Learn Hardcore French: Nous coupons un oignon et un peu d’ail pour la soupe. - We cut an onion and a bit of garlic for the soup.

It’s the present tense of the regular -ER verb couper with the subject nous (we). Conjugation: je coupe, tu coupes, il/elle coupe, nous coupons, vous coupez, ils/elles coupent. Here it means “we are cutting / we cut.”

How do you pronounce nous coupons?

nous: [nu], final -s silent.
coupons: [ku.pɔ̃] (roughly “koo-pon”), final -s silent, nasal vowel at the end. It does not rhyme with English “coupons” exactly, but it’s close; keep the final nasal sound.

Why is it un oignon and not something like de l’oignon?

un oignon means one whole onion (countable, masculine).
de l’oignon means some onion (an unspecified amount, mass/uncountable). Here the idea is “one onion,” so the indefinite article un is correct.

What’s the gender of oignon, and how is it pronounced?

Gender: masculine (un oignon).
Pronunciation: [wa.ɲɔ̃] (roughly “wah-nyon” with a nasal final). The spelling is tricky; the accepted 1990 variant ognon also exists, but oignon is far more common.

Do I make any liaison in un oignon?

A liaison is possible: un‿oignon → [œ̃.nwa.ɲɔ̃]. It’s natural in careful speech. After et, however, liaison is forbidden, so in oignon et un…, don’t link.

Why is it un peu d’ail and not un peu de l’ail or du ail?

After quantity expressions (beaucoup de, peu de, un peu de, trop de, etc.), French uses plain de (not du/de la/de l’). Before a vowel, de elides to d’. So:

✅ un peu d’ail
❌ un peu de l’ail (wrong with a quantity word)
❌ du ail (also wrong here; even outside quantity words it would be de l’ail, not “du ail”)

Why is there an apostrophe in d’ail?

It’s elision. de + a word starting with a vowel or mute h becomes d’ (to avoid a hiatus): un peu d’ail, beaucoup d’eau, pas d’habitude.

Is ail countable in French? What about “cloves of garlic”?

ail is generally a mass noun (masculine): de l’ail, un peu d’ail.
To count pieces, use une gousse d’ail (a clove of garlic), deux gousses d’ail, etc.
The rare plural of ail is ails or the traditional aulx, but in cooking we almost always count gousses.

How do you pronounce ail?

Like [aj], similar to the English “eye.” So d’ail sounds like “d-eye.”

Why pour la soupe and not just pour soupe?

French generally requires an article with nouns. la soupe (definite, feminine) is natural here because it’s the soup you’re making/talking about. English often drops the article (“for soup”), but French does not.

Could I say pour une soupe instead?

You could, but it changes the nuance to “for a soup (some soup or a particular kind)” rather than the specific soup at hand. In recipes or a specific context, pour la soupe is more typical.

Why not pour de la soupe?

pour de la soupe would mean “in exchange for some soup” or “for the purpose of obtaining some soup,” which is odd here. To express purpose (“for the soup we’re making”), use pour la soupe.

Can I move the purpose phrase to the front?

Yes: Pour la soupe, nous coupons un oignon et un peu d’ail. Fronting the purpose is fine and sounds natural.

Would on coupe be more natural than nous coupons?

In everyday spoken French, on often replaces nous: On coupe un oignon… It sounds very natural. In recipes addressed to the reader, you’ll also see the imperative: Coupez un oignon…

Is couper the best verb for kitchen instructions? What about hacher, émincer, or ciseler?

couper: to cut (general).
découper: to cut up into pieces.
hacher: to chop finely (esp. for garlic, herbs).
émincer: to slice thinly (often onions).
ciseler: to finely dice an onion/herbs with a chef’s technique. So depending on the texture you want, you might say émincer un oignon or hacher de l’ail.

Are there any object pronouns I could use if I didn’t want to repeat the nouns?

Yes:

For things introduced by de (like d’ail), use en: Nous en coupons un peu (“We’re cutting a bit of it” = a bit of garlic).
For a specific onion already mentioned, you could use le: Nous le coupons (“We’re cutting it”). But don’t say Nous le coupons un peu for “We’re cutting a bit of garlic”—use en for quantities with de.

How would I negate the sentence?

Place ne … pas around the verb, and note that after negation, mass/indefinite nouns usually become de/d’:

Nous ne coupons pas d’ail pour la soupe. (We aren’t cutting any garlic for the soup.)
Nous ne coupons pas d’oignon.

Any punctuation concerns with et in French?

No Oxford/serial comma in French before et. You simply write: un oignon et un peu d’ail (no comma before et).