Learn Hardcore Dutch: Tijdens de vergadering schrijft Anna korte notities in een notitie-app op haar telefoon. - During the meeting Anna writes short notes in a notes app on her phone.

Tijdens de vergadering schrijft Anna korte notities…
Literally: During the meeting writes Anna short notes…
Dutch is a V2 language: in a main clause, the finite verb (schrijft) must be in second position. Here, Tijdens de vergadering is in first position as a time expression, so schrijft has to come second, before Anna.
Anna schrijft tijdens de vergadering korte notities…
Here, Anna is in first position, so schrijft still comes second, and the time phrase moves later in the sentence.

So:

Word orders like [time] – [verb] – [subject] – … and [subject] – [verb] – [time] – … are both normal.
Starting with Tijdens de vergadering simply emphasizes the time frame (“during the meeting”) a bit more.

Why is it schrijft and not something like is aan het schrijven, since in English we say “is writing”?

Dutch usually uses the simple present where English uses the present continuous.

Anna schrijft korte notities… = Anna is writing short notes… (right now / usually)
Dutch does have a kind of continuous: Anna is korte notities aan het schrijven, but:
- It’s more marked, often used when you really want to highlight the ongoing process.
- In many everyday sentences, Dutch speakers just use the simple present.

So schrijft here naturally covers “writes” and “is writing” depending on context; English is simply more forced to choose.

How is schrijven conjugated? Why specifically schrijft?

Schrijven (to write) is irregular in the stem vowel, but present-tense endings are regular:

ik schrijf – I write
jij / je schrijft – you write (singular)
hij / zij / Anna schrijft – he / she / Anna writes
wij / jullie / zij schrijven – we / you (pl.) / they write

So with Anna (3rd person singular), you use schrijft.

Past tense (just for reference):

ik schreef, wij schreven – I wrote, we wrote
Past participle: geschreven.

Why is it tijdens for “during”? Could I say in de vergadering or bij de vergadering?

Tijdens is the standard preposition for “during” in a temporal sense:

tijdens de vergadering = during the meeting (time)

Alternatives have different nuances:

in de vergadering
Can be understood as in the meeting (often more about being part of that meeting, not just time). It’s less idiomatic if you simply mean “while the meeting is going on.”
bij de vergadering
Usually means at the meeting (location/occasion: present at that event).

If you want the straightforward “during the meeting” (time period in which the action happens), tijdens is the natural, safest choice.

What gender is vergadering and which article does it take?

Vergadering is a de-word (common gender):

de vergadering – the meeting
een vergadering – a meeting
plural: de vergaderingen – the meetings

So you always say de vergadering, not het vergadering.

Why is it korte notities and not kort notities?

In Dutch, attributive adjectives (those before a noun) usually get an -e ending, except in a few specific cases.

Here we have:

korte = short (adjective)
notities = notes (plural, common gender)

For plural nouns, with de-gender or het-gender, the adjective always gets -e, whether it’s definite or indefinite:

korte notities – short notes
de korte notities – the short notes

So kort notities is incorrect; it must be korte notities.

Is there a difference between notities and aantekeningen?

Both can translate as “notes”, but there are nuances:

notities
- Often used for short, practical notes, quick jottings.
- Common in tech/office contexts: notitie-app, notities maken.
aantekeningen
- Often more like study notes, detailed notes taken in class or from a book.
- Sounds slightly more formal/academic.

In this context—using a note-taking app during a meeting—korte notities feels very natural and slightly more “digital/app-like” than korte aantekeningen. Both would be understood, though.

Why in een notitie-app and not op een notitie-app?

Dutch usually uses in with apps when you mean “inside the app / within the app’s environment”:

in een notitie-app schrijven – write in a note-taking app
in WhatsApp, in de Gmail-app, in de agenda-app

Op is often used for:

op haar telefoon – on her phone (device / screen)
op een website – on a website
op Facebook – on Facebook (platform)

So the pattern is:

in an app (inside the program)
op the device/platform.

Therefore: in een notitie-app op haar telefoon is exactly what you want.

Why is it een notitie-app with a hyphen? Could I also write notitieapp?

In Dutch, compound nouns are normally written as one word, sometimes with a hyphen to improve readability.

notitieapp – technically possible as a single compound word, but looks heavy and is uncommon.
notitie-app – hyphen improves readability and is very natural.
de app is the head word, notitie describes what kind of app.

Writing notitie app (with a space and no hyphen) would be wrong, because it would look like notitie (adjective) + app (noun), and notitie is not an adjective.

So:

Preferred: een notitie-app
Also defensible in some contexts: een notitieapp
To avoid: een notitie app (with a space, no hyphen)

Why is it op haar telefoon and not in haar telefoon?

Dutch usually uses op with devices and screens:

op haar telefoon – on her phone
op mijn laptop, op de computer, op de tablet
op het scherm – on the screen

This is similar to English “on my phone.”
In haar telefoon would literally mean inside her phone (physically inside the device), which is not what you want here.

So the standard collocation is op haar telefoon.

Could I say op haar mobiel or op haar gsm instead of op haar telefoon?

Yes, but there are regional and stylistic differences:

telefoon – neutral, widely used
mobiel – colloquial, very common in the Netherlands for “mobile phone”
gsm – common in Belgium for “mobile phone”

All of these work in the structure:

in een notitie-app op haar telefoon
in een notitie-app op haar mobiel (Netherlands)
in een notitie-app op haar gsm (Belgium)

Meaning stays the same; it’s mainly about regional preference and formality.

Why is haar used? Could it also be zijn?

Haar is the possessive pronoun for “her”:

haar telefoon – her phone
zijn telefoon – his phone / his or its phone

So:

If Anna is a woman (which the name suggests), you use haar telefoon.
You would only use zijn telefoon if the owner was male (or sometimes for a thing/animal).

In casual spoken Dutch people sometimes use z’n (from zijn) more loosely, but in standard written Dutch here haar telefoon is the correct match for Anna.

Why is op haar telefoon at the very end of the sentence? Could it come earlier?

Dutch tends to put more specific / heavier information later in the sentence. The phrase in een notitie-app op haar telefoon is a detailed chunk about where she writes.

Standard natural order:

Tijdens de vergadering schrijft Anna korte notities in een notitie-app op haar telefoon.

You can move parts around, but you must keep the verb-second rule and try not to break natural groups:

Also fine: Tijdens de vergadering schrijft Anna in een notitie-app op haar telefoon korte notities.
Less natural: splitting notitie-app and op haar telefoon far apart.

In general, place:

Time early (like Tijdens de vergadering),
then subject and verb,
then object (korte notities),
then manner/place details (in een notitie-app op haar telefoon) toward the end.

Could I say maakt korte notities instead of schrijft korte notities?

Yes, but there is a subtle nuance:

schrijft korte notities – focuses on the act of writing.
maakt korte notities – focuses more on creating/producing those notes.

Both are acceptable and natural here:

Tijdens de vergadering schrijft Anna korte notities…
Tijdens de vergadering maakt Anna korte notities…

In many contexts they’re interchangeable, though schrijven is a bit more literal about putting words down, while maken is more general (make/produce).