Learn French: Je bois beaucoup parce que la viande est très salée. - I drink a lot because the meat is very salty.

This is the main rule for these words! Use beaucoup (a lot) to describe an action or verb, like je bois (I drink). Use très (very) to describe an adjective, like salée (salty). You cannot use très with a verb in French.

I learned to say beaucoup de. Why is there no de here?

You use beaucoup de when you are talking about an amount of a noun, like beaucoup d'eau (a lot of water). In this sentence, you are just saying that the action of drinking happens a lot. Since there is no noun right after it, you use beaucoup by itself.

Why does salée have an extra 'e' at the end?

In French, adjectives have to match the gender of the noun they describe. La viande (the meat) is a feminine word, so we add an e to the masculine adjective salé to make it feminine: salée. Both versions are pronounced exactly the same.

How do you pronounce je bois?

The verb boire (to drink) is irregular. For je bois, the letters 'oi' make a 'wa' sound, and the final 's' is completely silent. So it sounds like 'zhuh bwa'.