Je n’aime pas trop les haricots quand ils sont froids, mais les épinards me plaisent toujours.

Because ne becomes n’ before a vowel sound. The full negative pattern is ne ... pas:

Je n’aime pas = I do not like

French avoids ne aime, so it changes to n’aime.

Yes. In casual spoken French, many people say:

J’aime pas trop les haricots...

instead of

Je n’aime pas trop les haricots...

But in standard writing, and in careful speech, ne ... pas is still the normal form.

Here, pas trop softens the statement. It usually means something like:

• not very much
• not really
• not too much

So Je n’aime pas trop les haricots is a bit less blunt than a strong rejection. It sounds more like I’m not very fond of beans than I hate beans.

In French, you often use the definite article to talk about things in general.

So:

• les haricots = beans in general
• les épinards = spinach as a general food / vegetable

English often leaves the article out in this kind of sentence, but French usually does not.

Ils refers back to les haricots. Since les haricots is plural, the pronoun is plural too.

So the structure is:

• les haricots = the beans
• ils = they

French normally repeats the subject with a pronoun after quand, si, parce que, and so on.

Because froids agrees with haricots.

• haricots is masculine plural
• so the adjective must also be masculine plural: froids

Compare:

• le haricot froid
• les haricots froids

The final s marks the plural in writing, even though it is usually silent in pronunciation.

French has two common ways to talk about liking something:

• aimer = to like / love
• plaire à = to please

So:

• J’aime les épinards = I like spinach
• Les épinards me plaisent = Spinach pleases me

The second one is very natural in French. The structure is different from English:

• the thing liked becomes the grammatical subject
• the person is shown with an indirect object pronoun: me

So les épinards me plaisent literally works like spinach is pleasing to me.

Because the verb agrees with les épinards, which is plural.

• l’épinard me plaît = singular
• les épinards me plaisent = plural

This is a very common thing to watch for with plaire: the verb agrees with the thing that is pleasing, not with the person who likes it.

In this sentence, toujours most naturally means always.

So the idea is that even though the speaker does not like beans when they are cold, spinach is pleasing to them in all cases.

It is true that toujours can also mean still in other contexts, so learners often find it tricky. But here always is the best fit.

That position is very natural in French. Adverbs like toujours, souvent, and parfois often come after the conjugated verb or later in the clause.

So:

les épinards me plaisent toujours

sounds completely normal.

French word order with adverbs is not always identical to English, so it is best to learn common patterns rather than translate word by word.

French often uses les épinards when talking about spinach as a food. So even though English usually says spinach as an uncountable singular noun, French commonly treats it as plural in this context.

You can think of les épinards as the usual food-word for spinach.

Normally, there is no liaison between les and haricots.

That is because haricot has an aspirated h in French. Even though the h is not pronounced, it blocks liaison and elision.

So you get:

• les haricots not lez haricots
• le haricot not l’haricot

This is something you just have to learn word by word, because some French words with h allow liaison and some do not.

Yes, and it would be correct. But the nuance is a little different.

• les haricots quand ils sont froids focuses on the situation: beans when they are cold
• les haricots froids treats cold beans more like a category

The original sentence sounds a bit more conversational and descriptive. Your version is shorter and more compact. Both are natural.