Quand il pleut, Marie met la capuche de son imperméable avant de sortir.

Met is the third-person singular present tense of mettre. It matches Marie, which is a third-person singular subject.

• je mets
• tu mets
• il / elle / on met
• nous mettons
• vous mettez
• ils / elles mettent

So Marie met means Marie puts on / puts.

The verb mettre has a broad meaning: to put, place, put on. In the context of clothing, it often means to put on.

So in this sentence, Marie met la capuche means she puts on the hood, not just that she places it somewhere.

The present tense here expresses something habitual or generally true. It means this is what Marie does whenever it rains.

French often uses the present for routines or repeated actions, just like English can in sentences such as When it rains, Marie puts on her hood before going out.

Quand il pleut is an introductory time clause: When it rains. When this clause comes first, French usually separates it from the main clause with a comma.

So:

Quand il pleut, Marie met la capuche...

If the order were reversed, the comma would often disappear:

Marie met la capuche de son imperméable quand il pleut.

Yes. French allows both orders:

• Quand il pleut, Marie met la capuche de son imperméable avant de sortir.
• Marie met la capuche de son imperméable avant de sortir quand il pleut.

Putting quand il pleut first gives it a little more emphasis as the condition or situation.

Both are possible, but they are not exactly the same in nuance.

• la capuche de son imperméable = the hood of her raincoat
• sa capuche = her hood

The version in your sentence is more explicit. It clearly tells us the hood belongs to the raincoat. Sa capuche could also work if the context already makes that obvious.

Because the possessive adjective agrees with the noun possessed, not with the owner.

Here, the possessed noun is imperméable, which is masculine singular, so French uses son:

• son imperméable = her raincoat / his raincoat

It does not matter that Marie is female. What matters is that imperméable is masculine.

Here, imperméable is a noun meaning raincoat.

French imperméable can also be an adjective meaning waterproof, but in this sentence it is clearly a noun because it follows son and means a piece of clothing.

So:

• un imperméable = a raincoat
• un tissu imperméable = a waterproof fabric

After avant, French normally uses de before an infinitive:

• avant de sortir
• avant de manger
• avant de partir

So avant de sortir means before going out / before leaving.

This is a very common structure in French: avant de + infinitive.

Because after avant de, French uses the infinitive when the subject is the same as the subject of the main verb.

Here, the person doing both actions is Marie:

• she puts on the hood
• she goes out

So French says:

Marie met ... avant de sortir.

If the subject changed, French would usually need a full clause instead.

Because it is a specific hood: the hood of her raincoat. French uses the definite article la when the thing is identifiable and already clear from the context.

So la capuche de son imperméable means the hood of her raincoat, not just any hood.

A careful approximation is:

kahn tew pluh

A few important points:

• quand sounds roughly like kahn
• in connected speech, d + il creates a liaison, so quand il sounds like kahn-til
• pleut has the vowel sound eu, which does not exist exactly in English

So you may hear something close to kahn-teel-pluh depending on the speaker.

Most naturally, it sounds habitual: this is what Marie does whenever it rains. But depending on context, the French present can sometimes describe a scene in a vivid way, almost like English So it’s raining, and Marie puts on her hood before going out.

Without extra context, though, learners should understand it mainly as a general habit or repeated action.