De meterstand toont het energieverbruik.

Dutch nouns have grammatical gender, and that affects the article:

• de meterstand
• het energieverbruik

A very useful rule is this: in a compound noun, the last part determines the gender.

• meterstand = meter

  • stand
    The main word is stand, and stand takes de, so it is de meterstand.

• energieverbruik = energie

  • verbruik
    The main word is verbruik, and verbruik takes het, so it is het energieverbruik.

So even though energie itself is a de-word, the whole compound is het energieverbruik because the final part is verbruik.

Meterstand refers to the reading, not the physical meter.

So:

• meter = the meter/device
• meterstand = the current number/reading shown by the meter

That is similar to English meter reading. This is a common distinction in Dutch, and the compound makes it very precise.

Because Dutch usually writes compound nouns as one word.

So:

• energie
  • verbruik → energieverbruik

This is completely normal in Dutch. English often uses separate words, where Dutch prefers compounds written together.

More examples:

• huis
  • deur → huisdeur
• water
  • fles → waterfles
• energie
  • rekening → energierekening

For English speakers, this is one of the most noticeable features of Dutch spelling.

Toont is the third-person singular present tense of the verb tonen.

Conjugation:

• ik toon
• jij toont
• hij/zij/het toont
• wij tonen
• jullie tonen
• zij tonen

In the sentence, the subject is de meterstand, which is singular, so the verb is toont.

Structure:

• De meterstand = subject
• toont = verb
• het energieverbruik = object

Because this is a simple main clause with normal Dutch word order:

Subject + verb + object

• De meterstand = subject
• toont = finite verb
• het energieverbruik = object

That gives:

De meterstand toont het energieverbruik.

In straightforward main clauses, Dutch often looks quite similar to English. The bigger differences usually show up in:

• questions
• subordinate clauses
• sentences with modal verbs or separable verbs

So this sentence is a nice example of basic Dutch word order.

Yes, often you could. Both can mean something like shows.

• De meterstand toont het energieverbruik.
• De meterstand laat het energieverbruik zien.

But there is a slight difference in style:

• tonen can sound a bit more formal or technical
• laten zien is often more everyday and conversational

In a technical, administrative, or utility-related context, toont fits very naturally.

Because Dutch usually expresses this idea with a compound noun, not with a separate linking word.

English often says:

• energy consumption
• meter reading

Dutch typically turns these into single compound nouns:

• energieverbruik
• meterstand

So instead of something like verbruik van energie, Dutch often prefers the shorter compound energieverbruik.

Both patterns can exist in Dutch, but the compound is usually the most natural noun form here.

In Dutch compounds, the last part is usually the head or main noun.

So in:

• meterstand → the main noun is stand
• energieverbruik → the main noun is verbruik

The earlier part tells you what kind of stand or verbruik it is:

• meterstand = a stand related to a meter
• energieverbruik = verbruik related to energie

This is important because the last part usually determines:

• the article (de or het)
• the plural
• the core meaning

The plurals are:

• de meterstand → de meterstanden
• het energieverbruik → de energieverbruiken (possible grammatically, but less common in everyday use)

A few notes:

• meterstanden is very normal, for example when comparing readings from different dates or homes.
• energieverbruik is often treated as something more abstract or mass-like, so singular is very common.
• If you do use the plural, it refers to different cases or amounts of energy consumption.

Also notice that plural nouns in Dutch take de, so even a former het-word becomes de in the plural.

A learner-friendly way to chunk it is:

De meterstand / toont / het energieverbruik.

A few pronunciation notes:

• de is usually unstressed
• meterstand has the main stress on mee
• energieverbruik is a long compound, with a main stress on bruik and another noticeable stress earlier in the word

You do not need to pronounce every part with equal force. In natural speech, function words like de and het are lighter, while the content words carry more stress.

Grammatically, it says what the meter reading shows.

So the sentence treats de meterstand as the subject, and says that it toont something:

• De meterstand = the meter reading
• toont = shows
• het energieverbruik = the energy consumption

In other words, the sentence is not defining the meter reading itself; it is saying that the reading indicates or displays the consumption. That kind of phrasing is common in technical or informational Dutch.