Anna eet liever yoghurt met banaan, maar haar broer kiest een sinaasappel.

Liever means rather or preferably.

In Dutch, when you want to say that someone prefers doing something, you normally use graag and its comparative form liever:

• Ik eet graag yoghurt. = I like eating yoghurt.
• Ik eet liever yoghurt. = I would rather eat yoghurt / I prefer yoghurt.

So liever is the natural Dutch word here. Dutch does not usually say meer graag for this meaning.

Dutch main clauses usually follow the verb-second rule: the finite verb comes in the second position.

So in:

• Anna eet liever yoghurt met banaan.

the structure is:

• Anna = subject
• eet = finite verb
• liever yoghurt met banaan = the rest of the clause

That is why eet comes right after Anna.

In food combinations, Dutch often leaves out the article when naming an ingredient or flavor.

So:

• yoghurt met banaan = yoghurt with banana
• brood met kaas = bread with cheese
• ijs met aardbei = ice cream with strawberry

This sounds like a general combination or type of food.

If you said met een banaan, it would sound more like you are emphasizing one whole banana as a separate item.

Because the two nouns are being used differently.

In yoghurt met banaan, banaan functions more like an ingredient or flavor, so no article is needed.

In kiest een sinaasappel, the orange is a specific countable thing that the brother is choosing, so Dutch uses the indefinite article:

• een sinaasappel = an orange

So the difference is not about the words themselves, but about how they are used in the sentence.

Because haar refers to Anna, not to broer.

• haar broer = her brother
• zijn broer = his brother

The possessive word matches the owner, not the gender of the noun being owned.

So since the brother belongs to Anna in the sense of family relationship, Dutch says:

• Anna ... maar haar broer...

Even though broer is male, the correct possessive is still haar because Anna is female.

Because maar is a coordinating conjunction. It joins two main clauses, and each clause keeps normal main-clause word order.

So:

• Anna eet liever yoghurt met banaan
• maar haar broer kiest een sinaasappel

Both parts are main clauses, so in both of them the finite verb comes second:

• Anna eet ...
• haar broer kiest ...

If this were a subordinating conjunction like omdat, the word order would be different.

Kiest is the third person singular present tense of kiezen = to choose.

The subject is haar broer = her brother, which is third person singular, so Dutch uses:

• ik kies
• jij kiest
• hij/zij kiest

That is why the sentence has kiest.

Yes, but the meaning changes slightly.

• kiest = chooses
• neemt = takes / chooses in a practical sense
• eet = eats

So:

• haar broer kiest een sinaasappel focuses on the choice
• haar broer neemt een sinaasappel focuses on taking one
• haar broer eet een sinaasappel focuses on actually eating it

The original sentence highlights contrast in preference and selection, so kiest works well.

Yoghurt is usually a de-word:

• de yoghurt

So you can say:

• de yoghurt is koud

But in this sentence there is no article because it is being used in a more general food sense:

• Anna eet liever yoghurt met banaan

That is very natural in Dutch.

The g in standard Dutch is usually pronounced as a harsh throaty sound, somewhat like the ch in Scottish loch or German Bach.

So in yoghurt, the gh part is not pronounced like English gurt. It has a Dutch guttural sound.

A few pronunciation notes:

• broer sounds roughly like broor, with a long vowel
• banaan has stress on the second syllable: ba-NAAN
• sinaasappel is roughly si-NAAS-ap-pel

Pronunciation does vary by region, especially the g.

No. Dutch often uses liever without saying exactly what the alternative is.

So:

• Anna eet liever yoghurt met banaan

can mean:

• Anna prefers yoghurt with banana
• Anna would rather eat yoghurt with banana

The other option is understood from context. If you want, you can make the comparison explicit:

• Anna eet liever yoghurt met banaan dan cornflakes.
  = Anna prefers yoghurt with banana to cornflakes.

So in the original sentence, the comparison is implied, which is very normal in Dutch.