Mijn moeder houdt van warme thee in de ochtend.

Because the subject is mijn moeder, which is third person singular: she.

The verb houden is conjugated like this in the present tense:

• ik houd / hou
• jij houdt / houd je
• hij/zij/het houdt
• wij houden
• jullie houden
• zij houden

So with mijn moeder = she, you need houdt.

In Dutch, houden van is a very common way to say to like or to love something.

So:

• Ik hou van koffie. = I like coffee.
• Zij houdt van muziek. = She likes music.

Literally, houden van is closer to to hold of/from, but you should learn it as one fixed expression meaning to like/love.

Dutch also has leuk vinden, which often means to like in a more general sense:

• Ik vind deze film leuk. = I like this movie.

But for food, drinks, people, hobbies, and general preferences, houden van is extremely common.

Because houden van is a fixed verb expression. The preposition van belongs with the verb.

You cannot usually just say:

• Mijn moeder houdt warme thee ✘

That sounds wrong in standard Dutch.

You need:

• Mijn moeder houdt van warme thee ✔

So when learning this, treat houden van as a unit, just like English learners often have to learn verbs together with prepositions.

Because warme is the adjective form used before the noun thee.

In Dutch, adjectives usually take -e when they come before a noun:

• warme thee = warm tea
• koude melk = cold milk
• grote tafel = big table

Compare:

• De thee is warm. = The tea is warm.
  Here the adjective comes after the verb, so it is just warm.
• warme thee = warm tea
  Here it comes before the noun, so it becomes warme.

Because ochtend is a de-word:

• de ochtend = the morning

In Dutch, every noun is either a de-word or a het-word. Unfortunately, this often has to be memorized.

Examples:

• de ochtend
• de middag
• de avond
• de nacht

So in this sentence, in de ochtend is correct.

Yes. In de ochtend is correct and natural, but Dutch also commonly uses:

• 's ochtends = in the morning
• in de morgen = less common / more formal or regional in many contexts

So these are all possible:

• Mijn moeder houdt van warme thee in de ochtend.
• Mijn moeder houdt 's ochtends van warme thee.

The second version often sounds a bit more natural in everyday Dutch, but the sentence you have is perfectly understandable and correct.

The sentence follows normal Dutch main-clause word order:

Subject + finite verb + rest

• Mijn moeder = subject
• houdt = finite verb
• van warme thee = prepositional phrase linked to the verb
• in de ochtend = time expression

So:

• Mijn moeder / houdt / van warme thee / in de ochtend

This is very similar to English word order in a simple statement.

Yes. Time expressions are often flexible in Dutch.

For example:

• Mijn moeder houdt in de ochtend van warme thee.
• In de ochtend houdt mijn moeder van warme thee.

All of these are grammatical. But when you put In de ochtend at the beginning, Dutch word order changes:

• In de ochtend houdt mijn moeder van warme thee.

Notice that the verb houdt comes immediately after the first element. This is the normal verb-second rule in Dutch main clauses.

Only Mijn is capitalized here because it is the first word of the sentence.

In Dutch, common nouns like moeder are not capitalized unless they begin the sentence.

So:

• Mijn moeder houdt van warme thee. ✔
• Mijn Moeder houdt van warme thee. ✘

This is different from German, where all nouns are capitalized.

It is singular in form, but here it refers to tea in a general sense or a type of drink, not necessarily one specific cup.

That is normal in Dutch, just like in English:

• Ik drink graag koffie.
• Zij houdt van thee.

This means a general preference, not necessarily one specific tea.

If you wanted to talk about multiple kinds of tea, you might use theesoorten or make the context clearer, but in this sentence thee just means tea as a drink.

The tricky part is the ou sound, which is roughly like the ow in now.

A rough English-friendly guide:

• houdt ≈ howt

The final dt spelling looks complicated, but in pronunciation you usually just hear a t sound at the end.

So although it is written houdt, it sounds close to:

• hout

This happens often in Dutch: spelling may show grammatical information that is not fully heard in pronunciation.

Yes, but it means something slightly different.

• warme thee = warm tea
• hete thee = hot tea

Warme is more general and often more natural for a drink at a pleasant drinking temperature.
Hete emphasizes that it is actually hot.

So both are correct, but warme thee often sounds more everyday and less intense.

It is used for both.

For things/preferences:

• Ik hou van chocolade.
• Zij houdt van muziek.

For people, it often means to love:

• Ik hou van jou. = I love you.
• Hij houdt van zijn kinderen. = He loves his children.

So the exact English translation can be like or love, depending on context. In your sentence, with warme thee, it clearly means likes.