Learn Hardcore Dutch: Anna voelde zich verantwoordelijk en controleerde elke stapel papieren. - Anna felt responsible and checked every stack of papers.

The verb voelen (‘to feel’) in Dutch is pronominal when you describe how someone feels, which means it always takes a reflexive pronoun. For third person (hij/zij/het) that pronoun is zich, so Anna voelde zich literally means ‘Anna felt herself,’ which we’d simply translate as ‘Anna felt.’ You cannot replace zich with haar—that would be ungrammatical.

What tense are voelde and controleerde, and how are these forms constructed?

Both voelde (from voelen) and controleerde (from controleren) are in the simple past tense (onvoltooid verleden tijd). They are regular (weak) verbs: you take the stem (voel-, controleer-) and add -de (because the stem ends in a voiced consonant).

voelen → voelde
controleren → controleerde

What part of speech is verantwoordelijk and why isn’t verantwoord used instead?

Verantwoordelijk is an adjective meaning ‘responsible.’ You use it when you want to describe someone as responsible. Verantwoord by itself usually appears in compound nouns (e.g. verantwoord gebruik ‘responsible use’), but you don’t use it as the standalone adjective ‘responsible.’ For that you need verantwoordelijk.

Why does the sentence say elke stapel papieren instead of alle stapels papieren? What’s the difference between elke and alle?

Elke = ‘each’ (emphasizing one at a time).
Alle = ‘all’ (the entire group).
So:
• Anna controleerde elke stapel papieren = ‘Anna checked each stack of papers (one by one).’
• Anna controleerde alle stapels papieren = ‘Anna checked all the stacks of papers (together).’

Why does elke end in -e? I thought it was elk before a noun.

When elk is used attributively (directly before a noun), it always takes -e: elke dag, elke stapel, elke keer. The bare form elk appears only when it stands alone as a pronoun: Ik wil elk (‘I want each one’).

What is papieren here? Is it an adjective or a noun, and why does it have an -en ending?

In stapel papieren, papieren is the irregular plural noun of papier (‘paper’, ‘document’). Its usual plural is papieren, not papiers. You know it’s a noun here because it follows stapel as its complement (like the English “pile of papers”). If it were an adjective meaning ‘made of paper’, you’d see it before the noun: papieren boot (‘paper boat’).

Why is the phrase stapel papieren ordered this way instead of papieren stapel?

Dutch often uses a head-noun + complement structure (similar to English “pile of papers”). The head is stapel (‘stack’) and the complement is papieren (‘papers’). Saying papieren stapel would force papieren into an adjectival role, which isn’t idiomatic here. The natural partitive expression is stapel papieren.

If I want to say “Anna felt responsible for the papers,” where would I place voor?

To express ‘responsible for something’, you insert voor after verantwoordelijk:
Anna voelde zich verantwoordelijk voor de papieren = ‘Anna felt responsible for the papers.’ In the original sentence she simply “felt responsible” (in general) and then checked each stack.