Anna roert het beslag rustig door met een houten lepel.

Anna calmly stirs the batter with a wooden spoon.

Breakdown of Anna roert het beslag rustig door met een houten lepel.

• Anna: Anna
• met: with
• een: a, an
• rustig: calmly
• het beslag: the batter
• roeren door: to stir through
• houten: wooden
• de lepel: the spoon

Questions & Answers about Anna roert het beslag rustig door met een houten lepel.

What is the finite verb in this sentence, and why is part of it at the end?

The base verb is roeren (to stir). Dutch has the separable verb doorroeren (to stir through). In a main clause you split it:

• roert (the finite form) stays in second position
• door (the separable prefix) goes to the end

So “Anna roert het beslag rustig door …”

What does the separable verb doorroeren mean compared to just roeren?

• roeren = to stir (in general)
• doorroeren = to stir something completely through, making sure everything is mixed

In English you often translate doorroeren as “to fold/stir through” or simply “to stir well.”

Why is rustig placed between het beslag and door, and could it go elsewhere?

Dutch word order for adverbs in a main clause is usually:
Subject – finite verb – object – adverb – separable prefix – other elements.
Thus rustig (an adverb) naturally follows het beslag and precedes the prefix door. You could also say “Anna roert rustig het beslag door,” placing rustig right after the finite verb, but you cannot break up roert and door by moving rustig after the prefix.

What nuance does rustig add here, and how would you translate it?

rustig literally means “calmly” or “quietly,” but in cooking contexts it often means “gently” or “slowly.”
A good translation: “Anna gently stirs the batter through with a wooden spoon.”

Why is it het beslag and not de beslag?

In Dutch every noun is either “de” or “het.”

• beslag is a neuter noun, so it takes het.
• If you learn a new Dutch noun, you must memorize whether it’s “de” (common gender) or “het” (neuter).

What exactly is beslag in cooking terms? How does it differ from deeg?

• beslag is a (usually liquid) mixture of ingredients like flour, eggs, milk – think pancake batter or cake batter.
• deeg is firmer dough, like for bread or cookies.

Why do we use met in met een houten lepel, and what role does it play?

met indicates the instrument or tool used to perform an action. In English we say “with a …”—Dutch uses met the same way.
So met een houten lepel = “with a wooden spoon.”

Why is the adjective houten and not just hout or houte?

houten is a noun-derived adjective from hout (wood). Such adjectives take an -en ending when placed directly before a noun (regardless of “de” or “het”). This is different from regular adjectives like groot → grote.

How would you rewrite the sentence in the perfect tense?

You use the auxiliary hebben plus the past participle doorge­roerd (note the prefix reattaches in participle form):
“Anna heeft het beslag rustig doorgeroerd met een houten lepel.”