La mère lave le biberon dans l'évier.

French nouns have grammatical gender, so each noun uses a gendered article.

• la mère = the mother
  
  • mère is feminine, so it takes la
• le biberon = the baby bottle
  
  • biberon is masculine, so it takes le

In French, grammatical gender is something you usually have to learn with the noun. It does not always match biological sex, but here mère is naturally feminine.

évier means sink.

It becomes l'évier because évier starts with a vowel sound. In French, le or la usually shorten to l' before a vowel or silent h:

• le évier → l'évier
• la école → l'école

This is called elision.

The subject is La mère, which is she or the mother, so the verb must match il/elle/on in the present tense.

The verb is laver = to wash.

Present tense:

• je lave
• tu laves
• il/elle/on lave
• nous lavons
• vous lavez
• ils/elles lavent

So La mère lave is correct because la mère is third-person singular.

Because French often uses the simple present where English might use either the simple present or the present continuous.

So:

• La mère lave le biberon can mean
  
  • The mother washes the baby bottle
  • or The mother is washing the baby bottle

French does not need a separate is washing form here.

dans means in or inside, while sur means on.

• dans l'évier = in the sink
• sur l'évier = on the sink

If the bottle is being washed in the basin itself, dans l'évier is the natural choice.

The sentence follows the standard French pattern:

Subject + Verb + Object + Prepositional phrase

So here:

• La mère = subject
• lave = verb
• le biberon = direct object
• dans l'évier = place phrase

French word order is often similar to English in simple sentences like this.

Yes, accents matter in French. They can affect pronunciation and sometimes distinguish one word from another.

In this sentence:

• mère has è, which usually gives an eh-type open sound
• évier has é, which usually gives a clearer ay-type sound at the start

Accents are part of the correct spelling and should not be omitted in normal written French.

mère is pronounced roughly like mehr, but with a French r.

A helpful breakdown:

• m as in English m
• è like the vowel in bet, but slightly different depending on accent
• French r is produced farther back in the throat than the English r

It is only one syllable.

Yes, biberon is the normal French word for a baby's bottle or feeding bottle.

In most contexts, le biberon specifically suggests a bottle used for feeding a baby. It is a very common everyday word.

Yes. La maman is also possible, but it has a slightly different feel.

• la mère = the mother
  
  • more neutral, descriptive
• la maman = the mom / mommy / mum
  
  • warmer, more familiar, often used in everyday family speech

So both are correct, but la mère sounds a bit more neutral or formal.

Because in a normal affirmative sentence, the direct object usually comes after the verb in French.

So:

• La mère lave le biberon

That is the standard order.

The object may move before the verb only in special cases, especially with object pronouns:

• La mère le lave = The mother washes it

Here le is a pronoun, so it comes before the verb.

It can mean either, depending on context.

La mère lave le biberon dans l'évier could mean:

• a current action: The mother is washing the baby bottle in the sink
• a habitual action: The mother washes the baby bottle in the sink

French present tense often covers both meanings. Context tells you which one is intended.

Because dans directly introduces the place.

• dans l'évier = in the sink

You do not need de here. Some French prepositions do combine with articles, but that is a different pattern:

• de + le = du
• à + le = au

But dans does not combine that way. So you simply say dans le... or, before a vowel, dans l'...

Sometimes, but the meaning changes slightly.

• dans l'évier = inside the sink
• à l'évier = at the sink

So:

• La mère lave le biberon dans l'évier focuses on where the bottle is being washed
• La mère lave le biberon à l'évier can suggest the mother is at the sink while doing it

Both can make sense, but dans l'évier is more precise for in the sink.

You usually put ne ... pas around the conjugated verb:

• La mère ne lave pas le biberon dans l'évier.

This means The mother is not washing the baby bottle in the sink or does not wash the baby bottle in the sink.

In informal spoken French, people often drop ne:

• La mère lave pas le biberon dans l'évier.

But in standard written French, use ne ... pas.