Ik snijd de komkommer op de snijplank en meet de olie af met een theelepel.

Because this is a false friend. Dutch meet here is the ik-form of meten, which means to measure.

• ik meet = I measure
• English to meet in the sense of to encounter someone is usually ontmoeten in Dutch.

So in this sentence, meet has nothing to do with meeting a person.

Because the subject is ik, and in the present tense Dutch usually uses just the stem of the verb with ik.

• snijden → stem snijd → ik snijd
• meten → stem meet → ik meet

Compare:

• ik snijd
• jij snijdt
• hij snijdt

and

• ik meet
• jij meet
• hij meet

A useful extra detail: snijd is spelled with d, but at the end of a word that sound is often pronounced more like t.

Because Dutch, like English, can leave out the repeated subject in a coordinated sentence when it is the same subject.

So:

• Ik snijd de komkommer ... en meet de olie af ...

means the same as:

• Ik snijd de komkommer ... en ik meet de olie af ...

The version without the second ik sounds natural and efficient.

Because afmeten is a separable verb.

Its full dictionary form is afmeten, meaning to measure out. In a main clause, the prefix af usually separates from the verb and moves later in the clause:

• Ik meet de olie af.

But in the infinitive, it stays together:

• Ik wil de olie afmeten.

And in many subordinate clauses, it also stays together:

• ... omdat ik de olie afmeet.

This is one of the most common Dutch verb patterns to learn.

Because op means on, and a cutting board is understood as a surface.

So:

• op de snijplank = on the cutting board

Using in would mean inside the cutting board, which does not make sense here.

This is very similar to English: you cut something on a cutting board.

Because olie is a mass noun, and in Dutch mass nouns can appear with or without an article depending on how specific they are.

• de olie suggests the oil: a specific oil, probably already understood from the context
• olie without an article can sound more general, like oil as a substance

So this sentence sounds like the speaker is referring to a particular oil being used in the task or recipe.

It means using a teaspoon as the instrument.

So met here means with, just like in English:

• met een theelepel = with a teaspoon

This phrase tells you how the oil is being measured.

If you wanted to focus on the amount one teaspoon of oil, Dutch would often say something like:

• een theelepel olie

That is slightly different from saying you measure it with a teaspoon.

This is about definite vs. indefinite articles.

• de = the
• een = a / an

So:

• de komkommer = the cucumber
• de olie = the oil
• de snijplank = the cutting board
• een theelepel = a teaspoon

The first three are presented as specific, identifiable things. Een theelepel means any teaspoon, not a particular one already known to the listener.

Also, komkommer, olie, and snijplank are all de-words.

Yes. Dutch forms compound nouns very freely.

• snijplank = snij
  • plank
    literally something like cut-board
• theelepel = thee
  • lepel
    literally tea-spoon

This is extremely common in Dutch. English often does the same, but Dutch tends to write these compounds as one word.

A useful rule: the last part of the compound usually determines the gender and basic meaning. Since plank and lepel are de-words, the compounds are also de-words.

Not completely, but this order is very natural.

In a main clause:

• the finite verb comes early: meet
• the object often comes next: de olie
• the separable prefix appears later: af
• extra information such as an instrument phrase can come after that: met een theelepel

So this order works well:

• Ik meet de olie af met een theelepel.

You may also hear other orders in Dutch, but they can sound more marked or less neutral. For a learner, this sentence is a good model to follow.