La dégaine contient deux mousquetons.

La is the feminine singular definite article, meaning the.

French often uses the definite article where English might use either the or even a/an, especially in explanations, definitions, or when talking about something as a type of object. So La dégaine contient deux mousquetons can sound like:

• a general statement about what a quickdraw is made of
• or a statement about one specific quickdraw already known from context

If you said Une dégaine contient deux mousquetons, that would also be possible, but it would sound more like A quickdraw contains two carabiners as a general definition.

Because French nouns have grammatical gender, and dégaine is a feminine noun.

That means:

• la dégaine
• une dégaine

Gender in French is mostly something you learn with the noun itself. It is not usually predictable from real-world sex or biological gender, especially for objects.

The accent in dé is an acute accent: é.

It tells you that the vowel is pronounced clearly as ay-like /e/, rather than being silent or reduced. So dégaine begins with dé-, not with a vague de- sound.

A rough pronunciation is:

• dégaine ≈ day-gen (but with a French-style vowel)

More accurately: /de.ɡɛn/

A careful pronunciation is roughly:

La dégaine contient deux mousquetons
/la de.ɡɛn kɔ̃.tjɛ̃ dø mus.kə.tɔ̃/

A few useful points:

• contient has a nasal vowel at the end
• deux is pronounced /dø/; the final x is not pronounced here
• mousquetons ends in a nasal -on sound
• the final s in mousquetons is silent

Because the subject is la dégaine, which is third person singular: it.

The verb is contenir (to contain), and contient is the il/elle/on form in the present tense.

So:

• je contiens
• tu contiens
• il/elle contient
• nous contenons
• vous contenez
• ils/elles contiennent

Since la dégaine = it, French uses contient.

Because in French, a number usually replaces the indefinite article.

So you say:

• un mousqueton
• deux mousquetons
• trois mousquetons

Not:

• des deux mousquetons in this kind of sentence

If you said les deux mousquetons, that would mean the two carabiners, referring to two specific ones already identified.

Because it is plural.

In French, most nouns form the plural by adding -s:

• un mousqueton
• deux mousquetons

The important thing for learners is that this final -s is usually not pronounced. So the plural is often visible in writing but not heard clearly in speech unless something else in the sentence shows it.

It is masculine.

So in the singular you would say:

• un mousqueton

In the plural:

• des mousquetons

In your sentence, you do not directly see the gender from deux mousquetons, because deux works with both masculine and feminine nouns.

Yes, French could also say La dégaine a deux mousquetons in everyday speech, and it would be understandable.

But contient is a bit more precise or descriptive here, like contains in English. It emphasizes what the object is made up of or what it includes.

So:

• a = has
• contient = contains

In a technical or explanatory sentence, contient sounds very natural.

Yes, very similar.

The sentence is:

• La dégaine = subject
• contient = verb
• deux mousquetons = direct object

So it follows a normal subject + verb + object pattern, just like English:

• The quickdraw contains two carabiners.

That makes this sentence structurally quite straightforward for an English speaker.

No.

Deux sometimes makes a liaison and sometimes does not:

• before a vowel sound: deux amis → /dø.z‿ami/
• before a consonant sound: deux mousquetons → /dø mus.../

Since mousquetons begins with m, which is a consonant sound, there is no liaison here.

This is a very common question.

• contient = he/it contains → singular
• contiennent = they contain → plural

Examples:

• La dégaine contient deux mousquetons.
• Les dégaines contiennent deux mousquetons chacune.

They are also pronounced differently:

• contient ≈ /kɔ̃.tjɛ̃/
• contiennent ≈ /kɔ̃.tjɛn/

So the spelling difference matters, and the pronunciation changes too.