Na het werk maken wij pasta met een simpele salade.

Na het werk means after work. Dutch often puts a time expression at the beginning of the sentence, just like English can do:

• After work, we make pasta...
• Na het werk maken wij pasta...

Starting with Na het werk gives the sentence a natural “time first” structure.

In this expression, Dutch normally uses the article: het werk = work / the work in the sense of your job or workplace context.

So:

• na het werk = after work

This is a fixed and very common phrase. English often leaves out the article in similar expressions, but Dutch keeps it here.

Because the sentence begins with Na het werk, the finite verb usually comes second in Dutch. This is the standard V2 rule (verb second).

So the order is:

• Na het werk = first element
• maken = second element, so the verb must come here
• wij = subject comes after the verb

That is why you get:

• Na het werk maken wij pasta...

If the sentence started with the subject, you would say:

• Wij maken na het werk pasta...

Both are correct, but the word order changes because of the V2 rule.

Yes. Wij and we both mean we.

In everyday Dutch, we is more common and more natural in speech:

• Na het werk maken we pasta met een simpele salade.

Wij is a bit more emphatic or slightly more formal, though it is still completely correct.

In Dutch, maken often means to make or to prepare. It is very commonly used when talking about cooking meals.

So:

• pasta maken = to make pasta
• avondeten maken = to make dinner

English often uses make in the same way, so this part is quite straightforward.

It means with a simple salad.

Here:

• met = with
• een = a
• simpele salade = simple salad

So the meal is pasta served with a simple salad.

This is because Dutch adjectives usually take an -e ending when they come before a noun with de or het, or after een in many common situations.

Here:

• een salade → salade is a de-word
• so the adjective becomes simpele

Compare:

• een simpele salade
• de simpele salade

Without a noun, or in some other structures, you may see simpel instead.

They are similar, but not always identical in tone.

• simpele salade = a simple salad, often in an everyday, casual sense
• eenvoudige salade = a simple/basic salad, often sounding a bit more neutral or formal

In this sentence, simpele sounds very natural and conversational.

Usually na het werk means after work, as in after your working day or after leaving your job for the day.

If you wanted to say after a specific piece of work or task, Dutch would often use a more specific expression.

So in this sentence, the most natural interpretation is:

• After work, we make pasta with a simple salad.

In normal usage, it means the pasta is accompanied by a simple salad.

So the natural understanding is:

• We make pasta, with a simple salad on the side.

It does not usually suggest that the salad is mixed into the pasta, unless extra context says so.

Yes, it is correct and natural. A very common everyday version would be:

• Na het werk maken we pasta met een simpele salade.

That version sounds especially natural in spoken Dutch because we is more common than wij in casual speech.