Breakdown of Ik wil alle koekjes en de hele taart bakken.
ik
I
en
and
willen
to want
het koekje
the cookie
de taart
the cake
bakken
to fry / to bake
alle
all (general plurals)
heel
whole
Questions & Answers about Ik wil alle koekjes en de hele taart bakken.
Why do we use alle for the cookies but hele for the pie?
This shows the exact difference between these two quantifiers. Alle means "all" and is used with plural nouns to refer to every individual item in a group (alle koekjes). Heel or hele means "whole" or "entire" and is used with singular nouns to describe the entirety of one single object (de hele taart).
Why isn't it alle de koekjes, since the English translation says "all the cookies"?
In Dutch, when you use alle directly before a noun to mean "all the", you almost always drop the definite article. So "all the cookies" simply becomes alle koekjes. Saying alle de koekjes is grammatically incorrect in modern Dutch.
Why does heel get an -e ending to become de hele taart?
Heel is acting as a standard adjective here, meaning "whole". Because taart is a de-word and is preceded by the definite article de, the adjective gets the standard -e ending. If it were an indefinite het-word, it would drop the -e (for example, een heel brood meaning "a whole loaf of bread").
Why is bakken all the way at the end of the sentence?
This is a quick refresher on standard Dutch word order. Wil is the conjugated modal verb in the second position, which pushes the main action verb in its infinitive form (bakken) to the very end of the clause. Even though the direct object is quite long (alle koekjes en de hele taart), the infinitive still has to wait until the very end.
Learn Ik wil alle koekjes en de hele taart bakken and more in Dutch
All course content and exercises are completely free — no paywalls, no trial periods, no signup needed.
- ✓ Practice with interactive exercises
- ✓ Track your progress with spaced repetition
- ✓Learn at your own pace — completely free