Quand il a peur, le chaton griffe la couverture au lieu de dormir.

Here, quand means when. Because the sentence is in the present tense and describes a repeated or typical situation, it can also feel like whenever in English.

So:

• Quand il a peur... = When / Whenever he is afraid...

French often uses quand this way for habits or general behavior.

French uses the expression avoir peur, literally to have fear, to mean to be afraid.

So the normal French pattern is:

• il a peur = he/it is afraid

You do not say il est peur in standard French.

Similar French expressions use avoir where English uses be, such as:

• avoir faim = to be hungry
• avoir soif = to be thirsty
• avoir chaud = to be hot

Here, il refers forward to le chaton. French can do this, especially when a time clause comes first:

• Quand il a peur, le chaton...

This is understandable because the main clause then tells you who il is.

A more straightforward version for a beginner would be:

• Quand le chaton a peur, il griffe la couverture...

Both patterns are possible. The given sentence is just using the pronoun first and naming the noun afterward.

Because chaton is a masculine singular noun in French.

That means:

• the article is le
• the matching pronoun is il

So:

• le chaton
• il

This is about grammatical gender. If you specifically wanted to say female kitten, you could use la chatonne, and then the pronoun would be elle.

Le usually means the, while un usually means a.

So le chaton suggests:

• a specific kitten already known from the context, or
• the kitten as the one being discussed

If you said un chaton, it would sound more like introducing a kitten for the first time:

• Un chaton griffe la couverture... = A kitten scratches the blanket...

In this sentence, le chaton sounds more natural if the kitten is already identifiable.

Because griffer is a direct transitive verb. It takes its object directly, with no preposition.

So you say:

• griffer la couverture = to scratch the blanket

Not:

• griffer à la couverture

This is different from some English phrasing, because English might say scratch the blanket or scratch at the blanket. In French, with griffer, the normal structure is direct:

• griffer quelque chose

Griffe is the third-person singular present of griffer.

So:

• il griffe = he/it scratches

With an animal, griffer often suggests scratching with claws, so claws at can also fit depending on the context.

Here, la couverture most naturally means the blanket.

The word couverture can have other meanings in other contexts, such as:

• blanket
• bedcover
• cover of a book or magazine

But in this sentence, because a kitten is scratching it instead of sleeping, blanket is the most likely meaning.

Au lieu de means instead of.

It is a fixed expression. After it, French often uses:

• a noun
• or an infinitive verb

In your sentence:

• au lieu de dormir = instead of sleeping

So the pattern is:

• au lieu de + infinitive

Examples:

• au lieu de dormir = instead of sleeping
• au lieu de manger = instead of eating
• au lieu de partir = instead of leaving

Because after au lieu de, French uses the infinitive when the next idea is an action.

So:

• au lieu de dormir = instead of sleeping

not

• au lieu qu'il dort
• au lieu de il dort

The infinitive is the normal form after this expression.

The present tense here describes a habit, general behavior, or typical reaction.

So the sentence means something like:

• when the kitten is afraid, this is what it does

French uses the present tense for this very naturally:

• il a peur
• le chaton griffe

This is not necessarily happening only right now; it can describe what usually happens.

Because Quand il a peur is an introductory clause placed before the main clause.

So the structure is:

• Quand il a peur, = introductory time clause
• le chaton griffe la couverture... = main clause

The comma helps separate those two parts. In French, this punctuation is very common when a subordinate clause comes first.