Learn Romanian: Vreau o cafea, iar el vrea un ceai. - I want a coffee, and he wants a tea.

In Romanian, iar is a special word for "and" that is used to show a contrast between two different subjects doing different things. It often translates closer to "while" or "whereas". You use it here because you are contrasting what you want with what he wants. If you were just listing things, you would use și.

Why is there an el (he) before vrea, but no eu (I) before vreau?

In Romanian, you can usually drop subject words like "I" or "you" because the verb itself tells you who is doing the action. Vreau already means "I want". However, because this sentence is contrasting two people, the speaker included el to emphasize who wants the tea. They could have also said Eu vreau... at the beginning to make the contrast even stronger.

Why is the word for "a" different in o cafea and un ceai?

This happens because Romanian nouns have genders. Cafea (coffee) is a feminine noun, so it must be paired with the feminine word for "a", which is o. Ceai (tea) is a neuter noun (meaning it acts like a masculine noun when there is just one), so it takes the masculine/neuter word for "a", which is un.

Is vrea just a shortened form of vreau?