Ma sœur n’aime pas la dinde, alors à Noël elle prépare plutôt du poisson pour elle-même.

Because sœur is a feminine noun, so the possessive adjective must also be feminine: ma.

In French, my / your / his / her agree with the noun being possessed, not with the person who owns it.

• ma sœur = my sister
• mon frère = my brother

So ma sœur is the correct form here.

That is because ne becomes n’ before a vowel sound.

The full negative structure is:

• ne ... pas

So:

• elle ne aime pas → not allowed
• elle n’aime pas → correct

This shortening is called elision.

It is the standard French negation around the verb.

Here is the structure:

• elle aime = she likes
• elle n’aime pas = she does not like

So ne ... pas goes around the conjugated verb:

• Elle n’aime pas la dinde.

In everyday spoken French, people often drop ne and say Elle aime pas la dinde, but in normal written French, ne ... pas is expected.

After verbs like aimer, adorer, détester, French usually uses the definite article when talking about something in a general sense.

So:

• Elle aime le chocolat. = She likes chocolate.
• Il déteste les épinards. = He hates spinach.
• Elle n’aime pas la dinde. = She doesn’t like turkey.

This does not mean one specific turkey. It means turkey as a food, in general.

So la dinde is correct because the sentence is about what she likes or does not like generally.

Because here the sentence is not talking about fish in general as a category. It is talking about some fish that she prepares.

• le poisson = fish in general, or a specific fish already known from context
• du poisson = some fish, an unspecified amount of fish

So:

• Elle aime le poisson. = She likes fish.
• Elle prépare du poisson. = She prepares some fish.

This is the difference between the definite article and the partitive article.

Because the negative in this sentence is attached to aime, not to prépare.

The sentence has two different verbs:

• n’aime pas = negative
• prépare = affirmative

So:

• Elle n’aime pas la dinde = negative statement about liking turkey
• elle prépare plutôt du poisson = affirmative statement about preparing some fish

If the second verb were negative, then you would normally expect de:

• Elle ne prépare pas de poisson. = She is not preparing any fish.

But that is not what this sentence says.

Here, alors means so, therefore, or as a result.

It links the two ideas:

• she does not like turkey
• so she prepares fish instead

So in this sentence, alors is a connector showing consequence.

Here plutôt means rather or instead.

So:

• elle prépare plutôt du poisson = she prepares fish instead / she rather prepares fish

It shows a contrast with turkey. Since she does not like turkey, she chooses fish instead.

In everyday English, instead is usually the most natural translation here.

In a sentence like this, plutôt usually comes after the conjugated verb and before the thing being chosen or done instead.

So:

• elle prépare plutôt du poisson

This is a very natural position because plutôt modifies the action-choice: she prepares fish rather than turkey.

French adverb placement is not always the same as English, but this order is normal and idiomatic here.

French normally says à Noël for at Christmas.

It is a fixed expression:

• à Noël = at Christmas
• à Pâques = at Easter

You do not normally say en Noël or au Noël.

Also, there is no article here because Noël is being used as the name of the holiday, not as a common noun needing le.

Yes, but the meaning is slightly different.

• à Noël = at Christmas time
• pour Noël = for Christmas

In this sentence, à Noël focuses on the time when this happens.
Pour Noël would focus a bit more on the occasion or purpose.

Both can work in many contexts, but à Noël is very natural here.

The two dots are called a diaeresis.

In Noël, they show that the letters are pronounced separately:

• No-ël

Without the diaeresis, French readers might group the vowels differently.

So the spelling helps signal the pronunciation.

Pour elle-même means for herself in an emphatic, very clear way.

• pour elle can mean for her
• pour elle-même specifically means for herself

The longer form makes it clear that she is preparing the fish for her own meal, not for some other woman.

It adds emphasis and removes ambiguity.

Yes. Elle se prépare du poisson is also possible and means she prepares herself some fish.

That structure is a bit more compact:

• se préparer quelque chose = to prepare oneself something

But elle prépare du poisson pour elle-même is more explicit and puts extra emphasis on the fact that the fish is for her personally.

So both are possible, but they are not identical in tone.

-même adds emphasis, like self in English.

Examples:

• moi-même = myself
• toi-même = yourself
• elle-même = herself
• eux-mêmes = themselves

So pour elle-même literally means something like for herself herself, but in natural English it is simply for herself.

It is used when French wants to stress identity or reflexive emphasis.

Sœur is pronounced roughly like sur in British English, though not exactly. The vowel is a French sound that English does not really have in the same way.

The œ is a special French vowel spelling. You see it in words like:

• sœur
• cœur
• œuf

So sœur is not pronounced like soor or see-ur. It is one syllable.

Yes, normally when même is attached to a stressed pronoun, French uses a hyphen:

• moi-même
• toi-même
• lui-même
• elle-même
• nous-mêmes
• eux-mêmes

So the hyphen in elle-même is standard spelling.