L’enfant commence à ramper sur le tapis, alors nous mettons les chaussures plus loin.

L’ is used because enfant begins with a vowel sound, so le or la becomes l’ before it. This is called elision.

• le enfant → incorrect
• l’enfant → correct

As for l’ versus un:

• un enfant = a child
• l’enfant = the child

So the sentence is talking about a specific child, not just any child.

After commencer, French normally uses à before another verb in the infinitive.

So:

• commencer à + infinitive
• commence à ramper = starts to crawl

This is just the standard pattern in French. English says start to crawl or start crawling, but French usually keeps the preposition:

• Il commence à parler. = He is starting to speak.
• Elle commence à rire. = She starts laughing.

Usually, yes, but it can be a little more specific.

Ramper literally means to crawl or to creep along close to the ground, often with the idea of moving with the body very low down. It can also be used for snakes or insects.

For a baby, English crawl can match ramper, especially if the baby is moving along the floor. But French can also use expressions like marcher à quatre pattes for crawling on hands and knees.

So in this sentence, ramper is a natural way to describe the child beginning to move along the carpet.

Sur means on or on top of.

So:

• sur le tapis = on the carpet / on the rug

It is used because the child is moving on the surface of the carpet.

Compare:

• sur la table = on the table
• sur le sol = on the floor

You would not use dans here, because dans means in/inside, and a child is not inside the carpet.

Here, alors means something like so, then, or in that case.

It links the two parts of the sentence:

• the child starts crawling
• as a result, we move the shoes farther away

So alors helps show a consequence or reaction.

Depending on context, alors can also mean then in a time sequence, but here it is closer to so:

• ..., alors nous mettons les chaussures plus loin.
• ..., so we put the shoes farther away.

Yes, mettre is an irregular verb, and mettons is the nous form in the present tense.

Present tense of mettre:

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

So nous mettons means we put or we are putting.

French often uses the simple present where English might use either:

• we put
• we are putting

depending on the context.

Yes, absolutely.

In everyday spoken French, on met is often more natural than nous mettons.

• nous mettons = more formal or more written
• on met = very common in speech

Both mean we put here.

So a spoken version might be:

• L’enfant commence à ramper sur le tapis, alors on met les chaussures plus loin.

Les chaussures means the shoes, while des chaussures means some shoes.

French uses the definite article le / la / les more often than English does, especially when the object is already understood in the situation.

Here, les chaussures probably means a specific pair of shoes that the people in the sentence are moving out of reach.

So:

• les chaussures = the shoes
• des chaussures = some shoes / shoes in general

In context, les chaussures sounds more natural because everyone involved knows which shoes are being talked about.

Plus loin means farther away, further away, or more to the far side.

• loin = far
• plus loin = farther / further

So:

• mettre les chaussures plus loin = put the shoes farther away

It does not need a noun after it. It works as an adverbial expression telling you where the shoes are being placed.

Compare:

• Va plus loin. = Go farther.
• Mets-le plus loin. = Put it farther away.

French word order here is very normal:

• nous = subject
• mettons = verb
• les chaussures = direct object
• plus loin = adverbial expression of place

So the pattern is:

subject + verb + object + place

That is why plus loin comes after les chaussures.

English does something similar:

• we put the shoes farther away

So although the sentence is French, the order is actually fairly close to English here.