Bij het ontbijt eet Anna een broodje en legt ze de vaatdoek bij de gootsteen.

Bij het ontbijt is a prepositional phrase meaning at breakfast or during breakfast.

A few useful points:

• bij often means at, by, near, or during, depending on context.
• het ontbijt = the breakfast
• ontbijt is a het-word, so it takes het, not de.

So the sentence starts by setting the scene: this is happening at breakfast.

This is because Dutch main clauses usually follow the verb-second (V2) rule.

That means:

• whatever comes first in the sentence takes the first position
• the finite verb must come second

Here, Bij het ontbijt is placed first. So the verb eet has to come next:

• Bij het ontbijt eet Anna een broodje.

If you started with the subject instead, then you would say:

• Anna eet bij het ontbijt een broodje.

Both are grammatical, but the emphasis is slightly different.

This is a very common question.

In this sentence, the two actions are closely linked under the same time setting Bij het ontbijt:

• Bij het ontbijt eet Anna een broodje
• en legt ze de vaatdoek bij de gootsteen

Dutch often keeps this inverted word order in the second coordinated clause when the opening element is understood to apply there too.

You can think of it roughly like this:

• Bij het ontbijt eet Anna een broodje en [bij het ontbijt] legt ze de vaatdoek bij de gootsteen.

The second Bij het ontbijt is not repeated, but it is still understood.

So legt ze is natural here.

If you said en ze legt ..., that can also be possible in other contexts, but it sounds more like a fresh new clause rather than a continuation of the same sentence pattern.

Broodje is the diminutive form of brood.

• brood = bread
• broodje = little bread / bread roll / sandwich, depending on context

In everyday Dutch, een broodje eten often means eating:

• a bread roll
• a sandwich
• sometimes just a small bread-based item

Also, diminutives in Dutch usually end in -je, -tje, -pje, etc., and they always take het as their definite article:

• het broodje

In this sentence, it is indefinite, so you see:

• een broodje = a roll / a sandwich

This is about articles and definiteness.

• een = a / an (indefinite article)
• de and het = the (definite articles)

So:

• een broodje = a roll / a sandwich
• het ontbijt = the breakfast
• de vaatdoek = the dishcloth
• de gootsteen = the sink

The choice between de and het depends on the noun:

• ontbijt is a het-word
• vaatdoek and gootsteen are de-words

A learner has to memorize whether a noun takes de or het, although there are some patterns.

Vaatdoek means dishcloth or dish towel.

It is a compound noun:

• vaat = dishes / washing-up
• doek = cloth

So literally it is a dish cloth.

A useful rule for Dutch compounds:

• the last part usually determines the grammatical gender and article

Since doek is a de-word, the whole compound is also:

• de vaatdoek

This is a very common pattern in Dutch vocabulary.

This is an important Dutch verb pair:

• leggen = to lay / to put something down
• liggen = to lie / to be lying

In this sentence, Anna is actively placing the dishcloth somewhere, so Dutch uses leggen:

• Anna legt de vaatdoek bij de gootsteen.

If you were describing where the dishcloth already is, you would use liggen:

• De vaatdoek ligt bij de gootsteen.

So:

• leggen = action done by someone to an object
• liggen = position or state

It is the same preposition, bij, but the exact meaning shifts a little with context.

In:

• Bij het ontbijt

it means something like:

• at breakfast
• during breakfast

In:

• bij de gootsteen

it means:

• by the sink
• near the sink
• next to the sink

So the core idea of bij is something like at/by/near, but English translation depends on the situation.

Dutch often uses a pronoun when the same subject continues in the next clause.

So instead of repeating:

• ... en legt Anna de vaatdoek ...

it is more natural to say:

• ... en legt ze de vaatdoek ...

Here, ze refers back to Anna.

A small extra detail:

• ze is the unstressed form
• zij is the stressed or more emphatic form

So in normal sentences, ze is very common.

Because de vaatdoek is the direct object, and bij de gootsteen is a place phrase.

In ordinary Dutch main clauses, it is very common for the object to come before a location phrase:

• legt ze de vaatdoek bij de gootsteen

That order sounds natural and straightforward:

1. verb
2. object
3. place

So the structure is:

• legt = puts
• ze = she
• de vaatdoek = the dishcloth
• bij de gootsteen = by the sink

This is a normal and useful sentence pattern to learn.