Finalement, nous avons pris des prunes, des abricots et un peu de saumon, puis nous sommes rentrés sous la pluie.

Finalement means finally, in the end, or after all depending on context.

In this sentence, it tells you that this is the final outcome of some earlier process, discussion, or hesitation. It often suggests something like:

• After thinking about it...
• After all that...
• In the end...

So Finalement, nous avons pris... means something like In the end, we chose/bought...

Nous avons pris is the passé composé, which is the most common past tense in everyday spoken and written French for completed actions.

• avons = present tense of avoir
• pris = past participle of prendre

So nous avons pris literally means we have taken, but in normal English it is usually just we took.

The other forms mean different things:

• nous prîmes = simple past / passé simple, mostly literary
• nous prenions = imperfect, meaning we were taking or we used to take

Here, the sentence describes a completed event, so passé composé is the natural choice.

Yes, mostly. The verb is prendre = to take. Its past participle is pris.

This is an irregular verb, so the main forms need to be learned:

• prendre
• je prends
• nous prenons
• j’ai pris

It does not follow a fully regular pattern, so pris is one of those important common forms to memorize.

Good question. In French, prendre is often used in places where English might use several different verbs.

Here, prendre could mean:

• to take
• to get
• to buy
• to choose
• to order
  depending on context

So in a shopping or market context, nous avons pris des prunes... often sounds like:

• we got some plums
• we bought some plums
• we picked up some plums

French uses prendre more broadly than English often does.

Because the sentence is treating the nouns differently.

des prunes, des abricots

These are countable plural items: plums and apricots.

So French uses the plural indefinite/article form:

• des prunes = some plums
• des abricots = some apricots

un peu de saumon

This means a little (bit of) salmon.

Here, saumon is being treated as an uncountable quantity of food, not as whole fish counted individually. So instead of des, French uses a quantity expression:

• un peu de = a little / a bit of

That is why it is:

• un peu de saumon not
• des saumons
  unless you mean actual individual salmon fish

After an expression of quantity like un peu, French normally uses de (or d’ before a vowel), not a partitive article like du, de la, or des.

So:

• un peu de saumon = a little salmon
• beaucoup de pain = a lot of bread
• trop de sucre = too much sugar

Even though du saumon by itself can mean some salmon, once you add a quantity phrase like un peu, the structure becomes:

quantity expression + de + noun

Because rentrer here uses être in the passé composé.

Some French verbs form the past tense with être instead of avoir, especially verbs of movement or change of state. Rentrer in the sense of to go home / to come back / to return often uses être.

So:

• nous sommes rentrés = we went home / we came back

By contrast, avoir rentré can exist in other contexts when rentrer is used transitively, but that is a different structure.

In this sentence, the people themselves are returning, so être is correct.

Because when a verb uses être in the passé composé, the past participle usually agrees with the subject.

The subject here is nous, meaning we, so the past participle is plural:

• nous sommes rentrés = masculine plural or mixed group
• nous sommes rentrées = feminine plural

So the -s shows plural agreement.

This is different from avons pris, where pris does not agree with the subject in this basic structure because prendre uses avoir.

French normally repeats the subject before a new finite verb, especially in a coordinated clause.

So this is natural:

• nous avons pris..., puis nous sommes rentrés...

Repeating nous makes the sentence clear and standard.

In English, we often omit the subject in the second part:

• We bought some plums, apricots, and a little salmon, then went home in the rain.

French is less flexible about that kind of omission, so repeating nous is the normal choice.

Puis means then or and then.

In this sentence, it links two actions in sequence:

1. nous avons pris...
2. nous sommes rentrés...

So it means then in the sense of after that.

It is very close to ensuite. In many cases, either could work:

• puis
• ensuite
• et puis

But puis is often a little more concise and slightly more written or narrative in tone.

Yes, literally it is under the rain, but idiomatically it means in the rain.

French often uses sous in weather expressions to mean being exposed to a condition:

• sous la pluie = in the rain
• sous le soleil = in the sun / under the sun

So although the literal image is different from English, the natural meaning is simply in the rain.

French often uses an article where English does not.

So:

• sous la pluie = literally under the rain
• natural English: in the rain

French generally prefers the article in many expressions involving weather, abstract ideas, and general conditions. So la pluie here is completely normal.

Yes. That is one reason learners sometimes find it tricky.

Depending on context, rentrer can mean:

• to return
• to come back
• to go back in
• to go home

In this sentence, nous sommes rentrés sous la pluie most naturally means:

• we went home in the rain or
• we came back in the rain

The exact English translation depends on the wider context.

The word order is very natural French narrative order:

• Finalement sets the scene: in the end
• nous avons pris... gives the first completed action
• puis introduces the next action
• nous sommes rentrés sous la pluie completes the sequence

A basic structure is:

time/comment word + subject + past tense verb + objects, then subject + past tense verb + extra detail

So this is a good example of standard French storytelling word order.