Het verhuisbedrijf reserveerde vandaag de lift.

Verhuisbedrijf means moving company.

Dutch very often joins nouns together into a single compound word. Here:

• verhuizen = to move house / relocate
• bedrijf = company, business

So verhuisbedrijf is literally something like moving-company.

This is extremely common in Dutch. Where English often uses two separate words, Dutch often prefers one compound noun.

Dutch has two main definite articles:

• de
• het

Every noun has to be learned with its article.

In this sentence:

• het verhuisbedrijf = the moving company
• de lift = the elevator / lift

There is not always a logical reason you can predict from meaning alone, so learners usually need to memorize the noun together with its article.

A helpful point here:

• Many diminutives always take het
• Many plural nouns take de
• But for singular non-diminutive nouns like these, you often just have to learn them individually

Also, bedrijf is a het-word, so the whole compound verhuisbedrijf is also a het-word.

Reserveerde is the simple past (also called the imperfect) of reserveren = to reserve.

So:

• ik reserveer = I reserve / I am reserving
• ik reserveerde = I reserved

In the sentence:

• Het verhuisbedrijf reserveerde vandaag de lift.
• The moving company reserved the elevator today.

The ending -de is a common past tense ending for regular verbs in Dutch.

The infinitive is reserveren.

To form the regular simple past, Dutch usually takes the stem and adds -de or -te, depending on the final sound of the stem.

Here:

• infinitive: reserveren
• stem: reserveer
• past singular: reserveerde
• past plural: reserveerden

So:

• ik reserveerde
• jij reserveerde
• hij/zij/het reserveerde

Because reserveren is a regular verb, this follows a normal pattern.

Because Dutch main clauses usually follow the verb-second rule.

In a normal statement, the finite verb usually comes in the second position:

• Het verhuisbedrijf = first element
• reserveerde = verb in second position
• vandaag = later in the sentence
• de lift = object

So the structure is:

Subject + finite verb + other information

That is why vandaag comes after reserveerde here.

Yes.

You can also say:

Vandaag reserveerde het verhuisbedrijf de lift.

This still means basically the same thing, but now vandaag is being emphasized a bit more.

Notice what happens:

• When vandaag moves to the first position,
• the finite verb reserveerde still has to stay in second position,
• so the subject moves after the verb.

So Dutch gives:

• Het verhuisbedrijf reserveerde vandaag de lift.
• Vandaag reserveerde het verhuisbedrijf de lift.

Both are correct.

Because reserveren can take a direct object directly, just like English to reserve.

So:

• de lift reserveren = to reserve the elevator

You do not need a preposition here.

Examples:

• We reserveerden een tafel. = We reserved a table.
• Zij reserveerde de zaal. = She reserved the hall.

So in your sentence, de lift is simply the direct object of reserveerde.

Yes. In Dutch, de lift means the elevator.

For a British English speaker, this may feel easy because lift in British English already has that meaning.

For an American English speaker, it is useful to remember that Dutch lift usually means elevator, not a ride in a car.

A few meanings to keep separate:

• de lift = the elevator
• iemand een lift geven = to give someone a ride

So the noun can have more than one meaning depending on context, just as in English.

Because Dutch requires articles with singular countable nouns in normal sentences, just like English often does.

You have:

• het verhuisbedrijf = the moving company
• de lift = the elevator

Even if both nouns are already known, Dutch still normally uses the definite article when speaking about a specific company and a specific elevator.

So the two articles are not redundant; each belongs to its own noun phrase.

Yes, very often.

Besides the simple past reserveerde, Dutch also commonly uses the perfect:

Het verhuisbedrijf heeft vandaag de lift gereserveerd.

Both are grammatical. The difference is often about style, region, and context:

• reserveerde = simple past; common in written narration and formal storytelling
• heeft ... gereserveerd = perfect; very common in everyday spoken Dutch

So if you are speaking casually, the perfect version may sound especially natural.

A rough pronunciation is:

reh-zur-VEER-duh

A few things to notice:

• the stress falls on veer
• ee is a long vowel sound
• the final -de sounds like duh in many accents

And verhuisbedrijf is roughly:

ver-HOUSE-beh-draif

That word can feel difficult because it is long and compounded, so many learners find it easier if they mentally split it up:

• verhuis
• bedrijf

You do not need perfect pronunciation right away; getting the stress in the right place helps a lot.