Im Winter benutze ich oft Handcreme, weil meine Hände trocken sind.

German main clauses follow the verb-second rule. That means the conjugated verb must be in the second position, but the first position can be taken by different elements.

So in:

Im Winter benutze ich oft Handcreme

the phrase Im Winter is in first position, so the verb benutze must come next, and ich comes after it.

You could also say:

Ich benutze im Winter oft Handcreme.

That is also correct, but it puts a little less emphasis on in winter.

Im is a contraction of in dem.

• in dem Winter → im Winter

With seasons, German often uses in + dative, so:

• im Winter = in winter / during the winter

This is the normal and natural way to say it.

Because Winter is a noun, and all German nouns are capitalized.

That is why you see:

• Winter
• Handcreme
• Hände

all with capital letters.

Because once something else takes the first position, the verb still has to stay in second position.

Structure here:

1. Im Winter
2. benutze
3. ich
4. oft
5. Handcreme

So this is a normal German word order pattern:

• Time expression + verb + subject

If the sentence started with Ich, then you would get:

Ich benutze im Winter oft Handcreme.

In German, adverbs like oft usually come before the object in a neutral sentence.

So:

• Ich benutze oft Handcreme.

sounds natural and standard.

If you move oft, the meaning or emphasis can shift slightly. For example:

• Ich benutze Handcreme oft.

is possible in some contexts, but it sounds less neutral and more marked.

German very often forms compound nouns by joining words together.

So:

• Hand = hand
• Creme = cream

becomes:

• Handcreme = hand cream

This is extremely common in German. English often writes these as two words, but German usually combines them into one.

Other examples:

• Winterjacke = winter jacket
• Hausaufgabe = homework
• Zahnbürste = toothbrush

In standard German, no. The normal spelling is Handcreme as one compound noun.

Writing it as two words would usually be considered incorrect in standard writing.

Meine Hände means my hands.

• meine = my
• Hände = hands

It is meine because Hände is plural. In the nominative plural, the possessive mein takes the ending -e:

• meine Hände

This is the subject of the clause:

weil meine Hände trocken sind

So the hands are the thing that are dry.

The noun Hand has an irregular plural:

• singular: die Hand
• plural: die Hände

The plural adds -e and also changes a to ä. This vowel change is called an umlaut.

Many German nouns form their plural this way.

Because trocken is a predicate adjective after the verb sein.

In German, adjectives used after verbs like sein, werden, and bleiben do not take endings.

So:

• Meine Hände sind trocken.
• Der Kaffee ist heiß.
• Das Wetter wird kalt.

But if the adjective comes before a noun, then it does take an ending:

• trockene Hände = dry hands

So:

• meine Hände sind trocken ✔
• meine Hände sind trockene ✘

Because the part after weil is a subordinate clause, and in German subordinate clauses the conjugated verb usually goes to the end.

So:

• weil meine Hände trocken sind

This is one of the most important word order patterns in German.

Compare:

Main clause:

• Meine Hände sind trocken.

Subordinate clause:

• ..., weil meine Hände trocken sind.

Weil means because.

It introduces the reason:

• I often use hand cream in winter, because my hands are dry.

It also triggers subordinate-clause word order, which is why sind moves to the end.

Yes, but the word order changes.

With weil, the verb goes to the end:

• Im Winter benutze ich oft Handcreme, weil meine Hände trocken sind.

With denn, the clause keeps normal main-clause word order:

• Im Winter benutze ich oft Handcreme, denn meine Hände sind trocken.

Both mean because, but weil is very common in everyday speech.

Because weil creates a subordinate clause, and subordinate clauses in German usually place the verb at the end.

So the normal order:

• meine Hände sind trocken

becomes:

• weil meine Hände trocken sind

This is not optional in standard German grammar.

Yes. Benutze is the 1st person singular present tense of benutzen.

• ich benutze = I use

German often uses the present tense for habitual actions, just like English:

• Im Winter benutze ich oft Handcreme.
• In summer I wear sandals.
• On Sundays I sleep late.

So the sentence means a regular habit, not just something happening right now.

It is the ich form of benutzen in the present tense.

The present tense forms are:

• ich benutze
• du benutzt
• er/sie/es benutzt
• wir benutzen
• ihr benutzt
• sie/Sie benutzen

So in this sentence, benutze matches ich.

Both are possible.

• benutzen = to use
• verwenden = to use

In this sentence, benutzen sounds completely natural.
You could also say:

Im Winter verwende ich oft Handcreme, weil meine Hände trocken sind.

That is also correct. In many contexts, the two verbs are very similar.

Because after verbs like benutzen, German often leaves out the article when talking about a substance or item in a general sense.

So:

• Ich benutze oft Handcreme.

means I often use hand cream in a general way.

If you wanted to talk about a specific hand cream, you could use an article:

• Ich benutze oft die Handcreme aus der Apotheke.
• Ich benutze eine neue Handcreme.

Yes:

Weil meine Hände trocken sind, benutze ich im Winter oft Handcreme.

That is completely correct.

When the subordinate clause comes first, the main clause still follows the verb-second rule, so:

• ..., benutze ich ...

not:

• ..., ich benutze ...

A helpful way to see it is:

Im Winter | benutze | ich | oft Handcreme,
weil | meine Hände | trocken | sind.

So:

• Im Winter = time expression
• benutze ich oft Handcreme = main clause
• weil meine Hände trocken sind = subordinate clause giving the reason

This sentence is a very good example of two key German patterns:

1. Verb second in the main clause
2. Verb final in the subordinate clause after weil