Ze sprak met eten in haar mond.

Yes, ze can mean either she or they, depending on context.

In this sentence, it means she, because later we get haar mond (her mouth). If it meant they, you would expect something plural later, such as hun mond or a different structure.

So here:

• Ze = she

Sprak is the simple past of spreken (to speak).

So:

• ik spreek = I speak / am speaking
• zij spreekt = she speaks / is speaking
• zij sprak = she spoke / was speaking

In Dutch, the simple past often covers both ideas that English sometimes separates into spoke and was speaking. The exact English translation depends on context.

Both spreken and praten can refer to speaking/talking, but they are not always identical.

• spreken = to speak
• praten = to talk

In many everyday situations, both are possible.
Ze sprak met eten in haar mond and Ze praatte met eten in haar mond are both understandable.

A small difference:

• spreken can sound a bit more neutral or slightly more formal
• praten often feels a bit more conversational

So this sentence is perfectly natural with sprak, but praatte would also be possible in many contexts.

Here, eten is a noun, meaning food.

That can be confusing, because eten is also the infinitive verb to eat.

In this sentence:

• met eten in haar mond = with food in her mouth

So it does not mean with eating in her mouth. The meaning here is clearly the noun food.

Because eten here is being used in a general, uncountable way, like food in English.

Compare:

• met eten in haar mond = with food in her mouth
• met het eten in haar mond = with the food in her mouth

The version without an article is more general and more natural here. It just means she had food in her mouth while speaking.

Using het would point to some specific food already known from the context, and it sounds less natural in this sentence unless that specificity matters.

Dutch often uses a possessive adjective with body parts when it is important to say whose body part it is.

So:

• haar mond = her mouth

This is very normal here. It clearly tells us that the food was in her mouth.

Sometimes Dutch can use the with body parts in certain expressions, but in this sentence haar mond is the most straightforward and natural choice.

This follows normal Dutch main-clause word order.

Dutch main clauses usually have the finite verb in second position:

• Ze = first element
• sprak = finite verb in second position

Then the rest follows:

• met eten in haar mond = prepositional phrase giving extra information

So the structure is:

• Ze / sprak / met eten in haar mond

This is completely standard Dutch word order.

Not exactly.

It means that she was speaking while there was food in her mouth. That often implies she was eating, but the sentence focuses on the food being in her mouth while she spoke, not on the action of eating itself.

So it is closer to:

• She spoke with food in her mouth

than to:

• She spoke while eating

Those are related ideas, but not exactly the same.

No. In this sentence, met means with, not about.

So:

• met eten in haar mond = with food in her mouth

If you wanted about, Dutch would normally use over:

• Ze sprak over eten = She spoke about food

So there is no ambiguity here.

Yes, it is natural and idiomatic.

A Dutch speaker would understand it immediately as meaning that she was talking while she still had food in her mouth.

A very close alternative would be:

• Ze praatte met eten in haar mond.

That is also natural. The original sentence is perfectly good Dutch.