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

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.

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.

Yes. This is very normal in Arabic.

Arabic often uses verb + subject + object order:

• تطبخ أمي اللحم
• literally: cooks my mother the meat

This is a standard Arabic sentence pattern.

You can also sometimes see subject + verb order:

• أمي تطبخ اللحم

Both are possible, but verb first is especially common in MSA.

The word for mother is أم.

To say my mother, Arabic adds the possessive suffix -ي (my):

• أم = mother
• أمي = my mother

In fully vowelled writing, you may also see أُمِّي.

A useful thing to notice: Arabic often expresses possession by attaching a suffix directly to the noun, instead of using a separate word like English my.

Examples:

• أبي = my father
• بيتي = my house
• كتابي = my book

In careful standard spelling, أمي with a hamza is preferred.

So the standard form is:

• أمي

However, in everyday typing, learners will often see:

• امي

This kind of hamza omission is common in informal writing, but if you are learning Modern Standard Arabic, it is better to write:

• أمي

Arabic usually does not need a separate subject pronoun if the verb already shows it.

• تضع here means she puts

So Arabic does not need to say هي تضع unless there is special emphasis.

That means:

• تضع قليلا من الملح = she puts a little salt

The subject she is understood from the verb form and from the earlier mention of أمي.

In Arabic, the present tense is often used for:

• habitual actions
• repeated actions
• general truths
• things that happen whenever a situation occurs

So this sentence does not mean only one action happening right now. It means something like:

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

That is why the present tense works well here:

• تطبخ = cooks
• تضع = puts

قليلا means a little or a small amount.

So:

• قليلا من الملح = a little salt
• more literally: a little of the salt / a little of salt

It tells you the quantity.

Without it, the sentence would simply say:

• تضع الملح = she puts the salt

But with قليلا, the sentence becomes more specific:

• تضع قليلا من الملح = she puts a little salt

This is a very common Arabic pattern.

After words of quantity such as قليل (a little, few), Arabic often uses من to mean of:

• قليلا من الملح = a little of salt = a little salt
• كثير من الماء = a lot of water
• بعض الناس or بعض من الناس = some people

So in this sentence:

• قليلا من الملح literally means a little from/of the salt
• natural English: a little salt

قليلا is the accusative form here, because it functions as the direct object of تضع.

She puts what?

• قليلا = a little amount

In fully vowelled Arabic, this would be:

• قليلاً

In normal unvowelled text, the final short vowel is usually not written, but the alif of the tanwīn fatḥ is still written, so you get:

• قليلا

This is very common in written Arabic.

في means in.

القدر means the pot or the cooking pot.

So:

• في القدر = in the pot

The noun is definite because of الـ:

• قدر = a pot
• القدر = the pot

In many contexts, Arabic uses the definite form where English might also naturally use the, especially when the object is understood from the situation, like the cooking pot being used.

اللحم literally means the meat, because it has الـ.

But in Arabic, as in English, the definite article can sometimes be used in a general or familiar way depending on context.

So here اللحم can be understood naturally as:

• the meat
• or simply meat, depending on how you translate it

In a cooking sentence like this, English usually sounds more natural with just meat:

• When my mother cooks meat...

The comma separates the time clause from the main clause:

• عندما تطبخ أمي اللحم،
• تضع قليلا من الملح في القدر.

This works much like English:

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

In Arabic punctuation, this kind of comma is very common and helps readability, though punctuation can be a bit less rigid than in English.

Yes, that is still understandable and often acceptable in Arabic writing.

The comma is helpful, but the sentence can still work without it because the grammar already makes the structure clear.

So both are possible:

• عندما تطبخ أمي اللحم، تضع قليلا من الملح في القدر.
• عندما تطبخ أمي اللحم تضع قليلا من الملح في القدر.

The version with the comma is just easier to read.

Yes.

You can say:

• أمي تطبخ اللحم = My mother cooks meat

And the full sentence could become:

• عندما تطبخ أمي اللحم، تضع قليلا من الملح في القدر. or
• عندما تطبخ أمي اللحم، أمي تضع قليلا من الملح في القدر.

But repeating أمي in the second clause sounds unnecessary unless you want emphasis. The original version is more natural because Arabic already understands that تضع refers to my mother.

So the original sentence is smoother:

• عندما تطبخ أمي اللحم، تضع قليلا من الملح في القدر.