Marie ajoute du concombre à la salade, mais elle garde les courgettes pour demain.

Du concombre is a partitive article. It is often used when talking about some amount of an uncountable food item rather than a whole item.

So:

• du concombre = some cucumber
• le concombre = the cucumber or cucumber in general
• un concombre = a cucumber as a whole item

In this sentence, Marie is adding some cucumber to the salad, not necessarily one whole cucumber as a countable object.

The partitive articles are:

• du for masculine singular nouns
• de la for feminine singular nouns
• de l’ before a vowel sound
• des for plural nouns

Examples:

• du pain = some bread
• de la salade = some lettuce / some salad
• de l’eau = some water
• des tomates = some tomatoes

Because the verb ajouter is usually constructed as:

ajouter quelque chose à quelque chose

That means:

• to add something to something

So:

• Marie ajoute du concombre à la salade
• literally: Marie adds some cucumber to the salad

The à belongs to the verb pattern, not to the noun by itself.

A learner might expect dans la salade because in English we often think of putting something in a salad. French can sometimes use dans, but with ajouter, à is the normal choice.

Compare:

• ajouter du sucre au café = to add sugar to the coffee
• ajouter une note au document = to add a note to the document

Also, salade is feminine singular, so:

• à + la salade = à la salade

If the noun were masculine singular, you would usually get au:

• au café = à + le café

In standard French, you normally must state the subject pronoun before the verb.

So French says:

• Marie ajoute..., mais elle garde...

Even though Marie was already mentioned, French still repeats the subject with elle in the second clause.

English often allows:

• Marie adds cucumber to the salad, but keeps the courgettes for tomorrow

French generally does not do that in normal full sentences. Omitting elle here would sound incomplete or nonstandard.

Here, les courgettes refers to the courgettes in question—the specific courgettes Marie has and is saving for later.

French often uses the definite article more broadly than English does.

So:

• les courgettes = the courgettes / the zucchini
• des courgettes = some courgettes / some zucchini

In this sentence, the idea is that she is keeping the courgettes for tomorrow, meaning a known set of courgettes, not just an indefinite amount in a vague way.

Garder means to keep, to save, or to put aside.

So:

• elle garde les courgettes pour demain
• = she keeps/saves the courgettes for tomorrow

The phrase pour demain means for tomorrow, indicating when they are intended to be used.

It does not mean she is physically guarding them. In food contexts, garder often means save for later.

Examples:

• Je garde ce gâteau pour ce soir. = I’m saving this cake for tonight.
• On garde le reste pour demain. = We’re keeping the rest for tomorrow.

Yes, both verbs are in the present tense:

• ajoute = adds / is adding
• garde = keeps / is keeping

In French, the present tense can cover both:

1. something happening now
2. a habitual or general action

So the sentence could mean:

• Marie is adding cucumber to the salad right now, but saving the courgettes for tomorrow. or
• This is what Marie does in this situation.

French often relies on context instead of using a separate form like English is adding.

Because they are both third-person singular present tense forms.

With ajouter:

• j’ajoute
• tu ajoutes
• il/elle ajoute
• nous ajoutons
• vous ajoutez
• ils/elles ajoutent

With garder:

• je garde
• tu gardes
• il/elle garde
• nous gardons
• vous gardez
• ils/elles gardent

So:

• elle ajoute
• elle garde

This is very common for -er verbs, where the il/elle form usually ends in -e in writing.

Because salade is a feminine singular noun.

French contracts à + le into au, but it does not contract à + la.

So:

• à + le = au
• à + les = aux
• à + la stays à la
• à + l’ stays à l’

Examples:

• au restaurant
• aux enfants
• à la salade
• à l’école

Since salade is feminine, à la salade is correct.

They are two different vegetables:

• concombre = cucumber
• courgette(s) = courgette(s) in British English, or zucchini in American English

So the sentence contrasts one vegetable being used now and another being saved for later.

Also note the number:

• du concombre = some cucumber
• les courgettes = the courgettes / the zucchini

French usually requires an article before nouns much more often than English does.

In this sentence you have:

• du concombre
• la salade
• les courgettes

English might say:

• add cucumber to salad
• keep courgettes for tomorrow

But French normally prefers:

• du concombre
• la salade
• les courgettes

So one very common rule for English speakers is: when in doubt, French often needs an article where English might leave one out.

A careful approximate pronunciation is:

Marie ajoute du concombre à la salade, mais elle garde les courgettes pour demain.

Approximate pronunciation: ma-REE ah-ZHOOT du kon-KOMBR ah la sa-LAD, meh EL gard lay koor-ZHET poor duh-MAN

A few useful notes:

• ajoute sounds like ah-zhoot
• concombre has a nasal sound in the first syllable
• mais sounds like meh
• elle sounds like el
• courgettes sounds roughly like koor-zhet
• demain ends with a nasal vowel, roughly duh-man without a strong final n

In natural speech, French flows smoothly, so some sounds link together gently.

Yes, French word order can sometimes be flexible, but the version in the sentence is the most natural and clear:

• elle garde les courgettes pour demain

That puts:

1. the verb
2. the object
3. the time-related phrase

You may also hear emphasis with a different order in some contexts, but for learners, this pattern is the safest:

subject + verb + object + extra information

So this sentence is a very good model to copy.