Questions & Answers about Bunicul joacă șah în parc.
Why does it say Bunicul (the grandpa) instead of just Bunic?
In Romanian, when talking about family members in the third person, it is standard to use the definite article (the -ul at the end). So you say Bunicul joacă just as you would say Mama vine (Mom is coming).
The infinitive is a juca, so why does the verb change to joacă here?
This is a common vowel change in Romanian conjugation. The root vowel u changes to the double vowel sound oa when the stress falls on that syllable. For a juca, the third-person singular is joacă (he/she plays), whereas the first-person singular is joc (I play).
Since the English translation says in the park, why isn't it în parcul?
After most simple prepositions like în (in), la (at), or pe (on), Romanian uses the bare noun without the definite article, even when referring to a specific place. You would only add the definite article if you added a descriptive word, like în parcul nou (in the new park).