Le col de sa chemise est propre, mais la manche gauche est encore mouillée.

Because French possessive adjectives agree with the thing owned, not with the owner.

• chemise is a feminine singular noun
• so the correct possessive is sa

So French says:

• sa chemise = his shirt or her shirt

It does not matter whether the owner is male or female. What matters is that chemise is feminine.

It can mean either one.

French sa can mean:

• his
• her
• sometimes even its

The sentence itself does not tell you whether the shirt belongs to a man or a woman. You need context for that.

This often feels strange to English speakers, because English possessives usually show the owner's gender, while French possessives usually show the noun's gender instead.

French often uses de to link two nouns where English prefers a noun + noun structure.

So:

• le col de sa chemise literally = the collar of his/her shirt
• natural English = his/her shirt collar or the collar of his/her shirt

French does not normally stack nouns the way English does. You usually need a structure like:

• le col de la chemise
• la manche de la veste
• la porte de la maison

So de is the normal way to connect collar and shirt here.

French uses articles much more regularly than English.

Here:

• le col because col is masculine singular
• la manche because manche is feminine singular

Even when English might say his shirt collar or just the left sleeve, French still normally keeps an article with the noun.

So this sentence follows a very normal French pattern:

• article + noun
• article + noun + adjective

Because in French, many adjectives normally come after the noun.

Here:

• manche = sleeve
• gauche = left

So:

• la manche gauche = the left sleeve

Words like left and right usually come after the noun in French:

• la main gauche = the left hand
• le bras droit = the right arm

English often puts adjectives before nouns, but French often puts them after.

Because it agrees with la manche, which is feminine singular.

The adjective is based on mouillé. To match a feminine noun, it becomes:

• masculine singular: mouillé
• feminine singular: mouillée

Since manche is feminine, French says:

• la manche gauche est encore mouillée

This kind of agreement is very important in French.

Because propre is one of those adjectives whose masculine and feminine singular forms are spelled the same.

So you get:

• un col propre
• une manche propre

The form stays propre in both masculine and feminine singular.

Only the plural changes in writing:

• propres

So the lack of visible change does not mean there is no agreement; it just means this adjective already has the same form for both genders.

Here it means clean.

French propre can sometimes mean own, as in:

• ma propre chambre = my own room

But after être, in a sentence about clothing being dry or wet, propre clearly means:

• clean

So:

• Le col de sa chemise est propre = the collar of his/her shirt is clean

Here, encore means still.

So:

• est encore mouillée = is still wet

It shows that the sleeve remains wet at this moment.

Be careful: encore can also mean again in other contexts. But in this sentence, with an adjective describing a continuing state, still is the natural meaning.

Both can relate to wetness, but they are not exactly the same.

• mouillé / mouillée = wet
• humide = damp, moist, humid

In this sentence, mouillée suggests the sleeve is actually wet, probably from water or washing.
Humide would sound weaker, more like damp than fully wet.

So mouillée is the better choice if the clothing is noticeably wet.

Because there are really two clauses here, each with its own subject:

1. Le col de sa chemise est propre
2. mais la manche gauche est encore mouillée

The subjects are different:

• le col
• la manche gauche

So each clause needs its own verb.

English works the same way in a sentence like:

• The collar is clean, but the sleeve is still wet.

You cannot normally leave out the second est here.

It is pronounced roughly like moo-YAY.

A more helpful breakdown is:

• mou sounds like moo
• illée gives a yé sound

So:

• mouillée ≈ moo-yay

The ill spelling here does not sound like English l + l. In this word, it produces a y sound.

A few other useful pronunciations from the sentence:

• col ≈ kol
• chemise ≈ shuh-meez
• gauche ≈ gosh
• encore ≈ ahn-kor

These are only rough English approximations, but they help.