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Ne spălăm și apoi ne îmbrăcăm.

Ne spălăm și apoi ne îmbrăcăm.
We wash and then we get dressed.
From Lesson 18:Reflexive pronouns (mă, te, se, ne, vă)·Romanian

Breakdown of Ne spălăm și apoi ne îmbrăcăm.

și
and
se spăla
to wash oneself
se îmbrăca
to dress oneself
apoi
then

Questions & Answers about Ne spălăm și apoi ne îmbrăcăm.

Why is the word ne used in front of both verbs?
In Romanian, daily routine actions like washing and getting dressed are reflexive. This means the action is done to yourself. Ne is the 'we' form of the reflexive pronoun, meaning 'ourselves'. So, literally, this sentence says 'We wash ourselves and then we dress ourselves'.
Could I just say Spălăm și apoi îmbrăcăm without the ne?
No, if you drop the ne, the sentence feels incomplete. Without the reflexive pronoun, a spăla just means 'to wash' (something else, like a car) and a îmbrăca means 'to dress' (someone else, like a child). You need ne to show you are doing these actions to yourselves.
Why isn't the word for 'we' (noi) included in this sentence?
In Romanian, the ending of the verbs (spălăm, îmbrăcăm) and the pronoun ne already make it perfectly clear that 'we' are doing the action. You could say Noi ne spălăm, but speakers usually drop the noi unless they really want to emphasize it.
Both apoi and atunci can translate to 'then' in English. Why use apoi here?
Apoi is used for a sequence of events, meaning 'afterwards' or 'next' (we wash, and next we get dressed). Atunci is usually used to mean 'at that specific time' or 'in that case'. For a step-by-step daily routine like this one, apoi is the natural choice.

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