Ich gebe noch etwas Salz dazu.

Yes, geben basically means to give, but in German it is also commonly used in cooking and similar contexts to mean to put in / to add.

So Ich gebe noch etwas Salz dazu is a very natural way to say that you are adding some salt.

A more formal alternative would be Ich füge noch etwas Salz hinzu, but geben ... dazu sounds very everyday and natural.

Here noch means something like:

• some more
• another bit of
• in addition

It does not mean still in this sentence.

So noch etwas Salz means a little more salt or some more salt.

Here etwas means some or a little.

In German, etwas can have different uses:

• etwas = something
• etwas Salz = some salt / a little salt

Because Salz is an uncountable noun, etwas Salz is a very common way to talk about a small amount of it.

Because Salz is being used as a mass noun, and after etwas it usually appears without an article and without an extra ending.

So:

• etwas Wasser
• etwas Zucker
• etwas Salz

This is completely normal German.

Dazu means something like:

• to it
• with it
• in addition

In this sentence, it helps express the idea of adding the salt to whatever is already there.

So the structure is roughly:

• Ich gebe ... dazu = I add ... to it / in addition

In cooking German, dazugeben is very common. You may also see it written as one verb in dictionaries: dazugeben.

Because the full verb is dazugeben, which is a separable verb.

In a normal main clause, the conjugated part goes in second position, and the prefix goes to the end:

• Ich gebe ... dazu.

Compare the infinitive:

• dazugeben

This is the same pattern as:

• anfangen → Ich fange an.
• mitkommen → Er kommt mit.

German main clauses usually put the conjugated verb in second position.

So here:

• Ich = position 1
• gebe = position 2
• the rest follows after that
• dazu goes to the end because it is the separable prefix

So the sentence structure is very typical German word order.

Yes, sometimes German allows variation, but Ich gebe noch etwas Salz dazu is the most straightforward and natural version.

You may also hear things like:

• Ich gebe dazu noch etwas Salz.

That can work too, but it changes the emphasis a little. The original version sounds very natural in everyday speech.

It is the accusative object of geben.

You are giving/adding what?
→ etwas Salz

So etwas Salz is what is being added.

Because Salz is neuter and uncountable, you do not see much visible case marking here, but functionally it is accusative.

Because geben is a strong/irregular verb.

In the ich form, it is:

• ich gebe

But in some other present-tense forms, the stem vowel changes:

• ich gebe
• du gibst
• er/sie/es gibt
• wir geben
• ihr gebt
• sie/Sie geben

So the sentence uses the correct first-person singular form: gebe.

It very often would be, because this phrasing is extremely common in recipes and kitchen talk. But it does not have to be limited to cooking.

In many contexts, etwas dazugeben simply means to add something.

Still, with Salz, the most natural interpretation is definitely food or cooking.

Yes. Ich tue noch etwas Salz dazu is also common in everyday spoken German.

Compared with geben:

• geben sounds very normal and widely accepted
• tun is also common in speech, but some learners are first taught geben because it is a bit more neutral

So both can be natural, but Ich gebe noch etwas Salz dazu is an excellent standard sentence to learn.