Learn Romanian: Ursul locuiește în pădurea mare. - The bear lives in the big forest.

In Romanian, the definite article (the word for "the") attaches to the end of the noun instead of coming before it. For masculine nouns like urs (bear), you usually add -ul to the end, making it ursul (the bear).

Does locuiește mean "lives" like being alive, or "lives" like residing somewhere?

It means "resides" or "dwells". The verb a locui is only used when talking about where someone or something has their home. If you want to say an animal or person is simply alive, you would use a different verb, a trăi.

If the word for forest is pădure, why is it spelled pădurea here?

Just like with ursul, the word "the" is attached to the end. Because pădure is a feminine noun that ends in the letter "e", adding the word "the" changes that ending to -ea, giving us pădurea (the forest).

Why is the adjective mare placed after pădurea?

In Romanian, descriptive adjectives usually come immediately after the noun they describe. So instead of saying "the big forest" like in English, you say "the forest big" (pădurea mare).

Does the adjective mare change its ending here because pădurea is feminine?