La mère lave le biberon dans l'évier.

The mother washes the bottle in the sink.

Breakdown of La mère lave le biberon dans l'évier.

• dans: in
• laver: to wash
• l'évier: the sink
• la mère: the mother

Questions & Answers about La mère lave le biberon dans l'évier.

Why is it la mère and le biberon? How do I know which article to use?

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.

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What does l'évier mean, and why is it l' instead of le or la?

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.

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Why is the verb lave and not laves or lavent?