Breakdown of Alle plakkerige gebakjes koelen af op het aanrecht.
op
on
het
it
alle
all (general plurals)
plakkerig
sticky
het aanrecht
the kitchen counter
het gebakje
the pastry
afkoelen
to cool down
Questions & Answers about Alle plakkerige gebakjes koelen af op het aanrecht.
Why do we use 'Alle' here instead of 'Hele' to mean 'all the'?
In Dutch, alle is used to mean 'all' when referring to a total number of individual, countable things (like plural gebakjes). Heel or hele means 'whole' or 'entire'. If you said hele plakkerige gebakjes, it would mean 'completely sticky pastries' or 'whole sticky pastries' (as opposed to half-eaten ones), rather than 'all of them'.
The dictionary says pastry is 'gebak'. Why is the diminutive 'gebakjes' used here?
The word gebak is usually an uncountable, collective noun in Dutch (meaning 'pastry' or 'cake' in general). To talk about individual, countable pastries—which we need here to group them with alle—you must use the diminutive form gebakje (plural gebakjes).
Why are 'koelen' and 'af' separated in this sentence?
The infinitive verb is afkoelen (to cool down), which is a separable verb. In a standard main clause, the conjugated part (koelen) takes the second position, while the separable prefix (af) moves to the end of the core clause, right before the location phrase op het aanrecht.
Why does 'plakkerig' get an '-e' at the end here?
Because gebakjes is a plural noun. Even though a singular diminutive like gebakje is a 'het' word, all plural nouns take the -e ending on adjectives that come directly before them.
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