Le cache-pot contient les billes d’argile.

Because cache-pot is a masculine noun in French, so it takes le in the singular.

A cache-pot is a decorative outer pot that hides the plant pot inside. Even though pot is masculine and the whole word is hyphenated, the main thing to remember is simply:

• le cache-pot = the plant pot cover / outer pot

If you make it plural, it becomes:

• les cache-pots

Not exactly. A cache-pot is usually an outer decorative pot that hides the plain pot the plant is actually in.

Literally, the word is built from:

• cache = hides
• pot = pot

So it is something like pot-hider.

A normal flowerpot might just be un pot or un pot de fleurs, depending on context. A cache-pot specifically emphasizes the outer container.

Many French compound nouns use a hyphen, especially older or fixed expressions made from two elements joined together.

So cache-pot is treated as one lexical unit, not as two separate words in a normal phrase.

You just learn it as the standard spelling:

• un cache-pot
• des cache-pots

Contient means contains.

It comes from the verb contenir, which means to contain.

In this sentence:

• Le cache-pot contient... = The cache-pot contains...

Contient is the third-person singular present tense form, used with il / elle / on or with a singular noun like le cache-pot.

A few present-tense forms of contenir are:

• je contiens = I contain
• tu contiens = you contain
• il / elle contient = he / she / it contains
• nous contenons
• vous contenez
• ils / elles contiennent

Because the subject is le cache-pot, which is third-person singular.

French verb endings change depending on the subject:

• je contiens = I contain
• tu contiens = you contain
• il / elle contient = he / she / it contains

Since le cache-pot means it, French uses the il/elle form:

• Le cache-pot contient les billes d’argile.

This depends on context.

• les billes = the clay balls / the clay pebbles
• des billes = some clay balls / clay pebbles

Using les suggests these pebbles are being treated as a specific, identifiable set, or simply as the set inside that pot. In real French, this can sound natural when referring to the contents as a known group.

If you said:

• Le cache-pot contient des billes d’argile

that would also be grammatical, but it would sound more like The cache-pot contains some clay pebbles.

So the difference is mainly about specificity.

Billes is the plural of bille.

A bille often means a small ball, marble, or pellet, depending on context. In gardening, billes d’argile refers to the small roundish clay pellets or pebbles often used for drainage.

So here:

• les billes d’argile = the clay pebbles / clay pellets

Even if English does not always use balls here, French naturally uses billes for this gardening material.

Here, d’argile means made of clay or clay ... as a material description.

In French, when one noun describes the material of another noun, de is often used:

• une statue de marbre = a statue of marble
• une bague d’or = a gold ring
• des billes d’argile = clay pebbles

Because argile begins with a vowel, de becomes d’:

• de argile → d’argile

If you said de l’argile, that would more strongly mean some clay as a substance, not just clay as the material label.

Compare:

• des billes d’argile = clay pebbles
• des billes de l’argile que j’ai achetée = pebbles made from the clay that I bought

So in your sentence, d’argile is the normal form.

It shows elision.

In French, when de comes before a word beginning with a vowel sound, the final e drops and is replaced by an apostrophe:

• de + argile → d’argile
• de + eau → d’eau
• de + huile → d’huile

This is extremely common in French and helps the language sound smoother.

Contient is pronounced approximately like kon-tyan in English-friendly spelling.

Important points:

• the ti here is not like English tee
• the ending -ent is not fully pronounced the way it is written
• the nasal sound at the end is like ien in many French words

So contient sounds roughly like:

• kon-tyan

The final t is not strongly pronounced in normal speech.

A rough English-friendly pronunciation is:

luh ka-shay poh kon-tyan lay bee duh zar-zheel

A few notes:

• Le often sounds like luh
• cache-pot is roughly ka-shay po
• les sounds like lay
• billes is roughly bee
• d’argile is roughly dar-zheel

In natural speech, French flows smoothly, so the sentence may sound more connected than the spelling suggests.

Yes, potentially.

The clearest one is between les and billes:

• les billes can be pronounced lay-bee with a z sound linking the words: lay-z-bee

That is because les ends in a normally silent s, and billes begins with a vowel sound.

In careful speech, this liaison is very natural.

There is no liaison after contient here.

The word order is the standard French pattern:

• Subject + verb + object

So:

• Le cache-pot = subject
• contient = verb
• les billes d’argile = object

That is the same basic order as in English:

• The cache-pot contains the clay pebbles.

So this sentence is structurally straightforward for an English speaker.

You would make the subject plural, and the verb would also change:

• Les cache-pots contiennent les billes d’argile.

Changes:

• Le → Les
• cache-pot → cache-pots
• contient → contiennent

So the plural means:

• The cache-pots contain the clay pebbles.

You place ne ... pas around the verb:

• Le cache-pot ne contient pas les billes d’argile.

That means:

• The cache-pot does not contain the clay pebbles.

With a vowel sound after ne, French often contracts it to n’, but here it stays ne because contient begins with a consonant sound.