Devant la station-service, un employé regarde notre pare-chocs et dit qu’il est un peu rayé.

That phrase sets the scene first.

• devant = in front of
• la station-service = the gas station / service station

So Devant la station-service means In front of the gas station.

French often puts a place phrase at the beginning of a sentence to give the setting, just like English can do:

• Devant la station-service, ... = In front of the gas station, ...

The comma is there because this opening phrase is being used as background information.

Yes. Station-service is feminine, so it takes la.

It is feminine because the main noun is station, and station is feminine in French. The hyphen is just part of the standard spelling of this compound noun.

So:

• la station-service = the gas station
• une station-service = a gas station

Un employé means an employee or a worker.

It uses un because employé is masculine singular here.

Forms:

• un employé = a male employee
• une employée = a female employee

In writing, the feminine form adds an extra e. In pronunciation, employé and employée are usually pronounced the same.

Because notre means our, and French uses a possessive adjective where English does.

So:

• notre pare-chocs = our bumper

You do not normally say le before a possessive adjective in French. In other words, French says:

• notre voiture
• mon livre
• ses clés

not:

• le notre voiture
• le mon livre

It is notre rather than nos because the noun is singular here.

Here it is singular.

That is a very common learner question because pare-chocs ends in -s, but it can still be singular. It is a compound noun, and its form often stays the same in the singular and plural.

In this sentence, you can tell it is singular because of notre:

• notre pare-chocs = our bumper
• nos pare-chocs = our bumpers

So the article or determiner usually tells you the number.

Because que shortens to qu’ before a vowel sound.

So:

• que il becomes qu’il

This is very common in French:

• je pense qu’il vient
• elle dit qu’on part
• on sait qu’elle est là

It is the same word que, just contracted for smoother pronunciation.

It means says that it is a little scratched.

Breakdown:

• dit = says
• que = that
• il est = it is / he is
• un peu = a little
• rayé = scratched

So dit qu’il est un peu rayé is a reporting structure:

• X dit que... = X says that...

This is one of the most common ways to report speech in French.

Yes. Here rayé means scratched, scuffed, or marked with scratches.

It comes from the verb rayer, which can mean to scratch, to cross out, or to mark with lines, depending on context.

With a pare-chocs, the natural meaning is:

• rayé = scratched / scuffed

Be careful: in other contexts, rayé can also mean striped. But with a car bumper, scratched is clearly the right sense.

Un peu means a little or slightly.

So:

• il est rayé = it is scratched
• il est un peu rayé = it is a little scratched / slightly scratched

It softens the statement. The employee is not saying the bumper is badly damaged, only that it has some scratches.

Literally, regarde means looks at.

But in this context, English would often translate it more naturally as examines, checks, or inspects, because the employee is looking at the bumper in a meaningful way, not just glancing at it.

So:

• literal: looks at
• natural in context: examines/checks

French regarder often covers both ideas, and context tells you which English wording sounds best.

It refers to notre pare-chocs in meaning: the employee says that the bumper is a little scratched.

Grammatically, il could look ambiguous at first, because both employé and pare-chocs are masculine singular. But the context makes the intended meaning clear:

• the employee looks at the bumper
• then says it is a little scratched

So il = the bumper, not the employee.

French, like English, sometimes relies on context to make pronoun reference clear.

Because it agrees with the thing being described, which is pare-chocs.

• pare-chocs is masculine singular
• so the adjective is rayé (masculine singular)

If the noun were feminine, you would normally add -e:

• la portière est rayée = the car door is scratched

If it were plural:

• les pare-chocs sont rayés
• les portières sont rayées

So the ending of rayé changes to match the noun it describes.