Bibliotecarul scanează legitimația de bibliotecă.

A word-by-word breakdown is:

• Bibliotecarul = the librarian
• scanează = scans / is scanning
• legitimația = the card / ID / pass
• de bibliotecă = library / for the library

In this sentence, legitimația de bibliotecă works together as library card.

Because Romanian usually puts the definite article at the end of the noun instead of using a separate word before it.

So:

• bibliotecar = librarian
• bibliotecarul = the librarian

and

• legitimație = ID/card
• legitimația = the ID/card

This is one of the biggest differences from English. English says the librarian; Romanian says, literally, something like librarian-the.

The form of the definite article depends on the noun’s gender and shape.

• bibliotecar is a masculine noun, so the definite singular form is bibliotecarul
• legitimație is a feminine noun, so the definite singular form becomes legitimația

So the article is not always the same. Romanian changes it according to the noun type.

Scanează is the 3rd person singular present form of a scana = to scan.

The subject is bibliotecarul = the librarian, which is he/she, singular, so Romanian uses scanează.

Very roughly:

• eu scanez = I scan
• tu scanezi = you scan
• el/ea scanează = he/she scans

It can mean either one, depending on context.

Romanian present tense often covers both:

• he scans
• he is scanning

So Bibliotecarul scanează legitimația de bibliotecă could describe a general action or something happening right now.

Here de bibliotecă describes what kind of legitimație it is.

So:

• legitimație = card / pass / ID
• legitimație de bibliotecă = library card

This is a very common Romanian pattern: noun + de + noun to describe type or purpose.

It is not best understood as a fully literal of library in English. In this sentence, the natural English equivalent is simply library card.

Usually yes: bibliotecarul is the masculine singular definite form.

The feminine equivalent would be:

• bibliotecara = the female librarian

So if you know the librarian is a woman, you would normally say Bibliotecara scanează legitimația de bibliotecă.

Romanian often leaves out subject pronouns because the verb form already gives useful information, and here the subject noun is already stated explicitly.

So:

• Bibliotecarul scanează... = perfectly normal
• El scanează... = He scans...
• Bibliotecarul, el scanează... = possible only with special emphasis, and usually unnecessary

In normal Romanian, once the subject is clear, you do not need an extra pronoun.

Because legitimația is an inanimate direct object.

Romanian often uses pe before specific human or animate direct objects, but not normally before inanimate things like a card.

So:

• scanează legitimația = correct
• not scanează pe legitimația

Grammatically, legitimația is the direct object of the verb, but it does not need pe here.

This sentence uses the most neutral and common order:

• Subject + Verb + Object
• Bibliotecarul scanează legitimația de bibliotecă.

Romanian word order is more flexible than English, and parts of the sentence can move for emphasis. But this version is the normal, straightforward way to say it.

The main special letters here are:

• ă as in scanează and bibliotecă: a short, reduced vowel, somewhat like the a in sofa
• ț as in legitimația: pronounced ts

A rough English-friendly pronunciation of the whole sentence is:

bee-blee-oh-teh-KAH-rul ska-NEH-ah-zuh leh-jee-tee-MA-tsya de bee-blee-oh-TEH-kuh

That is only approximate, but it is a useful start.

You would say:

Un bibliotecar scanează o legitimație de bibliotecă.

That means:

• un bibliotecar = a librarian
• o legitimație de bibliotecă = a library card

So Romanian uses un / o for a/an, but puts the definite article at the end for the.