Learn French: Elle a coupé le chou pour la salade. - She cut the cabbage for the salad.

In the past tense (passé composé), verbs that use avoir as their helping verb do not change to match the subject. They only agree with a direct object if that object is placed before the verb. Since the object here (le chou) comes after the verb, coupé stays in its basic masculine singular form.

How do you make chou plural if she cut multiple cabbages?

You would write les choux. Nouns ending in -ou normally take an -s in the plural, but chou belongs to a famous group of seven exceptions that take an -x instead. Other common exceptions you might already know at this level are bijou (jewel) and genou (knee).

Why use pour la salade instead of à la salade?

We use pour here because it expresses the destination or intended purpose of the cabbage (it is destined for the salad). The preposition à is instead used to describe the main flavor or characteristic ingredient of a dish, such as une glace à la fraise (strawberry ice cream).

I've heard French people call each other mon chou. Does that really mean "my cabbage"?