Bij het verkeersbord naast de school staan elke ochtend veel ouders.

Dutch often puts a place or time phrase first if that is the setting the speaker wants to highlight. Here, Bij het verkeersbord naast de school sets the scene first.

A more neutral version would be:

Veel ouders staan elke ochtend bij het verkeersbord naast de school.

Both are correct. The original just emphasizes the location first.

Bij usually means at, near, or by.

In this sentence, Bij het verkeersbord means something like at/near the traffic sign.

It does not necessarily mean they are touching it or directly underneath it. It just places them in that area.

Every Dutch noun has a grammatical gender category: either de-word or het-word.

Verkeersbord is a het-word, so it takes het:

• het verkeersbord = the traffic sign

Unfortunately, this usually has to be learned noun by noun, although many neuter nouns are diminutives or certain compound nouns.

Naast de school means next to the school.

It describes verkeersbord, not the parents directly. So the meaning is:

• the traffic sign that is next to the school

The structure is:

• Bij [het verkeersbord naast de school]
• At [the traffic sign next to the school]

So first you identify the sign, and then you say that many parents are standing there.

This is because of the Dutch V2 rule: in a main clause, the finite verb usually comes in second position.

The first position here is taken by the whole phrase:

• Bij het verkeersbord naast de school

So the verb must come next:

• staan

Then comes the subject:

• veel ouders

Compare:

• Veel ouders staan elke ochtend bij het verkeersbord naast de school.
• Bij het verkeersbord naast de school staan elke ochtend veel ouders.

In the second sentence, the subject comes after the verb because something else has been moved to the front.

Dutch often uses position verbs more specifically than English does.

• staan = to stand
• zitten = to sit
• liggen = to lie
• zijn = to be

If people are physically standing somewhere, Dutch often says staan rather than just zijn.

So:

• Er staan veel ouders bij de school. = There are many parents standing at the school.

In English, you might simply say There are many parents..., but Dutch prefers staan when their standing position is relevant or natural.

Elke ochtend means every morning.

Time expressions like this usually do not take an article:

• elke ochtend = every morning
• elke dag = every day
• elke week = every week

You can also say iedere ochtend. In most everyday contexts, elke and iedere are very similar. Elke ochtend is completely natural here.

Both exist, but veel ouders is much more common in ordinary speech.

• veel ouders = many parents
• vele ouders = many parents, but more formal or literary

So in normal Dutch, veel ouders is the usual choice.

Yes. Ouders means parents in general.

So veel ouders means many parents, not just fathers and not just mothers. It refers to adults who are the children’s parents.

Yes, absolutely. That version is very natural.

The difference is mainly emphasis:

• Veel ouders staan elke ochtend bij het verkeersbord naast de school.
  More neutral; starts with the subject.

• Bij het verkeersbord naast de school staan elke ochtend veel ouders.
  Emphasizes the location first.

Both are grammatically correct.

Because this is one continuous main clause, and naast de school is just part of the prepositional phrase at the beginning.

So Dutch normally writes it without a comma:

• Bij het verkeersbord naast de school staan elke ochtend veel ouders.

A comma would usually be unnecessary here.