Het ruikt onaangenaam in de keuken.

Here het is a dummy subject (also called an impersonal subject). It does not refer to a specific thing.

Dutch often uses het in weather-like or general-experience sentences:

• Het regent. = It’s raining.
• Het ruikt vreemd. = It smells strange.

So in Het ruikt onaangenaam in de keuken, het means something like there is an unpleasant smell or it smells unpleasant.

You could also say De keuken ruikt onaangenaam, but that slightly changes the focus.

Ruikt is the present tense form of the verb ruiken.

The base verb is ruiken, and here ruikt is used for third person singular:

• ik ruik
• jij ruikt / ruik jij
• hij/zij/het ruikt

In this sentence, ruiken means to smell in the sense of to give off a smell.

So:

• Het ruikt lekker. = It smells nice.
• Het ruikt onaangenaam. = It smells unpleasant.

Yes. Like English, ruiken can be used in more than one way.

1. To give off a smell / to smell like something

   • De soep ruikt goed.
   • The soup smells good.

2. To smell/sniff something

   • Ik ruik de bloemen.
   • I smell the flowers / I am smelling the flowers.

So the exact meaning depends on the sentence structure and context.

Because onaangenaam is being used predicatively, not directly before a noun.

In Het ruikt onaangenaam, the adjective comes after the verb and describes the smell, so it stays in its basic form:

• Het ruikt onaangenaam.

But before a noun, you usually add -e:

• een onaangename geur = an unpleasant smell
• de onaangename geur = the unpleasant smell

So:

• predicative: Het ruikt onaangenaam
• attributive: een onaangename geur

Onaangenaam means unpleasant.

It is built from:

• aangenaam = pleasant
• on- = un-

So literally it means not pleasant.

In this sentence, it is a fairly neutral or polite word. It sounds less strong than something like:

• Het stinkt in de keuken. = It stinks in the kitchen.

So onaangenaam is often a softer, more formal, or more polite choice.

In de keuken means in the kitchen.

• in = in
• de keuken = the kitchen

The noun keuken takes the article de, so:

• de keuken
• not het keuken

This phrase simply tells you where the unpleasant smell is.

Yes. Dutch word order is flexible, as long as the finite verb stays in second position in a main clause.

The original sentence is:

• Het ruikt onaangenaam in de keuken.

You can also say:

• In de keuken ruikt het onaangenaam.

This puts more emphasis on in the kitchen.

Notice what happens:

• when In de keuken moves to the front,
• the verb ruikt must still stay second,
• so het comes after the verb.

This is a very important Dutch word-order pattern.

Yes, you can.

• Het ruikt onaangenaam in de keuken.
• De keuken ruikt onaangenaam.

Both are possible, but they are not exactly the same in focus.

Het ruikt onaangenaam in de keuken

• focuses on the general situation: there is an unpleasant smell in the kitchen

De keuken ruikt onaangenaam

• makes the kitchen the subject, as if the kitchen itself smells unpleasant

In everyday speech, the first version often sounds a bit more natural when you are just describing the environment.

Dutch often expresses this idea differently from English.

English might say:

• There is an unpleasant smell in the kitchen.

Dutch often uses:

• Het ruikt onaangenaam in de keuken.

So instead of a structure with there is, Dutch commonly uses an impersonal het plus a verb like ruiken.

Dutch could also say something like:

• Er is een onaangename geur in de keuken.

That is closer to the English structure, but it is a different sentence from the one you were given.

It is mostly neutral.

• ruikt is completely normal everyday Dutch
• onaangenaam sounds a little more careful or polite than very blunt words like stinkt

So this sentence feels natural in normal speech, but also slightly neat or polite in tone.

For example:

• Het stinkt in de keuken. = stronger, more blunt
• Het ruikt onaangenaam in de keuken. = softer, more neutral/polite

The hardest part for many English speakers is ui in ruikt.

Roughly:

• ruikt sounds something like rowkt or r-owkt, but that is only an approximation
• the Dutch ui sound does not exist in standard English, so it takes practice

Also note:

• the r is Dutch
• kt at the end is clearly pronounced

A good pronunciation habit is to practice these together:

• ruik
• ruikt
• ruiken

and compare them with recordings by native speakers.