Sofie maakt een salade met sla en komkommer.

Because the subject is Sofie, which is third person singular (she).

The verb maken means to make. In the present tense, it changes like this:

• ik maak = I make
• jij maakt = you make
• hij/zij maakt = he/she makes
• wij maken = we make

So Sofie maakt means Sofie makes.

The sentence follows the normal Dutch main-clause pattern:

subject + finite verb + rest

So here:

• Sofie = subject
• maakt = finite verb
• een salade met sla en komkommer = the rest of the sentence

This is very similar to normal English word order in a simple statement: Sofie makes a salad with lettuce and cucumber.

Een is the indefinite article, like a/an in English.

So:

• een salade = a salad
• de salade = the salad

Here, the sentence is talking about a salad, not a specific previously mentioned salad, so een is used.

Because sla is being used as an ingredient name or a mass noun here.

In Dutch, when listing ingredients, it is very common to leave out the article:

• met sla en komkommer = with lettuce and cucumber

This works much like English, where you also often say:

• with lettuce and cucumber

rather than:

• with a lettuce and a cucumber

So the lack of an article is normal and natural here.

For the same general reason: this is an ingredient list style.

Dutch often uses bare nouns after met when talking about what something contains:

• een broodje met kaas = a sandwich with cheese
• pizza met tomaat en mozzarella = pizza with tomato and mozzarella
• salade met sla en komkommer = salad with lettuce and cucumber

Even though komkommer can be a countable noun (a cucumber), in this context it is understood more generally as an ingredient.

No. Met is a very common preposition and can mean with in several senses, depending on context.

For example:

• koffie met melk = coffee with milk
• ik ga met Sofie = I’m going with Sofie
• ik schrijf met een pen = I write with a pen

In your sentence, met introduces the ingredients: with lettuce and cucumber.

Yes. Sla means lettuce.

It is a common noun, and in everyday Dutch it often refers to lettuce in general. In some contexts, sla can also refer more broadly to salad greens or even salad, depending on usage, but here it clearly means lettuce as an ingredient.

It is a de word:

• de salade = the salad

That means:

• een salade = a salad
• de salade = the salad

This matters later for things like adjectives and pronouns.

Because Dutch usually connects the last two items in a list with one en = and, just like English.

So:

• sla en komkommer = lettuce and cucumber

If there were more items, you could say:

• met sla, tomaat en komkommer

This works very similarly to English lists.

No. Unlike German, Dutch does not capitalize all nouns.

So in this sentence:

• Sofie is capitalized because it is a name
• salade, sla, and komkommer are not capitalized because they are ordinary nouns

That is standard Dutch spelling.

Yes, you can, but it means something slightly different in style.

• Sofie maakt een salade = Sofie makes / is making a salad
• Sofie is een salade aan het maken = Sofie is making a salad

The first sentence is the normal simple present and is very common in Dutch, even when English might prefer the progressive is making. The second version puts extra emphasis on the action being in progress right now.

So your original sentence is completely natural.

The infinitive is maken.

To form the present tense for hij/zij or a singular name like Sofie, you usually take the stem and add -t:

• infinitive: maken
• stem: maak
• third person singular: maakt

So:

• ik maak
• Sofie maakt

This is a very common pattern in Dutch verbs.

Yes. The phrase met sla en komkommer tells you what the salad contains.

So the structure is:

• een salade = a salad
• met sla en komkommer = with lettuce and cucumber

That whole phrase describes the kind of salad she is making.

No. Komkommer here is singular in form.

The plural would be:

• komkommers = cucumbers

But in ingredient descriptions, Dutch often uses the singular bare noun in a general sense:

• met komkommer = with cucumber

This is similar to English, where cucumber can also be used as a general ingredient noun.

A rough English-friendly guide would be:

• Sofie ≈ so-FEE
• maakt ≈ mahkt
• een ≈ uh(n)
• salade ≈ sa-LAH-duh
• met ≈ met
• sla ≈ slah
• en ≈ en / uhn
• komkommer ≈ kom-KOM-er

A few useful notes:

• aa is a long vowel, like in maak
• ie in Sofie sounds like ee
• sl in sla is pronounced together, just like in English sl
• komkommer has the stress on the middle syllable: kom-KOM-mer

Exact pronunciation depends a bit on accent, but this is a good starting point.