Breakdown of Alle luchtige gebakjes waren nog niet aan het afkoelen.
zijn
to be
niet
not
nog
still, yet / more, another (with a quantity)
alle
all (general plurals)
luchtig
airy / light
het gebakje
the pastry
afkoelen
to cool down
Questions & Answers about Alle luchtige gebakjes waren nog niet aan het afkoelen.
Why do we use alle in this sentence instead of hele?
We use alle (all) because gebakjes is a plural countable noun, and we are referring to every individual item in the group. If you used hele here, it would mean whole or intact pastries, focusing on the physical completeness of each object rather than the quantity of the group.
The English translation is 'All the airy pastries', but there is no word for 'the' after alle. Why?
In Dutch, alle placed directly before an adjective and noun naturally implies 'all the' or 'all of the'. You do not need to add a definite article. While al de is technically possible, simply using alle as in alle luchtige gebakjes is much more common and natural.
Why does this sentence use waren ... aan het afkoelen instead of the simple past koelden ... af?
The aan het + infinitive construction is the Dutch continuous tense. It emphasizes that the specific ongoing process of cooling down was not happening yet at that exact moment in the past. Using the simple past would sound more like a general factual statement rather than focusing on the action in progress.
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