Nous entretenons la voiture et prenons le certificat d’immatriculation.

Because the sentence is conjugated in the present tense.

• entretenir = the infinitive, to maintain / to service
• prendre = the infinitive, to take / get / pick up
• With nous (we), the present-tense forms are:
  • nous entretenons
  • nous prenons

So the sentence uses fully conjugated verbs: We maintain/service the car and take/get the registration certificate.

In French, if the same subject does both actions, you usually do not need to repeat it.

So:

• Nous entretenons la voiture et prenons le certificat d’immatriculation.

means the same subject, nous, applies to both verbs:

• nous entretenons
• (nous) prenons

You can repeat nous for emphasis or clarity:

• Nous entretenons la voiture et nous prenons le certificat d’immatriculation.

But in normal usage, leaving it out is very natural.

Here, entretenir means something like:

• to maintain
• to service
• to keep in good condition

With la voiture, it suggests maintaining or servicing the car.

Be aware that entretenir can have other meanings in other contexts, such as:

• entretenir une maison = maintain a house
• entretenir une relation = maintain a relationship
• entretenir une conversation = keep a conversation going

So its meaning depends on the object that follows it.

French often uses the definite article (le, la, les) when referring to a specific thing already understood in context.

So:

• la voiture = the car
• le certificat d’immatriculation = the registration certificate

If you said:

• une voiture
• un certificat

that would usually mean a car or a certificate, not a specific one.

Because de contracts before a vowel sound.

• de + immatriculation becomes d’immatriculation

This is very common in French:

• de + école → d’école
• de + accord → d’accord
• de + immatriculation → d’immatriculation

So certificat d’immatriculation literally means certificate of registration.

It is the formal term for a vehicle’s registration certificate.

In everyday usage, depending on the country, people may think of it as the vehicle registration document. In France, this is the official registration paper for the car.

So:

• certificat = certificate
• immatriculation = registration

Together: registration certificate

Yes. This is the present tense in French.

French present tense can correspond to several English forms depending on context, including:

• we maintain
• we are maintaining
• sometimes even a habitual meaning like we maintain/service the car

So Nous entretenons... et prenons... is grammatically just the present tense, and English chooses the most natural translation from context.

Because prendre is an irregular verb.

Its present-tense forms are:

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

So prenons is simply the nous form of prendre.

A useful thing to notice is that many common French verbs are irregular, especially very frequent ones like être, avoir, faire, aller, and prendre.

Entretenir is related to tenir, and its stem changes in some present-tense forms.

Compare:

• j’entretiens
• tu entretiens
• il entretient
• nous entretenons
• vous entretenez
• ils entretiennent

So with nous, the form becomes entretenons, not entretenions or entretiens.

This kind of stem change is common in French verbs related to tenir and venir.

Yes. Prendre is a very flexible verb in French.

Depending on context, it can mean:

• take
• pick up
• get
• obtain
• bring (in some contexts)
• have (as in prendre un café = have a coffee)

So in this sentence, the best English choice depends on the intended meaning already given in your lesson. French often uses prendre where English might choose a more specific verb.

Yes, there is often a liaison after nous before a vowel sound.

• nous entretenons is commonly pronounced with a z sound linking the words:
  • nou-z-entretenons

But there is no liaison between et and the next word:

• et prenons → no linking sound after et

So the beginning sounds roughly like:

• nou-z-ahn-truh-tuh-non la vwa-tyur ay pruh-non...

The exact pronunciation varies by accent, but the key point is:

• liaison after nous before a vowel
• no liaison after et

In this sentence, each noun keeps its own article, which is normal:

• la voiture
• le certificat d’immatriculation

French usually keeps the article with each noun unless the nouns are very closely linked in a shared structure.

So this sentence is perfectly standard as written. You would not normally say:

• Nous entretenons voiture et prenons certificat...

because French generally requires the articles here.