De boor maakt veel lawaai, maar de tang ligt nog steeds naast de doos met schroeven.

They are all de-words in Dutch: de boor, de tang, de doos.

There is no single reliable rule that lets you predict every noun’s article, so you usually need to learn the article together with the noun. A useful pattern is that plural nouns also normally take de, so de schroeven would also use de.

Here, boor is a noun.

You can tell because it has the article de in front of it: de boor. It is also the subject of the sentence: De boor maakt veel lawaai.

Dutch boor can also exist as a verb form in other contexts, from boren (to drill), but not in this sentence.

Because the subjects are third-person singular:

• de boor → singular
• de tang → singular

In the present tense, Dutch usually uses:

• ik maak
• jij maakt
• hij/zij/het maakt

and:

• ik lig
• jij ligt
• hij/zij/het ligt

So:

• De boor maakt ...
• De tang ligt ...

Dutch very often uses a position verb for the location of physical objects:

• staan = stand
• liggen = lie
• zitten = sit
• hangen = hang

So for an object like de tang, Dutch prefers ligt if it is lying somewhere. English often just says is, but Dutch is more specific.

So De tang ligt naast de doos sounds more natural than De tang is naast de doos.

Nog steeds means still.

It shows that the situation continues and has not changed. So de tang ligt nog steeds naast de doos means the pliers are still next to the box now, just as before.

Both can relate to still, but nog steeds is usually more explicit and emphatic.

• nog can mean still, yet, or another/more, depending on context
• nog steeds clearly means still, even now

So nog steeds removes ambiguity and strongly emphasizes continuation.

Because Dutch main clauses follow the verb-second rule.

That means the finite verb must come in the second position of the clause. In this clause:

• position 1: De tang
• position 2: ligt

After that, Dutch puts adverbs and other information, such as nog steeds and naast de doos met schroeven.

So De tang ligt nog steeds ... is correct main-clause word order.

Maar is a coordinating conjunction, meaning it joins two main clauses.

That means the second clause keeps normal main-clause word order:

• De boor maakt veel lawaai
• maar
• de tang ligt nog steeds naast de doos met schroeven

This is different from a subordinating conjunction such as omdat, where the verb would move to the end.

Because lawaai is usually an uncountable noun in Dutch, like noise in English.

With uncountable nouns, Dutch commonly uses:

• veel water
• veel tijd
• veel lawaai

So veel lawaai means a lot of noise, not many noises.

Sometimes, yes, but it means something slightly different.

• veel lawaai = a lot of noise
• een lawaai! = what a noise! / such a racket!

So in this sentence, veel lawaai is the normal neutral phrasing.

It describes de doos.

The structure is:

• naast
• de doos met schroeven

So the full noun phrase is de doos met schroeven = the box with screws.

In other words, the pliers are next to the box that contains screws.

The singular is de schroef and the plural is schroeven.

This is a common Dutch plural pattern: -en is added, and sometimes the final consonant changes in spelling:

• schroef → schroeven
• brief → brieven

The f often becomes v in the plural spelling.

Because maar joins two full main clauses here.

Dutch often uses a comma before maar when it connects complete clauses, especially when there is a clear contrast:

• De boor maakt veel lawaai, maar de tang ligt nog steeds naast de doos met schroeven.

So the comma helps mark the break between the two contrasting statements.