Marie coupe les champignons et lave les épinards avant de préparer le dîner.

Because the subject is Marie, which is third-person singular (she).

In the present tense:

• je coupe
• tu coupes
• il/elle coupe
• nous coupons
• vous coupez
• ils/elles coupent

So:

• Marie coupe
• Marie lave

The same pattern applies to laver:

• elle lave

In French, just like in English, if the same subject is doing two actions, you usually do not repeat it.

So:

• Marie coupe les champignons et lave les épinards

means:

• Marie cuts the mushrooms and washes the spinach

Repeating Marie would sound unnecessary here:

• Marie coupe les champignons et Marie lave les épinards → grammatical, but not natural in normal speech.

Les is the plural definite article, meaning the.

So:

• les champignons = the mushrooms
• les épinards = the spinach

French often uses articles more regularly than English. Even when English might sometimes say just mushrooms or spinach, French often prefers:

• les champignons
• les épinards

Here, it refers to the ingredients Marie is working with.

French commonly uses épinards in the plural when talking about spinach as food.

So even though English usually says:

• spinach

French often says:

• les épinards

This is one of those cases where French and English organize the noun a little differently. A learner should simply get used to les épinards as the normal expression.

Because after avant followed by an infinitive, French normally uses de.

So the pattern is:

• avant de + infinitive

Examples:

• avant de partir = before leaving
• avant de manger = before eating
• avant de préparer le dîner = before preparing dinner

So avant préparer is not correct here.

Because after avant de, French uses the infinitive when the action is expressed in a general verbal form rather than as a fully conjugated clause.

So:

• avant de préparer le dîner

literally works like:

• before preparing dinner

If you wanted a full clause with a subject, you would structure it differently:

• avant qu’elle prépare... would not mean the same thing here and would require the subjunctive.

In this sentence, the infinitive is the natural choice.

French often uses an article where English may use no article.

So:

• préparer le dîner = prepare dinner

Even though English often says simply prepare dinner, French usually says:

• préparer le dîner

This is very common with meals and everyday nouns.

The present tense in French can do both, depending on context.

So this sentence could mean:

• Marie is cutting the mushrooms and washing the spinach before preparing dinner
  or
• Marie cuts the mushrooms and washes the spinach before preparing dinner

In many real situations, it will be understood as a current action, but grammatically the French present tense is broader than the English is doing form.

Because préparer is part of the structure avant de + infinitive.

French does not need to repeat the subject there if it is understood from context. The subject of préparer is the same person: Marie.

So the sentence naturally means:

• Marie cuts the mushrooms and washes the spinach before she prepares dinner.

French expresses that with:

• avant de préparer le dîner

rather than adding a separate elle.

The sentence follows a very standard French pattern:

• Marie = subject
• coupe = verb
• les champignons = direct object
• et lave = second verb joined by et
• les épinards = second direct object
• avant de préparer le dîner = time expression

So the structure is basically:

Subject + verb + object + et + verb + object + time phrase

This is very similar to normal English word order, which is why the sentence feels fairly straightforward.

A careful approximate pronunciation is:

Ma-rie coop lay sham-pee-NYON ay lav lay zay-pee-NAR ah-VAHN duh pray-pah-RAY luh dee-NAY

A few useful notes:

• coupe → the final e is silent
• champignons → the gn sounds like ny
• épinards → the final s is silent
• avant → the final t is usually silent
• préparer → the final r is pronounced
• dîner → the final r is pronounced

Also notice the link in:

• les épinards

Many speakers pronounce a z sound between the words:

• lay zay-pin-ar

No. The natural correct form here is:

• avant de préparer le dîner

Why?

1. avant needs de before an infinitive
2. dîner normally takes the article le in this expression

So:

• avant préparer le dîner ❌
• avant de préparer dîner ❌
• avant de préparer le dîner ✅

Yes. Et is the regular French word for and.

It joins the two actions:

• coupe les champignons
• lave les épinards

So:

• Marie coupe les champignons et lave les épinards

means Marie does both actions. It works just like and in English.