Dans le jardin, ma mère prend une pelle pendant que mon père cherche le râteau.

Dans le jardin means in the garden. French often allows a place phrase to come at the beginning of the sentence to set the scene.

So:

• Dans le jardin, ma mère prend une pelle...
• literally: In the garden, my mother takes a shovel...

This is very natural in French, just like In the garden, my mother... is natural in English. It gives the location first, then tells you what happens there.

The comma helps separate the opening location phrase from the rest of the sentence.

• Dans le jardin, ma mère...

It works like an introductory phrase in English:

• In the garden, my mother...

In French, this comma is common and makes the sentence easier to read, though punctuation can sometimes vary depending on style.

These mean my mother and my father.

French uses possessive adjectives:

• mon = my + masculine singular noun
• ma = my + feminine singular noun
• mes = my + plural noun

So:

• mère is feminine, so ma mère
• père is masculine, so mon père

This is one of the first agreement patterns learners need to get used to in French.

Because prend is the conjugated form of the verb prendre for elle or il.

The verb is prendre = to take.

Present tense:

• je prends
• tu prends
• il/elle prend
• nous prenons
• vous prenez
• ils/elles prennent

Since ma mère = she, French uses prend:

• ma mère prend

Grammatically, prendre means to take, but in a sentence like this, English often sounds more natural with pick up or grab.

So ma mère prend une pelle could mean:

• my mother takes a shovel
• my mother picks up a shovel

The exact English wording depends on context. In French, prendre is very common and flexible.

This is the difference between the indefinite and definite article.

• une pelle = a shovel
• le râteau = the rake

French uses:

• un / une for a / an
• le / la / l’ / les for the

So here the sentence presents one tool as a shovel, but the other as the rake, probably because the speaker has a specific rake in mind.

Also, the noun genders are:

• pelle is feminine → une pelle
• râteau is masculine → le râteau

Pendant que means while.

It connects two actions happening at the same time:

• ma mère prend une pelle
• pendant que
• mon père cherche le râteau

So the idea is:

• My mother picks up a shovel while my father looks for the rake.

This is a very common way to talk about simultaneous actions.

In French, the verb chercher takes a direct object. You do not use a preposition like for after it.

So:

• chercher quelque chose = to look for something

Examples:

• Je cherche mes clés. = I’m looking for my keys.
• Il cherche le râteau. = He is looking for the rake.

This is a common difference from English. French says look for using just chercher + object.

French often uses the simple present where English may prefer the present progressive.

So:

• mon père cherche le râteau
• literally: my father looks for the rake
• natural English: my father is looking for the rake

In French, the present tense can cover both:

• habitual action: he looks for
• action happening now: he is looking for

If needed, French can be more explicit with être en train de, but that is not necessary here:

• mon père est en train de chercher le râteau = my father is in the middle of looking for the rake

Râteau is pronounced roughly like ra-toh.

A few useful points:

• the r is the French throat r
• â does not strongly change pronunciation for most learners here; it mainly reflects spelling/history
• eau is pronounced oh

So:

• râteau ≈ ra-toh

And pelle is roughly pell and cherche is roughly shersh

Sometimes yes, but they are not always exactly the same.

• dans le jardin = in the garden
• au jardin can also mean in the garden / at the garden, but it is often less literal or less specific depending on context

Dans le jardin clearly emphasizes being physically inside that space. In this sentence, it is the most straightforward and natural choice.

Yes, this is the normal French order:

• subject: mon père
• verb: cherche
• object: le râteau

French word order is usually more fixed than English in ordinary statements. So this is the standard pattern you should expect:

• Subject + verb + object

That makes the whole sentence easy to follow:

• Dans le jardin, ma mère prend une pelle pendant que mon père cherche le râteau.