Meine Mutter legt die Handcreme in ihre Tasche, bevor sie zur Arbeit geht.

Legen means to lay, to put down, or more generally to place something somewhere.

In this sentence, legt is the 3rd person singular form, matching meine Mutter:

• ich lege
• du legst
• er/sie/es legt

So Meine Mutter legt ... = My mother puts/places ...

German often uses different verbs for put, depending on the kind of placement:

• legen = lay/place something horizontally or generally put it somewhere
• stellen = stand/place something upright
• setzen = set someone/something into a sitting position

With something like Handcreme, legen sounds natural.

Die Handcreme is the direct object of the sentence — it is the thing being put into the bag.

The verb legen takes an object in the accusative case, and die Handcreme is already the accusative form here.

This noun is feminine:

• nominative: die Handcreme
• accusative: die Handcreme

Because feminine nouns often look the same in nominative and accusative, the form does not change.

This is a very common question because in is a two-way preposition.

With in, you use:

• accusative when there is movement toward a destination
• dative when there is location with no movement

Here, the cream is being moved into the bag, so German uses the accusative:

• in ihre Tasche = into her bag

Compare:

• Sie legt die Handcreme in ihre Tasche.
  She puts the hand cream into her bag.
  → movement → accusative

• Die Handcreme ist in ihrer Tasche.
  The hand cream is in her bag.
  → location → dative

Ihre means her here, and it agrees with Tasche, which is a feminine noun.

Because Tasche is feminine and the phrase is in the accusative, the form is:

• ihre Tasche

Here is the pattern:

• nominative feminine: ihre Tasche
• accusative feminine: ihre Tasche
• dative feminine: ihrer Tasche

So the reason it is ihre and not ihrer is that this phrase is accusative, not dative.

Bevor means before and introduces a subordinate clause.

In German subordinate clauses, the conjugated verb goes to the end. That is why you get:

• bevor sie zur Arbeit geht

not:

• bevor sie geht zur Arbeit

So the structure is:

• main clause: Meine Mutter legt die Handcreme in ihre Tasche
• subordinate clause: bevor sie zur Arbeit geht

This verb-final pattern is one of the most important features of German subordinate clauses.

Zur is just the contraction of:

• zu der → zur

So:

• zur Arbeit = to work

This contraction is very common and usually preferred.

A few useful contractions:

• zu dem → zum
• an dem → am
• in dem → im
• bei dem → beim

So zur Arbeit gehen is the normal expression for to go to work.

German uses the present tense very often for things that happen:

• regularly
• habitually
• in the near future

So bevor sie zur Arbeit geht can mean:

• before she goes to work
• before she is going to work
• before she leaves for work

This is normal German usage. You do not need a future tense here.

Grammatically, sie could in theory refer to either meine Mutter or die Handcreme, because both are feminine.

But in real usage, context makes the meaning clear. Here:

• zur Arbeit geht strongly suggests a person
• hand cream does not go to work

So the listener naturally understands sie as meine Mutter.

This is a good example of how German pronouns can sometimes be grammatically ambiguous but still perfectly clear in context.

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

So:

• Mutter
• Handcreme
• Tasche
• Arbeit

are all capitalized because they are nouns.

This is very different from English and is something learners have to get used to.

German has different word-order rules for main clauses and subordinate clauses.

In a main clause, the conjugated verb usually comes in second position:

• Meine Mutter legt die Handcreme in ihre Tasche.

Here, Meine Mutter is in the first position, so legt must come second.

In a subordinate clause introduced by a word like bevor, the conjugated verb goes to the end:

• bevor sie zur Arbeit geht

So the sentence shows both important patterns at once:

• main clause: verb in second position
• subordinate clause: verb at the end

In some regions, especially in colloquial speech, people do say auf die Arbeit. But standard German usually prefers:

• zur Arbeit gehen

So for learners, zur Arbeit gehen is the safest and most widely accepted form.

Compare:

• Sie geht zur Arbeit. = standard / neutral
• Sie geht auf die Arbeit. = regional / colloquial in some areas

Yes. German very often combines nouns into a single compound noun.

Here:

• Hand = hand
• Creme = cream

Together:

• Handcreme = hand cream

This is extremely common in German. Some examples:

• Hausaufgabe = homework
• Kühlschrank = refrigerator
• Zahnbürste = toothbrush

When learning German, it helps to get used to seeing one long noun where English uses two or more words.

Yes. You could also say:

• Bevor sie zur Arbeit geht, legt meine Mutter die Handcreme in ihre Tasche.

That means the same thing.

But notice what happens in the main clause after the subordinate clause comes first:

• Bevor sie zur Arbeit geht, legt meine Mutter ...

The verb legt comes immediately after the subordinate clause. This is because the whole subordinate clause counts as the first element, so the verb still has to be in second position in the main clause.

That is another very important German word-order rule.