Het gastouderbureau noemt de opvanglocatie.

Dutch forms compound nouns very freely, much more often than English does.

• gastouderbureau = gastouder
  • bureau
    • gastouder = childminder / home-based childcare provider
    • bureau = office / agency
• opvanglocatie = opvang
  • locatie
    • opvang = care / childcare / reception
    • locatie = location

So instead of writing childminder agency as two words, Dutch usually makes one compound noun: gastouderbureau.

This is very normal in Dutch. English learners often feel these words look long, but for Dutch they are standard.

Dutch nouns take either the article de or het.

• het gastouderbureau
• de opvanglocatie

A very useful rule for compound nouns is:

The compound usually takes the article of the last part.

So:

• bureau is a het word → het gastouderbureau
• locatie is a de word → de opvanglocatie

Even if the first part has a different article, the final part decides the article of the whole compound.

Noemt is the present tense, third person singular form of the verb noemen.

Conjugation of noemen in the present tense:

• ik noem
• jij noemt
• hij/zij/het noemt
• wij noemen
• jullie noemen
• zij noemen

In this sentence, the subject is het gastouderbureau, which is singular, so Dutch uses noemt.

Noemen can mean several related things in Dutch, depending on context:

• to call something
• to name something
• to mention something

So Het gastouderbureau noemt de opvanglocatie could mean something like:

• the agency calls it the childcare location
• the agency names the childcare location
• the agency mentions the childcare location

The exact English choice depends on the context. Dutch noemen is broader than just one English verb.

This is the normal Dutch main-clause word order:

Subject + finite verb + object

• Het gastouderbureau = subject
• noemt = finite verb
• de opvanglocatie = direct object

So the structure is very similar to basic English word order:

The agency names the location.

Dutch main clauses usually put the finite verb in the second position. In this sentence, the subject comes first, so the verb comes right after it.

You can identify them like this:

• Het gastouderbureau is doing the action → that makes it the subject
• de opvanglocatie receives the action of noemt → that makes it the direct object

A useful test is to ask:

• Who/what names? → het gastouderbureau
• Who/what is named/mentioned/called? → de opvanglocatie

So:

• subject: het gastouderbureau
• object: de opvanglocatie

Dutch compounds sometimes use a linking sound or letter, but not always.

Examples:

• paardenstal = horse stable
• zonnelicht = sunlight
• dorpsplein = village square

But many compounds simply join directly:

• gastouderbureau
• opvanglocatie

There is not one single rule that works perfectly in every case, so learners often have to get used to common patterns and learn compounds as vocabulary items. In this word, direct combination is just the standard form.

A rough pronunciation guide:

• het ≈ hut (with a short neutral vowel)
• gastouderbureau ≈ GHAST-ow-der-byoo-ROH
• noemt ≈ something like noomt
• de ≈ duh
• opvanglocatie ≈ OP-fang-loh-kah-TSIE

A few notes:

• ou in gastouder sounds like the sound in English now
• eu in bureau does not exist exactly in English; it is a rounded front vowel
• tie in locatie sounds like tsee

If pronunciation matters for you, it is especially helpful to listen to native audio, because Dutch vowel sounds are hard to guess from English spelling habits.

Yes.

Possible plurals are:

• het gastouderbureau → de gastouderbureaus
• de opvanglocatie → de opvanglocaties

Notice two things:

1. The plural article is always de

   • de gastouderbureaus
   • de opvanglocaties

2. In compounds, you usually pluralize the whole compound at the end

   • not the first part, but the full noun

So Dutch treats these as single lexical units.

Usually, yes, in a sentence like this it strongly suggests a childcare setting.

• opvang often refers to care, reception, or supervised looking-after
• in family and childcare contexts, it often means childcare
• locatie means location/site

So opvanglocatie is a care location or childcare location/site, depending on context.

Dutch often relies on context for the most natural English translation.