Avant le dîner, elle remet un peu de vernis et range le sèche-cheveux dans le tiroir.

In French, meals usually take an article, so le dîner is the normal way to say dinner in this kind of sentence.

• avant le dîner = before dinner
• après le déjeuner = after lunch

French often uses an article where English does not.

Remet is from remettre, which literally means to put back or to put again. In this sentence, it most naturally means to reapply or to put on again.

So elle remet un peu de vernis suggests that she is applying a little more nail polish, not putting it somewhere physically.

This is different from mettre, which just means to put or to put on in a more basic sense.

After expressions of quantity like un peu de, French normally uses just de.

So:

• un peu de vernis = a little nail polish
• beaucoup de temps = a lot of time
• trop de sucre = too much sugar

You would not normally say un peu du vernis unless you meant a little of the nail polish from a specific amount already identified.

It can mean either, depending on context.

In this sentence, because of elle remet un peu de vernis and the presence of a hair dryer, the most natural meaning is nail polish.

So French vernis is broader than English varnish in everyday use. If needed, French can be more specific:

• vernis à ongles = nail polish

Because vernis comes after the quantity phrase un peu de.

In French, quantity expressions usually work like this:

• un peu de café
• beaucoup d’eau
• assez de patience

So de is doing the job here, and you do not add le, la, or du after it in the normal pattern.

Range comes from ranger, which means to tidy away, to put in order, or to put away.

So range le sèche-cheveux dans le tiroir means she is not just placing the hair dryer somewhere randomly; she is putting it away properly, probably as part of tidying up.

That is why ranger is a very natural verb here.

Because the same subject, elle, applies to both verbs:

• elle remet
• (elle) range

French, like English, often avoids repeating the subject when two verbs are linked by et and have the same subject.

So this is completely normal and means:

• She reapplies a little nail polish and puts the hair dryer away in the drawer.

They are both in the present tense, third person singular, to match elle.

• elle remet = she puts back / reapplies
• elle range = she puts away / tidies away

These are the present-tense forms of:

• remettre
• ranger

So the endings match the subject elle.

Because dans means in or inside, which is the natural preposition for a drawer.

• dans le tiroir = in the drawer

Using à or au would not sound right here because a drawer is treated as a container that something goes inside.

Sèche-cheveux is a fixed compound noun meaning hair dryer.

Even though cheveux is plural, the whole expression is treated as a single noun:

• un sèche-cheveux = a hair dryer
• le sèche-cheveux = the hair dryer

This is just how the compound is built in French. Many compound nouns keep forms that do not behave exactly like simple nouns.

Because it is a compound noun made from elements joined together into one expression.

French often uses hyphens in compound nouns, especially older or well-established ones. Sèche-cheveux literally suggests something like dries-hair, but as a whole it simply means hair dryer.

It could be either, depending on context.

The French present tense can express:

• something happening now
• a habitual action
• a sequence in a narrative

So this sentence could mean:

• she is doing these things now, before dinner or
• this is what she usually does before dinner

You need the larger context to know which one is intended.

Yes. French time expressions are often flexible.

For example:

• Elle remet un peu de vernis et range le sèche-cheveux dans le tiroir avant le dîner.

This means essentially the same thing. Putting Avant le dîner at the beginning gives it a little more emphasis as the time setting for the whole action.