Pendant que le petit rampe sous la table, sa sœur essaie de ne pas renverser son jus.

Pendant que means while or during the time that. It introduces a clause showing that two actions happen at the same time.

In this sentence:

• Pendant que le petit rampe sous la table = While the little one is crawling under the table
• sa sœur essaie de ne pas renverser son jus = his/her sister is trying not to spill her juice

A useful comparison:

• pendant que
  • verb clause = while something is happening
• pendant
  • noun = during

Examples:

• Pendant que je cuisine, il regarde la télé. = While I cook, he watches TV.
• Pendant le repas, il parle beaucoup. = During the meal, he talks a lot.

Le petit literally means the little one or the little boy/child, depending on context.

French often uses adjectives like petit, grand, jeune, etc. as nouns when the context is clear.

So le petit can mean:

• the little one
• the little boy
• the young child

It does not always have to mean a baby. Context decides.

Because it is le petit, we know the speaker is referring to a masculine person or a boy. If it were feminine, it would be la petite.

Rampe is the 3rd person singular present form of the verb ramper, which means to crawl.

Conjugation in the present:

• je rampe
• tu rampes
• il/elle/on rampe
• nous rampons
• vous rampez
• ils/elles rampent

Here, the subject is le petit, so French uses rampe.

French often uses the simple present for actions happening الآن/right now, where English often prefers is doing.

So:

• le petit rampe literally = the little one crawls
• natural English = the little one is crawling

Likewise:

• sa sœur essaie literally = his/her sister tries
• natural English = his/her sister is trying

This is completely normal in French. The present tense can describe:

• habitual actions
• general truths
• actions happening right now

Sous means under.

So:

• sous la table = under the table

Table is a feminine noun in French, so it takes the feminine singular article la:

• la table

Some prepositions are very common to learn together with nouns:

• sur la table = on the table
• sous la table = under the table
• à côté de la table = next to the table

Sa sœur can mean either his sister or her sister.

That is because French possessive adjectives agree with the thing possessed, not with the owner.

Here:

• sœur is feminine singular
• so French uses sa

This does not tell you whether the sister belongs to a male or female person. Context would tell you that.

Compare:

• son frère = his brother / her brother
• sa sœur = his sister / her sister

So sa does not automatically mean the owner is female.

The verb essayer often means to try. When it is followed by another verb in the infinitive, French normally uses de:

• essayer de + infinitive

So:

• essaie de ne pas renverser = is trying not to spill

Other examples:

• J’essaie de comprendre. = I’m trying to understand.
• Elle essaie de dormir. = She is trying to sleep.

This is just part of the verb pattern you need to learn:

• essayer de faire quelque chose

Because the thing being negated is the infinitive action renverser.

The sentence means:

• she is trying not to spill her juice

So French says:

• essaie de ne pas renverser

With an infinitive, ne pas goes directly before that infinitive:

• de ne pas tomber = not to fall
• de ne pas oublier = not to forget
• de ne pas renverser = not to spill

If you said n’essaie pas de renverser, that would mean:

• she is not trying to spill or
• don’t try to spill

That is a different meaning.

Here, renverser means to spill or to knock over.

Its core idea is something like to tip over / overturn / knock over. The exact English translation depends on context.

Examples:

• renverser un verre = to knock over a glass
• renverser du jus = to spill juice
• renverser une chaise = to tip over a chair

So in this sentence, ne pas renverser son jus means something like:

• not to spill her juice
• not to knock over her juice

Because jus is a masculine noun in French.

French possessive adjectives agree with the noun that follows:

• masculine singular noun → mon, ton, son
• feminine singular noun → ma, ta, sa
• plural noun → mes, tes, ses

So:

• son jus because jus is masculine
• sa sœur because sœur is feminine

This does not mean the juice belongs to a male person. Son jus can mean:

• his juice
• her juice

Again, the possessive agrees with jus, not with the owner.

In this sentence, le petit refers to a specific child in the situation, not children in general.

The definite article le often points to someone already known from context:

• the little one
• the little boy
• the child

If French wanted to speak more generally, it might use a plural or a more generic structure, depending on context.

So here, imagine a scene: one small child is under the table, and his/her sister is trying not to spill juice.

Grammatically, yes, son jus could mean his juice or her juice, depending on context.

But in a natural reading of this sentence, the most likely meaning is:

• the sister is trying not to spill her own juice

French often leaves this kind of ownership to context.

If the speaker wanted to make it clearer, they could say something like:

• son propre jus = her own juice / his own juice

But in ordinary French, son jus is usually enough.

Then le petit would become la petite:

• Pendant que la petite rampe sous la table, sa sœur essaie de ne pas renverser son jus.

That changes the child under the table to a feminine referent.

Notice that the rest of the sentence can stay the same, unless the context also changes who sa sœur refers to.

A few useful points:

• Pendant que: the -nt in pendant is not pronounced
• petit: the final t is usually silent
• rampe: sounds like one syllable with a nasal vowel at the start
• sœur: this vowel sound can be tricky for English speakers
• essaie: often pronounced roughly like eh-say
• ne pas: in casual speech, ne is often dropped, so you may hear essaie de pas renverser
• jus: the final s is silent

Also, in careful French, the written negative is ne...pas, but in everyday spoken French, people often say:

• essaie de pas renverser son jus

Even though the full standard form is:

• essaie de ne pas renverser son jus