Questions & Answers about Eu nu pun ceapă și usturoi în mâncare.
Why is there no word for "do" in "nu pun"?
Do I have to include "Eu" at the beginning of this sentence?
No, it is optional. The verb form pun already tells the listener that the subject is "I". Including Eu just adds a little bit of emphasis, as if you are saying "As for me, I do not put..."
Why doesn't "mâncare" have a word for "the" attached to it, even though the English translation says "the food"?
In Romanian, when a noun comes right after certain short prepositions like în (in), the definite article (the equivalent of "the") is usually dropped. So în mâncare is the standard, natural way to say both "in food" and "in the food".
How do I know if "ceapă" and "usturoi" mean "an onion and a garlic" or just "onion and garlic" in general?
Because they do not have words like "a" or "an" (indefinite articles) in front of them, they are being used in a general, uncountable sense as ingredients here. If you meant specific whole items, you would add the articles and say o ceapă (an onion) or un usturoi (a garlic).