Потом мы убрали сорняки, потому что без них грядки выглядят чище.

Убрали is the perfective past tense of убрать. It presents the action as completed: we removed the weeds.

Убирали would be the imperfective past of убирать, which would focus more on the process, repeated action, or background action:

• Мы убрали сорняки = we removed the weeds / got rid of them
• Мы убирали сорняки = we were removing weeds / used to remove weeds

In this sentence, the speaker is talking about a finished step in a sequence, so убрали is the natural choice.

In this sentence, убрать means to remove, clear away, or get rid of.

This verb is very broad in Russian and can mean different things depending on context:

• убрать комнату = tidy/clean the room
• убрать со стола = clear the table
• убрать сорняки = remove the weeds

So here it does not mean just tidied in a general sense; it specifically means the weeds were taken away.

Сорняки is the accusative plural form here, because it is the direct object of убрали.

The important point is that сорняки is an inanimate noun, and for most inanimate nouns in Russian, the accusative plural looks the same as the nominative plural.

So:

• nominative plural: сорняки = weeds
• accusative plural: сорняки = weeds

If it were an animate noun, the accusative plural would usually match the genitive plural instead.

Russian often uses a pronoun instead of repeating the noun, just like English does.

So:

• без сорняков = without weeds
• без них = without them

Here, них clearly refers back to сорняки. Using the pronoun makes the sentence sound more natural and less repetitive.

After many prepositions in Russian, the third-person pronouns get an extra н- at the beginning.

So:

• их = them
• без них = without them
• у них = by them / at their place / they have
• к ним = to them

This is a normal grammatical rule. Since без is a preposition, Russian uses них, not их.

Них is in the genitive case because it follows the preposition без.

The preposition без always takes the genitive and means without.

Examples:

• без воды = without water
• без друга = without a friend
• без сорняков = without weeds
• без них = without them

So the form is determined by the preposition.

Here грядки is the nominative plural because it is the subject of выглядят.

The basic structure is:

• грядки выглядят чище = the beds look cleaner

So:

• грядки = the garden beds
• выглядят = look
• чище = cleaner

Even though грядки also looks like accusative plural for an inanimate noun, in this sentence its role is clearly the subject, so it is nominative.

Чище is the comparative form of чистый (clean), and after выглядеть it works like cleaner in English.

So:

• грядки выглядят чистыми would mean something like the beds look clean
• грядки выглядят чище = the beds look cleaner

A few useful points:

• чище is an irregular-looking comparative, but it is the normal form
• it does not change for gender or number here
• более чистые is possible in some contexts, but чище is much more natural in this sentence

Потому что means because. It introduces the reason for the first part of the sentence.

So the structure is:

• Потом мы убрали сорняки = Then we removed the weeds
• потому что без них грядки выглядят чище = because without them the beds look cleaner

This is one of the most common ways to say because in Russian.

Because потому что introduces a subordinate clause, Russian normally puts a comma before it.

So:

• Потом мы убрали сорняки, потому что без них грядки выглядят чище.

This is standard Russian punctuation. In English, punctuation around because works differently, so this often stands out to learners.

Yes. Russian word order is more flexible than English word order, because case endings show the grammatical roles.

For example, these are possible:

• Потом мы убрали сорняки, потому что без них грядки выглядят чище.
• Потом сорняки мы убрали, потому что без них грядки выглядят чище.
• Потому что без них грядки выглядят чище, потом мы убрали сорняки.

But the original version is the most neutral and natural. Changing the order usually changes emphasis, not the core meaning.

Russian has no articles like a or the. Whether something is definite or indefinite is understood from context.

So:

• сорняки can mean weeds or the weeds
• грядки can mean beds or the beds

In this sentence, the context makes them sound definite: the speaker is talking about specific weeds in specific garden beds, so English usually uses the.

A грядка is a garden bed or vegetable bed—a raised or marked strip of soil where things are planted.

So грядки here means something like:

• garden beds
• planting beds
• vegetable beds

It is more specific than just garden or yard.