Learn Romanian: Aș vrea radiera și rigla, te rog. - I would like the eraser and the ruler, please.

Aș vrea is the conditional form of the verb a vrea (to want), which translates to "I would like." Just like in English, it is much more polite to use this conditional form when asking for something than using the direct present tense vreau ("I want").

I see radiera and rigla. Do the base words for "eraser" and "ruler" normally end in "a"?

No, their dictionary forms actually end in -ă: radieră and riglă. Because Romanian attaches the word for "the" (the definite article) to the end of the noun, feminine nouns ending in -ă change that ending to -a. Therefore, radieră (an eraser) becomes radiera (the eraser).

If I am buying these items in a shop, is te rog still the right way to say "please"?

Probably not! Te rog uses the informal "you" (te). If you are speaking to a shop assistant or someone you do not know well, you should use the formal or plural version: vă rog. You would use te rog here if you were borrowing these items from a friend or classmate.

What exactly does te rog translate to literally?

Literally, it means "I ask you" or "I pray you." It comes from the verb a ruga (to ask, to request, or to pray). Te is the informal pronoun for "you" receiving the action, and rog is the "I" form of the verb.