Avant d’entrer, j’essuie mes chaussures sur le paillasson parce qu’il pleut.

After avant, French normally uses de + infinitive when the subject stays the same.

So:

• Avant d’entrer = before entering / before I enter

The de becomes d’ because entrer begins with a vowel.

A useful contrast:

• Avant d’entrer, j’essuie mes chaussures. = I am the one entering and wiping.
• Avant qu’il entre... = before he enters...

When the subject changes, French usually uses avant que + subjunctive instead.

Because je becomes j’ before a vowel sound or a mute h.

So:

• je parle
• j’entre
• j’essuie

This is called elision. French does it to make pronunciation smoother.

The verb is essuyer. In some forms, the y changes to i before a silent ending.

So you get:

• j’essuie
• tu essuies
• il/elle essuie
• nous essuyons
• vous essuyez
• ils/elles essuient

This kind of spelling change is common in French verbs ending in -yer.

Here, essuyer means to wipe.

So j’essuie mes chaussures means that the speaker is wiping their shoes, probably to remove water or mud.

Depending on context, essuyer can also mean to dry or to mop up, but in this sentence wipe is the most natural idea.

French uses possessive adjectives like mon, ma, mes much like English uses my.

So mes chaussures simply means my shoes.

You may have learned that French often uses the instead of my with body parts, especially with reflexive verbs, for example:

• Je me lave les mains. = I wash my hands.

But that pattern does not apply automatically to everything. In this sentence, mes chaussures is completely natural.

Because the speaker is talking about both shoes.

• une chaussure = one shoe
• des chaussures / mes chaussures = shoes

French, like English, normally uses the plural when talking about a pair of shoes.

With essuyer, French commonly uses sur to show the surface you wipe something on.

So:

• essuyer ses chaussures sur le paillasson = to wipe your shoes on the doormat

Using sur here is idiomatic. It tells you where the wiping happens.

A paillasson is a doormat or welcome mat, the mat by the door where you wipe your shoes before going inside.

It is a very common household word in French.

Because que becomes qu’ before a vowel sound.

So:

• parce que + il becomes
• parce qu’il

This is another case of elision, just like je → j’.

In weather expressions like il pleut, the il does not refer to a person or thing. It is an impersonal subject.

French needs a subject in a normal sentence, so it uses il in expressions like:

• il pleut = it is raining
• il neige = it is snowing
• il fait froid = it is cold

So this il works a lot like English it in it’s raining.

The present tense in French can describe:

• what someone is doing right now
• what someone usually does
• a general habit or routine

So j’essuie mes chaussures can mean something happening now, or something the speaker normally does in this situation.

Likewise, il pleut gives the current reason: it is raining.

Because Avant d’entrer is an introductory phrase placed at the beginning of the sentence.

The comma helps separate that opening idea from the main clause:

• Avant d’entrer, j’essuie mes chaussures...

In French, this comma is very natural and helps readability, just as in English with Before entering, ...