Je coupe un poivron rouge et une courgette pour préparer le dîner.

Je coupe is the normal present tense form of couper: I cut / I am cutting.

In French, the simple present often covers both:

• I cut
• I am cutting

So Je coupe un poivron rouge... can mean I cut a red pepper... or I’m cutting a red pepper..., depending on context.

A form like Je suis coupant would not be natural here. French usually does not use a present progressive form the way English does.

Because French nouns have grammatical gender.

• poivron is masculine, so it takes un
• courgette is feminine, so it takes une

So:

• un poivron rouge
• une courgette

This gender is grammatical, not biological. You usually just have to learn each noun with its article.

In French, most color adjectives come after the noun.

So:

• un poivron rouge = a red pepper
• une voiture bleue = a blue car
• des tomates vertes = green tomatoes

English usually puts adjectives before the noun, but French often puts them after. Colors almost always follow the noun.

Adjectives usually agree with the noun in gender and number, but rouge happens to have the same form in the masculine singular and feminine singular.

Here:

• poivron is masculine singular
• so rouge stays rouge

If the noun were plural, you would add -s:

• des poivrons rouges

For a feminine singular noun, it is still:

• une tomate rouge

So rouge does agree, but you do not hear or see a change in the singular.

No. In this sentence, rouge only describes poivron.

So the structure is:

• un poivron rouge = a red pepper
• et une courgette = and a zucchini/courgette

It does not mean that both vegetables are red.

If you wanted both to be red, French would normally make that clearer, for example:

• un poivron et une courgette rouges

After pour to express purpose, French normally uses the infinitive when the subject is the same.

So:

• Je coupe ... pour préparer le dîner = I cut ... in order to prepare dinner

This is the same idea as:

• pour manger = in order to eat
• pour apprendre = in order to learn

French does not say:

• pour je prépare in this kind of structure.

French often uses the definite article with meals and general everyday activities.

So:

• le dîner = dinner
• le petit-déjeuner = breakfast
• le déjeuner = lunch

Even when English would often say my dinner or just dinner, French commonly says le dîner.

Mon dîner is possible, but it sounds more specifically like my dinner as a personal possession or contrast. In a normal sentence like this, le dîner is the natural choice.

Yes. Couper is a broad verb meaning to cut. Depending on context, English might translate it as:

• cut
• chop
• slice

In a cooking sentence like this, Je coupe un poivron rouge et une courgette could naturally be understood as:

• I cut
• I chop
• I slice

If French wants to be more specific, it can use other expressions, but couper is very common and flexible.

French often does not need a separate particle like English up.

English frequently uses phrasal verbs:

• cut up
• chop up
• slice up

French usually just uses the main verb:

• couper

So Je coupe un poivron rouge already gives the right idea in context.

A rough pronunciation guide is:

zhuh koop un pwav-ron roozh ay oon koor-zhet poor pray-paray luh dee-nay

A few helpful points:

• Je sounds like zhuh
• coupe sounds like koop
• poivron is roughly pwav-ron
• rouge sounds like roozh
• courgette sounds like koor-zhet
• dîner sounds like dee-nay

Also, in natural speech, French may link words smoothly together, so the sentence sounds more connected than the English spelling suggests.

Yes, but it changes the feel slightly.

• Je coupe un poivron rouge... = neutral, normal, everyday way to say I’m cutting / I cut
• Je suis en train de couper un poivron rouge... = emphasizes that the action is happening right now

The longer form is correct, but in ordinary French, the simple present is much more common unless you really want to stress the ongoing action.