Dans l’atelier de poterie, le tour de potier tourne.

Because atelier begins with a vowel sound. In French, le and la usually drop their final vowel before a word that starts with a vowel or a silent h. This is called elision.

So:

• le atelier → l’atelier

This happens very often in French:

• l’école
• l’ami
• l’hôpital

Atelier usually means workshop or studio, especially a place where something is made by hand or where an artist or craftsperson works.

So atelier de poterie is a pottery workshop/studio.

It is a little more specific and craft-oriented than a general word like room or office.

Dans means in or inside. Here it introduces the location where the action happens.

So Dans l’atelier de poterie means In the pottery workshop.

Starting with the location is very natural in French, especially when setting the scene.

In French, de + noun is very commonly used to describe the type, purpose, or specialty of something.

So:

• atelier de poterie = a workshop for pottery
• cours de français = a French class
• tasse de café = a cup of coffee

Here, de poterie tells us what kind of workshop it is.

They are related, but they are not the same kind of word.

• poterie = pottery, the craft or pottery objects
• potier = potter, the person who makes pottery

So:

• atelier de poterie = pottery workshop
• tour de potier = potter’s wheel

This sentence uses both because one refers to the craft, and the other refers to the person associated with the wheel.

Because tour is one of those French words whose meaning changes with gender.

• le tour can mean things like turn, trip, trick, or a rotating device / lathe / wheel
• la tour means tower

In le tour de potier, it is the masculine noun tour, meaning the wheel-like device used by a potter.

So la tour de potier would be wrong here.

Literally, it is something like potter’s wheel.

More word-for-word:

• tour = turning device / wheel
• de potier = of a potter

So the full expression is the standard French term for the machine a potter uses to shape clay.

Because de potier describes the type of object, not possession by one specific potter.

Compare:

• un tour de potier = a potter’s wheel, the kind of wheel potters use
• le tour du potier = the potter’s wheel belonging to a specific potter

So in this sentence, de potier is more like a category label.

Tourne is the third-person singular present form of tourner, meaning to turn or to spin.

The subject is le tour de potier, which is singular, so the verb must also be singular:

• le tour de potier tourne

Like:

• la roue tourne
• la machine tourne

It is grammatically correct, but it does sound a little playful because of the repetition:

• tour
• tourne

That repetition is not wrong at all. In fact, it can sound neat or memorable. But in more natural everyday writing, a French speaker might sometimes choose a different wording to avoid the echo, depending on style.

Still, as a sentence for learning, it is perfectly fine and very clear.

The comma separates the opening location phrase from the main clause:

• Dans l’atelier de poterie, = setting the scene
• le tour de potier tourne. = main statement

The comma is natural here, especially in writing, because the sentence begins with a location phrase. French often uses this kind of structure.

You could also say:

• Le tour de potier tourne dans l’atelier de poterie.

That version is also correct, but the emphasis is a little different.

A rough pronunciation guide is:

dahn la-tu-lyay duh poht-ree, luh toor duh poh-tyay toorn

A few important points:

• dans has a nasal vowel
• atelier sounds roughly like a-tu-lyay
• potier sounds roughly like poh-tyay
• tour and tourne begin with the same tour- sound
• the French r is not like a typical English r

If you want to sound more natural, focus especially on the rhythm and on not pronouncing every final consonant the way English does.