animal, you would use Ce (what) instead, making the sentence Ce este acolo? (What is there?).

Do I need to flip the verb and the subject to make this a question?

No, Romanian word order is very flexible and often stays exactly the same in a question as in a statement. Because you are using the question word Cine at the start, you just keep the verb este right after it. Letting your voice rise slightly at the end of the sentence does the rest of the work!

I keep mispronouncing Cine. What is the trick to saying it right?

In Romanian, whenever you see the letters "ci" together, they make a "ch" sound, like in the English word "cheese". So, Cine is pronounced roughly like "CHEE-neh", not "seen" or "sign".

What is the opposite of acolo if I want to ask "Who is here"?

The opposite of acolo (there) is aici (here). If you wanted to know who is in the exact same spot as you, you would simply swap the last word and ask Cine este aici?