Learn Hardcore Esperanto: Kvankam pluvo falas, ŝi ankoraŭ promenas tra la strato kun sia hundo. - Although rain is falling, she still walks through the street with her dog.

Here pluvo means rain in general / some rain / it is raining, not a particular, already-mentioned rain. So it is treated as a mass or generic noun, and no article is needed:

Pluvo falas. = Rain is falling. / There is rain falling.

You would use la pluvo when you are talking about a specific rain, for example:

La pluvo komenciĝis hieraŭ vespere.
→ The rain began yesterday evening. (a particular rainfall we have in mind)

Why is there a comma after pluvo falas?

Because kvankam pluvo falas is a subordinate clause (a dependent clause).

Esperanto punctuation generally follows a similar rule to English:

When the subordinate clause comes first:
- Kvankam pluvo falas, ŝi ankoraŭ promenas… → comma after it.
When the main clause comes first, the comma is often optional, especially if the sentence is short:
- Ŝi ankoraŭ promenas tra la strato kun sia hundo, kvankam pluvo falas.

The comma makes the structure clearer, but is more about style than strict grammar.

What does ankoraŭ mean here, and where can it go in the sentence?

Ankoraŭ usually means still / yet. In this sentence it shows that, despite the rain, the action continues.

Ŝi ankoraŭ promenas… → She is still walking…

Position is fairly flexible. You might also see:

Ŝi promenas ankoraŭ tra la strato… (less usual here)
Ankoraŭ ŝi promenas tra la strato… (more emphatic: still she walks…)

The default, neutral position is right before the verb it modifies: ŝi ankoraŭ promenas.

How does the verb promenas work? Where is the “is walking / walks” distinction?

Esperanto does not mark the difference between “walks” and “is walking” in the basic verb form.

Promeni = to walk (for leisure, on foot)
Ŝi promenas = she walks / she is walking

The ending -as always means present tense, regardless of person:

mi promenas = I (am) walk(ing)
vi promenas = you walk / are walking
ŝi promenas = she walks / is walking

If you really need a progressive idea, you can build it:

Ŝi estas promenanta. → She is walking (literally: she is in a walking state).

But in most cases, ŝi promenas is enough.

Why is it tra la strato? What exactly does tra mean, and is it the best choice here?

Tra usually means through, across the interior of something. For example:

Li iras tra la arbaro. → He goes through the forest.
La akvo fluas tra la tubo. → The water flows through the pipe.

Tra la strato therefore suggests going through the street, from one end to the other, including its space, maybe in a more “inside/through” sense.

However, for “walking along the street” (following its length), Esperantists often prefer:

laŭ la strato = along the street
sur la strato = on the street (physically on it)

So many would say:

Kvankam pluvas, ŝi ankoraŭ promenas laŭ la strato kun sia hundo.

The original is understandable, but laŭ is usually the most natural for “along a street”.

Why do we say la strato with la, but not la pluvo?

Because strato here is understood as a specific street that both speaker and listener can identify (from context or situation).

tra / laŭ la strato = through/along the street (some particular street around them).

By contrast, pluvo in this sentence is just rain in general (not a specific, previously mentioned rain), so it doesn’t take la.

So:

Generic mass noun → usually no la: pluvo, akvo, vento (rain, water, wind).
Specific, identifiable thing → use la: la strato, la domo, la hundo.

Why is it kun sia hundo and not kun ŝia hundo? What is the difference?

This is about reflexive vs. non‑reflexive possessive pronouns.

ŝia hundo = her dog (any woman’s dog; in a sentence, this might or might not be the subject’s dog)
sia hundo = her own dog (must refer back to the subject of the clause)

In the sentence, the subject is ŝi, so sia clearly means the dog that belongs to her (the same “she”).

So:

Ŝi promenas kun sia hundo.
→ She is walking with her (own) dog.
Ŝi promenas kun ŝia hundo.
→ She is walking with her dog (could refer to another woman’s dog, not her own).

Rule of thumb:

Use sia when the possessor is the subject of that clause.
Use ŝia when the possessor is someone else, not the subject.

Why doesn’t strato take -n (accusative) here? Should it be straton?

No; strato is governed by the preposition tra, so it does not take -n.

In Esperanto:

A direct object (no preposition) takes -n:
- Ŝi vidas la hundon. → She sees the dog.
A noun after a preposition normally does not take -n:
- Ŝi promenas kun la hundo.
- Ŝi promenas tra la strato.

The preposition (tra, kun, laŭ, sur, etc.) already shows the relationship, so -n is not needed.

You only add -n after a preposition in special, more advanced uses (direction, some stylistic choices), which do not apply here.

Could we say Kvankam pluvas instead of Kvankam pluvo falas?

Yes, and it would usually sound more natural:

Kvankam pluvas, ŝi ankoraŭ promenas…

Weather verbs in Esperanto are commonly used in an impersonal way, just like English uses “it rains”:

Pluvas. = It is raining.
Neĝas. = It is snowing.
Ventegas. = It is very windy / there’s a storm.

So replacing pluvo falas with pluvas is completely correct and idiomatic.

How is ankoraŭ pronounced, especially the final ŭ?

Ankoraŭ is pronounced roughly like: ahn-KOH-ra-oo (single smooth syllables, stress on -ko-).

Details:

The stress is always on the second-to-last syllable in Esperanto: an-KO-raŭ.
ŭ is a short “w”-like glide, not a full vowel.
- In aŭ, you get something like English “ow” in now, but a bit clearer and shorter.

So ankoraŭ is one word with three syllables: an-ko-raŭ.

Is the word order fixed, or can we move parts of the sentence around in Esperanto?

Esperanto word order is fairly flexible, as long as the meaning stays clear. The default is Subject – Verb – (Objects / Phrases), as in this sentence:

Ŝi (subject) ankoraŭ promenas (verb) tra la strato kun sia hundo (rest).

You could say, for example:

Kvankam pluvo falas, tra la strato ŝi ankoraŭ promenas kun sia hundo.

This is grammatically correct but more poetic or marked in style. The original order is the most neutral and natural:

Kvankam pluvo falas, ŝi ankoraŭ promenas tra la strato kun sia hundo.