De dokter controleerde haar hals.

Not in the English sense of to dominate or to be in charge of. In Dutch, controleren very often means to check, to inspect, or to examine.

So in De dokter controleerde haar hals, it means the doctor checked/examined her neck.

If you want to control in the sense of to manage or to keep under control, Dutch often uses verbs like beheersen or expressions with onder controle houden.

Controleerde is the simple past tense (imperfect) of controleren.

• Infinitive: controleren
• Stem: controleer-
• Past singular: controleerde
• Past plural: controleerden
• Past participle: gecontroleerd

It takes -de in the past because it is a regular weak verb, and the final sound of the stem is not one that triggers -te under the 't kofschip rule.

Here, haar means her as a possessive determiner: her neck.

So:

• haar hals = her neck

It is not:

• the object pronoun her in The doctor checked her → De dokter controleerde haar
• the noun hair → haar can also mean hair, but not in this sentence

The noun after it, hals, makes it clear that haar means her.

Because dokter is a de-word. In Dutch, singular nouns take either de or het, and you mostly have to learn this with each noun.

So:

• de dokter
• not het dokter

Also, this does not change depending on whether the doctor is male or female. A female doctor is still de dokter.

Hals usually means neck, especially the neck area as a whole, often the front/side area.

Useful comparison:

• hals = neck
• nek = the back of the neck / nape, though in everyday speech it can also mean neck more generally
• keel = throat

So in this sentence, hals is most naturally neck, not throat.

This sentence uses the normal Dutch main-clause order:

Subject + finite verb + object

• De dokter = subject
• controleerde = finite verb
• haar hals = object

So the structure is very similar to English here.

A useful Dutch rule is that in a main clause, the finite verb normally comes second. For example:

• Gisteren controleerde de dokter haar hals.

Here Gisteren comes first, but controleerde still stays in second position.

Because Dutch possessive words usually do not change much.

So haar stays haar in all of these:

• haar hals = her neck
• haar huis = her house
• haar handen = her hands

This is simpler than in some other languages. You do not need different endings for gender or case here.

One important exception in Dutch possessives is ons/onze:

• ons huis
• onze dokter

But haar itself stays the same.

Yes. That is the perfect tense, and it is also correct.

• De dokter controleerde haar hals. = simple past
• De dokter heeft haar hals gecontroleerd. = present perfect

Both can refer to a completed past action.

Very roughly:

• the simple past is common in storytelling, written narration, and some regional speech habits
• the perfect is very common in everyday spoken Dutch

In the perfect tense, the past participle goes to the end:

• heeft ... gecontroleerd