عندما تطبخ امي اللحم، تضع قليلا من الملح في القدر.

When my mother cooks meat, she puts a little salt in the pot.

Breakdown of عندما تطبخ امي اللحم، تضع قليلا من الملح في القدر.

• في: in
• ي: my
• يضع: to put
• قليل: a little

Questions & Answers about عندما تطبخ امي اللحم، تضع قليلا من الملح في القدر.

Why does the sentence start with عندما? What does it do?

عندما means when and introduces a time clause.

So:

• عندما تطبخ أمي اللحم = when my mother cooks meat

It is a very common way to connect two actions, where one happens in the context of the other.

In this sentence, the structure is:

• عندما ... = when ...
• main clause after that = what happens then

So the whole sentence is:

• عندما تطبخ أمي اللحم، تضع قليلا من الملح في القدر.
• When my mother cooks meat, she puts a little salt in the pot.

Why is the verb تطبخ and not something that clearly means you cook?

In Arabic, تطبخ can mean different things depending on context:

• you cook (to one male)
• she cooks

Here it means she cooks because the subject right after it is أمي = my mother.

So:

• تطبخ أمي = my mother cooks

Arabic often relies on context and the noun that follows to tell you which meaning is intended.

Why does the verb come before أمي? Can Arabic do that?

Yes. This is very normal in Arabic.

Arabic often uses verb + subject + object order: