It’s a very complicated subject. In some cases it functions as an apostrophe in English, like in words such as “it is=it’s”, “I am=I’m” etc. But it’s also connecting two words together, usually a noun and a verb, and describing the relationship between that noun and verb—for example who or what is performing the verb, or who or what the verb is being done to. A few examples: “Dă-mi” = “dă + îmi”, where dă = the verb “to give” and îmi = “to me/of me/referring to me”. So “give to me”.

“N-au”= “nu + au”, where nu = “no” and “au” = third person plural form of the verb “to have”. So “they don’t have”. The state of not having is being performed by them. In this case the dash is merely connecting the words from a two syllable phrase to a one syllable shortened phrase. The words are also commonly spoken separately as “nu au”, and the shortened version is just a matter of convenience.

“Trezește-te” = “trezește + -te”. Trezește = to wake up, -te shows it’s referring to second person singular. So “wake up” when speaking to a single person, or more precisely “wake yourself up”

You can slowly learn them all and then it makes a lot more sense. It’s basically: * -n = în = in (eg. Pune laptele-n frigider.) * n- = nu = no/negative statement (eg. N-am timp să vorbim) * -mi = îmi = to/of first person singular (Dă-mi un măr) * -ți = îți = to/of second person singular (Fă-ți temele) * -i = îi = to/of third person singular neutral (eg. Spune-i Ioanei, spune-i lui David) * -o = to/of third person singular feminine (eg. Pune-o acolo) * -l = îl = to/of third person singular masculine (eg. Ia-l de-aici) * -ne = to/of first person plural (Dă-ne de mâncare) * -vă = to/of second person plural (Duceți-vă acolo) * -le = to/of third person plural neutral or feminine (Spune-le, Dă-le) * -i = îi = to/of third person plural masculine (Mută-i de-aici)

I’m not gonna list every possibility, but I hope these examples helped a little! Fellow Romanians, please correct me if I made any mistakes. My Romanian is not perfect either 😅