Meine Freundin pustet auf den Kaffee, bevor sie ihn probiert.

Because Freundin is a feminine noun in German: die Freundin.

Possessive words like mein change their ending to match the noun’s gender, number, and case.

So in the nominative feminine singular, you get:

• mein Freund = my boyfriend / my male friend
• meine Freundin = my girlfriend / my female friend

Here, Freundin is the subject of the sentence, so nominative is needed.

It can mean either, depending on context.

Very often, meine Freundin is understood as my girlfriend.
If you want to make it clearer that you mean a female friend, German speakers often say something like:

• eine Freundin von mir = a female friend of mine

So the sentence could be interpreted either way unless the wider context makes it clear.

Because all nouns are capitalized in German.

So in this sentence, these words are capitalized because they are nouns:

• Freundin
• Kaffee

This is one of the most noticeable spelling differences between German and English.

Because pusten auf is the natural way to say to blow on something in German.

So:

• auf den Kaffee pusten = to blow on the coffee

German often uses a verb + preposition combination where English might also use a preposition, but the exact structure does not always match perfectly word-for-word.

Here, auf is part of the normal expression with pusten.

Because Kaffee is masculine: der Kaffee.

In this sentence, after auf, German uses the accusative:

• der Kaffee = nominative
• den Kaffee = accusative

So you get:

• auf den Kaffee

For learners, the important thing is to remember the expression as auf + accusative here.

Also notice the connection later in the sentence:

• den Kaffee
• ihn

The pronoun ihn is accusative masculine singular, and it refers back to Kaffee.

Because bevor introduces a subordinate clause, and in German, subordinate clauses are normally separated from the main clause by a comma.

So the sentence is divided like this:

• Meine Freundin pustet auf den Kaffee
• bevor sie ihn probiert

This comma is required in standard German.

Bevor sends the verb to the end of the subordinate clause.

Compare:

• Main clause: Meine Freundin pustet auf den Kaffee.
• Subordinate clause: bevor sie ihn probiert

In the subordinate clause, the conjugated verb probiert comes at the end.

That is a very important German pattern:

• weil ...
• dass ...
• bevor ...
• wenn ...

These kinds of words often introduce subordinate clauses with verb-final word order.

Because in a subordinate clause, the conjugated verb usually goes to the end.

So:

• Main clause word order: Sie probiert ihn.
• Subordinate clause word order: bevor sie ihn probiert

The pronoun ihn stays before the final verb.

This is completely normal German word order in subordinate clauses.

• sie refers to meine Freundin
• ihn refers to den Kaffee

So:

• sie = she
• ihn = him / it (accusative masculine singular)

Since Kaffee is masculine in German (der Kaffee), the matching accusative pronoun is ihn.

English uses it, but German pronouns follow the noun’s grammatical gender, so coffee becomes ihn here.

Here it means tastes.

The verb probieren can mean:

• to try
• to test
• to taste

In the context of food or drink, it often means to taste or to try some of it.

So bevor sie ihn probiert means before she tastes it.

Yes. That is also correct.

German is flexible about putting the subordinate clause first or second.

So both are fine:

• Meine Freundin pustet auf den Kaffee, bevor sie ihn probiert.
• Bevor sie ihn probiert, pustet meine Freundin auf den Kaffee.

If the bevor clause comes first, the main clause still follows normal German rules, which means the finite verb comes early:

• ..., pustet meine Freundin ...

No, but it is a natural everyday choice.

Other possibilities include:

• auf den Kaffee blasen = to blow on the coffee

Pusten often sounds a bit more casual and conversational.
Blasen is also correct, but learners should be aware that it has other meanings too, so context matters.

For a simple everyday sentence, pusten works very well.