मुझे पदक मिला।

Because Hindi uses मिलना in a different pattern from English to get.

In this sentence, मुझे means to me. So the structure is closer to:

मुझे पदक मिला = A medal was received/found by me / To me a medal came
Natural English: I got a medal

So with मिलना, the person who receives something is often marked with मुझे / उसे / हमें etc., not with the plain subject form like मैं.

मुझे is the oblique form of मैं used in functions like to me or me.

Here it means to me:

• मुझे = to me
• तुझे / तुम्हें = to you
• उसे = to him/her
• हमें = to us

So मुझे पदक मिला literally feels like To me, a medal was received.

Because the verb agrees with पदक, not with मुझे.

In this sentence:

• पदक is masculine singular
• so the verb is मिला (masculine singular)

Compare:

• मुझे पदक मिला। = I got a medal.
• मुझे किताब मिली। = I got a book.
  
  • किताब is feminine singular, so मिली
• मुझे पदक मिले। = I got medals.
  
  • plural, so मिले

So the agreement is with the thing received, not with the recipient.

Yes, पदक is masculine.

That is why the past form is मिला:

• पदक
  • मिला
• not मिली

A good habit is to learn nouns together with gender, because gender affects adjectives and past-tense verb forms in many sentences.

The order here is:

recipient + thing + verb

So:

• मुझे = to me
• पदक = medal
• मिला = was received / came / was got

This order is very natural in Hindi.
You may also hear other orders for emphasis, such as पदक मुझे मिला, but मुझे पदक मिला is the most straightforward neutral version.

It can mean several related things depending on context.

मिलना often means:

• to be found
• to be obtained
• to be received
• to meet (in other contexts)

So मुझे पदक मिला can mean I got a medal or I received a medal. In some contexts, it could even mean I found a medal, but that depends on the situation.

If you specifically want won a medal, Hindi would often use जीता:

• मैंने पदक जीता। = I won a medal.

So मिला does not automatically mean won.

Because this sentence is not using the kind of perfective transitive structure that requires ने.

Hindi often uses ने with transitive verbs in the perfective, for example:

• मैंने किताब पढ़ी। = I read the book.

But मिलना here works differently. It is not behaving like a normal transitive verb with an agent doing an action to an object. Instead, the pattern is more like:

• to me
  • thing
    • was received/found

So मुझे is used, and ने does not appear.

Often, yes.

Adding एक makes the sentence explicitly a medal:

• मुझे एक पदक मिला। = I got a medal.

Without एक, मुझे पदक मिला is still perfectly correct. It can sound slightly more context-based, as if the listener already knows what kind of thing is being talked about.

Hindi often leaves out एक when English would naturally include a/an.

A simple learner-friendly pronunciation is:

mujhe padak mila

Roughly:

• मुझे = moo-jhay / mu-jhe
• पदक = puh-duck (with very short vowels)
• मिला = mi-laa

A more natural flow is something like:

mujhe padak milaa

The jh in मुझे is a breathy sound, so it is not exactly the same as plain English j.

The verb would change to match the noun.

Examples:

• मुझे किताब मिली। = I got a book.
  (किताब is feminine singular → मिली)

• मुझे पदक मिले। = I got medals.
  (पदक plural → मिले)

• मुझे चाबियाँ मिलीं। = I got keys.
  (feminine plural → मिलीं)

So when you build sentences like this, pay attention to the gender and number of the thing received.

Not very naturally.

A rough literal sense is:

To me, a medal was received/found.

But idiomatic English is:

I got a medal.

This is a very common situation when learning Hindi: the grammar pattern is different from English, even though the meaning is simple. So it is better to learn मुझे ... मिला as a useful sentence pattern meaning I got ... or I received ....