Ik roer de soep met een houten lepel.

I stir the soup with a wooden spoon.

Breakdown of Ik roer de soep met een houten lepel.

• ik: I
• met: with
• een: a, an
• de soep: the soup
• houten: wooden
• de lepel: the spoon
• roeren: to stir

Questions & Answers about Ik roer de soep met een houten lepel.

Why is roer used here instead of roeren? How do you form the correct present‐tense form for ik?

“Roeren” is the infinitive (“to stir”). To conjugate a regular Dutch verb in the present tense for ik, you:

1. Drop the -en ending to find the stem: roeren → stem roer.
2. Add nothing for ik (no extra ending).
   So you get ik roer.

Why is it de soep rather than het soep?

In Dutch every noun is either common gender (taking de) or neuter gender (taking het). Soep is a common‐gender noun, so you always say de soep in the singular.

Why does the adjective houten end in -en instead of the usual -e (as in grote man, oude boot, etc.)?

Most adjectives preceding a noun take -e when there’s an article (de/het/een). Houten, however, is a special case:

• It’s an adjective derived from the noun hout (wood) rather than a “regular” adjective.
• Historically it behaves like a “strong” adjective with an -en ending built in.
  As a result, you say een houten lepel (a wooden spoon) and de houten lepel (the wooden spoon) without changing it to houtene.

What is the role of met in this sentence?

Met is a preposition meaning “with.” It introduces the instrument used to perform the action.
In Ik roer de soep met een houten lepel, met een houten lepel tells us “with what” you stir the soup.

Could I say Ik roer de soep met de houten lepel instead of met een houten lepel?

Yes. Use een when you’re mentioning any wooden spoon in general (“a wooden spoon”), and de when you refer to a specific spoon both speaker and listener know (“the wooden spoon”).

Can I move met een houten lepel to the front of the sentence?

Yes. Dutch follows the V2 (verb‐second) rule: whichever element you put first, the finite verb still comes second. For example:
Met een houten lepel roer ik de soep.
(“With a wooden spoon, I stir the soup.”)

Could I use the separable verb omroeren instead of roeren … met?

Absolutely. Omroeren means “to stir” or “to mix.” You could say:
– Ik roer de soep om. (I stir the soup.)
If you still want to mention the spoon’s material:
– Met een houten lepel roer ik de soep om.

How do you pronounce roer, soep, and houten? Any tips for those tricky Dutch sounds?

• roer: The oo in roer is a long close‐mid back rounded vowel /uː/. The final r can be a rolling or guttural “r” depending on the dialect.
• soep: oe is /uː/ as well, so soep sounds like “soup” in English but with a short-er /s/ and the Dutch /uː/.
• houten:
– hou rhymes with English “how” (but a bit longer diphthong /ʌu/).
– ten has a short /ə/ for the -en ending: /ˈɦʌu.tə(n)/.
Remember Dutch final devoicing: any voiced consonant at the end of a word (like a possible “d”) is pronounced voiceless (like a “t”).