Learn Hardcore German: Die Kinder spielen vor dem Stall. - The children play in front of the stable.

So die here is not the feminine article; it’s the plural definite article. Die is used for all genders in the plural (die Männer, die Frauen, die Kinder).

Why are Kinder and Stall capitalized?

In German, all nouns are capitalized, no matter where they appear in the sentence.

Kinder is a noun (children) → capitalized.
Stall is a noun (stable/barn) → capitalized.

Verbs (spielen) and prepositions (vor) are not capitalized unless they’re at the beginning of a sentence or part of a proper noun.

Why is it just spielen and not something like “are playing” (with a form of sein)?

German doesn’t need an extra helping verb like sein (to be) to form a progressive (“are playing”). The simple present often covers both English “play” and “are playing”:

Die Kinder spielen vor dem Stall.
→ The children play in front of the stable.
→ The children are playing in front of the stable.

You only use sein + Participle (e.g. sind spielend) in special contexts, not as a general present continuous like in English.

What exactly does vor mean here? Is it “before” or “in front of”?

vor can mean:

in front of / outside (spatial)
before (in time)

In this sentence, vor dem Stall is clearly spatial, so it means:

in front of the stable / outside the stable

A temporal reading like “before the stable” (in time) doesn’t make sense with spielen, so speakers automatically interpret it as spatial.

Why is it vor dem Stall and not vor den Stall?

vor is a two-way preposition. It can take:

dative for a location (no movement into a new place)
accusative for movement toward/into a place

Here, the children are simply located in front of the stable; they are not moving there:

Die Kinder spielen vor dem Stall.
→ dative (dem) because it’s a static location.

If there were movement to that position, you’d use accusative:

Die Kinder laufen vor den Stall.
→ The children run (to the area) in front of the stable.

Why specifically dem? What case and gender is Stall?

The basic form is:

der Stall – the stable / the barn (masculine)

With vor + location, we use dative:

masculine dative singular: dem
(der → dem)

So:

der Stall (nominative)
dem Stall (dative after vor expressing location)

That’s why the phrase is vor dem Stall.

Can I say vor Stall without the article?

Normally, no. A countable, specific place like Stall usually needs an article:

vor dem Stall – in front of the (specific) stable

Leaving out the article (vor Stall) sounds ungrammatical or, at best, very odd in standard German. You can drop articles sometimes with certain nouns (e.g. zu Hause, im Krankenhaus in fixed expressions), but Stall is not one of those.

Is the word order fixed, or can I say Vor dem Stall spielen die Kinder?

You can change the word order as long as the conjugated verb stays in second position:

Die Kinder spielen vor dem Stall.
Vor dem Stall spielen die Kinder.

Both are correct. The difference is in emphasis:

Starting with Die Kinder highlights who is playing.
Starting with Vor dem Stall highlights where they are playing.

But grammatically, both are fine.

What’s the nuance of Stall? Does it mean “barn,” “stable,” or something else?

der Stall is a general word for an animal enclosure. It can refer to:

a stall / stable for horses, cows, etc.
a smaller pen / coop (e.g. Hühnerstall – chicken coop)

In many contexts it’s translated as stable or barn, but it depends on the type of animals and local usage. The plural is die Ställe.

How would the sentence change if the children are running to the area in front of the stable?

Then we describe movement toward a place, so vor takes the accusative:

Die Kinder laufen vor den Stall.
→ The children run (to the area) in front of the stable.

Compare:

Die Kinder spielen vor dem Stall. – dative (location)
Die Kinder laufen vor den Stall. – accusative (destination / movement)

How do I say “The children played in front of the stable” in German?

Use the present perfect, which is the most common spoken past:

Die Kinder haben vor dem Stall gespielt.

Breakdown:

haben – auxiliary for spielen
gespielt – past participle of spielen
vor dem Stall – same prepositional phrase as in the present tense sentence