Het gastouderbureau controleert de opvanglocatie.

Dutch very often makes compound nouns by joining words together.

• gastouder = childminder / host parent
• bureau = agency / office

So gastouderbureau is literally something like childminder agency.

This is much more normal in Dutch than in English. Where English often uses separate words, Dutch often combines them into one noun.

A useful rule:

• In Dutch compounds, the last part is the main word.
• So gastouderbureau is a kind of bureau.

Het is the definite article the for certain Dutch nouns.

Dutch has two main definite articles:

• de
• het

The noun gastouderbureau takes het, so you say:

• het gastouderbureau

You simply have to learn for each noun whether it takes de or het, although there are patterns. One helpful pattern here is that many diminutives and many nouns ending in -um, -isme, etc. take het, but bureau is just a noun you learn with het.

Because gastouderbureau is a compound, its article is determined by the last word:

• het bureau
• therefore het gastouderbureau

Because opvanglocatie is a different noun, and it happens to take de.

Again, the article of a compound noun is determined by its final element:

• de locatie
• therefore de opvanglocatie

So in this sentence:

• het gastouderbureau
• de opvanglocatie

This is very common in Dutch: different nouns in the same sentence can take different articles.

Controleert is the verb controleren in the third person singular present tense.

The infinitive is:

• controleren = to inspect / to check

Present tense forms:

• ik controleer
• jij controleert / controleer je
• hij/zij/het controleert

Since the subject is het gastouderbureau, which is grammatically third person singular, the verb must be:

• controleert

So the -t is just the normal ending for third person singular in the present tense.

This sentence uses the basic Dutch main clause word order:

Subject + verb + object

• Het gastouderbureau = subject
• controleert = verb
• de opvanglocatie = object

So:

• Het gastouderbureau controleert de opvanglocatie.

This is very similar to English:

• The agency checks the location.

Nothing unusual is happening here. It is a straightforward main clause.

It is another compound noun:

• opvang = care / childcare / receiving care
• locatie = location / site

Together:

• opvanglocatie = childcare location / care location / site where care takes place

As with many Dutch compounds, the exact English translation depends on context. In childcare-related contexts, opvanglocatie usually refers to the place where the childcare is provided.

The subject is the person or thing doing the action.
The object is the person or thing receiving the action.

Here:

• Het gastouderbureau is doing the checking/inspection
• de opvanglocatie is being checked/inspected

So:

• Subject: Het gastouderbureau
• Verb: controleert
• Direct object: de opvanglocatie

A good test is to ask:

• Who checks? → Het gastouderbureau
• What does it check? → de opvanglocatie

A rough pronunciation guide is:

• Het ≈ hut or a very short het
• gastouderbureau ≈ ghast-ow-der-byoo-ROH
• controleert ≈ kon-troh-LAYRT
• de opvanglocatie ≈ duh OP-fang-loh-kah-TSIE

A few notes:

• g in Dutch is usually a throaty sound, not the English g
• ou in gastouder sounds roughly like ow
• eu in bureau is tricky for English speakers, but in practice many learners first approximate it
• The stress in controleert falls near the end
• In locatie, the final -tie sounds like tsee

If you want to sound natural, listening to native audio is especially useful for words like gastouderbureau, because long compounds can be hard to pronounce smoothly at first.

Not with this subject.

You use controleer with ik:

• Ik controleer de opvanglocatie.

But with het gastouderbureau, you need controleert:

• Het gastouderbureau controleert de opvanglocatie.

So the verb form must match the subject.

Because Dutch, like English, can often express the whole idea with just one main verb.

• controleert already means checks / inspects
• You do not need a separate word for does

Compare:

• English: The agency checks the location.
• Dutch: Het gastouderbureau controleert de opvanglocatie.

Both languages can express this with a simple present tense verb.

Yes. In Dutch main clauses, the finite verb is normally in the second position.

So the neutral sentence is:

• Het gastouderbureau controleert de opvanglocatie.

But if you move another element to the front, the verb still stays second:

• De opvanglocatie controleert het gastouderbureau.
  This changes the meaning, because now the location would be the subject.

Or with a time phrase:

• Vandaag controleert het gastouderbureau de opvanglocatie.

Notice that after Vandaag comes the verb controleert, and only then the subject het gastouderbureau.

This is an important Dutch word-order rule called verb-second.

In this sentence, it is closer to checks, inspects, or monitors than to English controls.

This is a classic vocabulary trap because Dutch controleren looks similar to English to control, but it often means:

• to check
• to inspect
• to verify

So here controleert de opvanglocatie most naturally means that the agency inspects/checks the childcare location, not that it controls it in the sense of governing it.