Learn Hardcore French: Son dessin préféré montre un chat qui dort dans le jardin. - Her favorite drawing shows a cat sleeping in the garden.

dessin is masculine singular → you must use son.
son dessin préféré can therefore mean:
- his favorite drawing
- her favorite drawing
- its favorite drawing (for an object/animal, in context)

You only know whether it’s “his” or “her” from the wider context, not from the word son itself.

You’d use:

sa before a feminine singular noun (e.g. sa voiture – his/her car)
ses before plural nouns (e.g. ses dessins – his/her drawings)

Why is it son dessin préféré and not son préféré dessin?

In French, most adjectives come after the noun they modify.

Noun: dessin
Adjective: préféré

So you say: son dessin préféré = “his/her favorite drawing”.

Putting the adjective before the noun (son préféré dessin) is wrong in this case.

Note: you can say mon préféré on its own to mean “my favorite (one)”, but when you keep the noun, préféré normally follows it:

C’est mon dessin préféré. – This is my favorite drawing.
C’est mon préféré. – This is my favorite (one).

How does préféré agree grammatically here? Why not préférée, préférés, etc.?

préféré is used as an adjective and must agree with the noun dessin.

dessin is masculine singular → préféré (masc. sg.)
If it were feminine singular:
ma chanson préférée – my favorite song
Masculine plural:
mes dessins préférés – my favorite drawings
Feminine plural:
mes chansons préférées – my favorite songs

So in son dessin préféré, the masculine singular form préféré is correct.

What exactly does dessin mean? How is it different from image, tableau, or photo?

Roughly:

dessin – a drawing (usually done with pencil, pen, crayon, etc.)
tableau – a painting (on canvas, wood, etc.), or sometimes a board
photo / photographie – a photograph
image – a general word for “image/picture”, not limited to a specific medium

So son dessin préféré is specifically his/her favorite drawing, not just any picture.

Why is it montre and not montrer or montres?

montrer is the infinitive: “to show”.
montre here is the 3rd person singular present tense of montrer.

The subject is son dessin préféré (his/her favorite drawing), which is singular, so:

Son dessin préféré *montre… = His/her favorite drawing *shows…

montres would be the tu form (“you show”) or the plural noun “watches/clocks”, so it’s not correct in this sentence.

Could I say something other than montre when talking about what’s in a drawing?

Yes, some common alternatives:

représente – “represents, depicts”
Son dessin préféré représente un chat qui dort…
il y a – “there is/are” (rephrasing the sentence):
Sur son dessin préféré, il y a un chat qui dort dans le jardin.

montre is very natural here, but représente is a bit more “artistic” and often used for artwork.

Why is it un chat, not le chat?

French uses un / une (indefinite) and le / la / l’ (definite) much like English:

un chat = “a cat” → we’re introducing a cat for the first time.
le chat = “the cat” → a specific cat that is already known in the context.

In the sentence, the cat is being mentioned for the first time, so un chat is more natural. If you had already identified it, you might say:

Dans ce dessin, *le chat dort dans le jardin. – In this drawing, *the cat is sleeping in the garden.

Is chat always masculine? How do I say a female cat?

un chat – a (male or generic) cat, grammatically masculine.
une chatte – a female cat, grammatically feminine.

In many contexts, un chat can refer to “a cat” without specifying sex, just like English “a cat”.

Be aware that chatte can have a slang, vulgar meaning in colloquial French, so some people avoid it and just say un chat femelle (“a female cat”) if they need to be precise.

Why is qui used here and not que?

qui and que are both common relative pronouns in French, but they’re used differently:

qui = when the pronoun is the subject of the verb in the relative clause
un chat qui dort → a cat that is sleeping
Here, “that” (qui) is the subject of dort.
que = when the pronoun is the direct object in the relative clause
le chat *que je vois → the cat *that I see
Here, “that” (que) is the object of vois.

In un chat qui dort, the cat is the one sleeping, so qui is required.

Does qui refer to the cat or to the garden in un chat qui dort dans le jardin?

qui refers to un chat, not to le jardin.

You can check this by “splitting” the sentence:

un chat. Il dort dans le jardin. → “a cat. It is sleeping in the garden.”
This makes sense.
un jardin. Il dort dans le jardin. → “a garden. It is sleeping in the garden.”
That clearly doesn’t make sense.

So the structure is:
un chat [qui dort] [dans le jardin]
A cat [that is sleeping] [in the garden].

Why is dort in the present tense if it’s just a picture and not something happening right now?

French often uses the present tense to describe what is shown in a picture, film, painting, etc. You “enter” the scene and describe it as if it were happening now:

Sur cette photo, il pleut – In this photo, it is raining.
Ce tableau *représente une bataille.* – This painting represents a battle.

So un chat qui dort = “a cat that is sleeping” (in the picture). Using the present is normal and idiomatic here.

Why is it dans le jardin and not au jardin or dans un jardin?

Subtle differences:

dans le jardin – “in the garden”
→ In a specific garden, usually understood from context (my/your/their garden, or just “the garden” attached to the house).
dans un jardin – “in a garden”
→ In some garden, not specified which one.
au jardin – literally “at/in the garden”
→ Exists, but sounds a bit more literary or old-fashioned; in modern speech you more often hear dans le jardin.
Sometimes au jardin is short for au jardin public (“in the public garden/park”).

In everyday modern French, dans le jardin is the standard way to say “in the garden” in this kind of sentence.