Na salada, pusemos pepino, milho e algumas azeitonas.

Na is the normal contraction of em + a.

• em = in
• a = the, feminine singular

So na salada = in the salad.

Portuguese very often contracts prepositions with articles:

• em + o = no
• em + a = na
• em + os = nos
• em + as = nas

Saying em a salada would sound wrong in standard Portuguese.

Because the idea here is inside/in the salad, so Portuguese uses em → na.

À is a contraction of a + a, and it is used in other kinds of expressions, often involving movement, direction, or fixed idioms. Here, the sentence is talking about ingredients being put in the salad, so na salada is the natural choice.

The phrase Na salada has been moved to the front to set the topic or frame the sentence.

It is a bit like:

• As for the salad, ...
• In the salad, ...

That fronted phrase is often separated by a comma in writing.

A more neutral order would be:

• Pusemos pepino, milho e algumas azeitonas na salada.

Both are correct, but the original version gives a little more focus to the salad.

In a simple list, Portuguese normally does not use a comma before e.

So this is standard:

• pepino, milho e algumas azeitonas

It works like English without an Oxford comma. A comma before e can appear in special cases, but not normally in a straightforward list like this one.

Pusemos is the 1st person plural of the pretérito perfeito simples of pôr.

In practical English terms, it is the simple past:

• I put = pus
• we put = pusemos

It describes a completed action in the past: the ingredients were added, and that action is finished.

It comes from the verb pôr, which means to put.

This verb is irregular, so its past forms do not look very much like the infinitive:

• pôr = to put
• pus = I put
• puseste = you put
• pôs = he/she put
• pusemos = we put
• puseram = they put

So pusemos is just the correct irregular past form of pôr.

No.

• pôr with a circumflex is the verb to put
• por without the accent is usually a preposition, often meaning by, through, or for

So in this sentence, the verb is definitely pôr.

The accent is especially important in the infinitive, because it distinguishes the verb from the preposition.

Portuguese often leaves out subject pronouns when the verb ending already makes the subject clear.

Here, pusemos already tells you the subject is we.

So:

• Pusemos pepino... = We put cucumber...
• Nós pusemos pepino... = also possible, but less necessary

Adding nós would usually give extra emphasis, contrast, or clarity.

In sentences about ingredients, Portuguese often uses a bare singular noun to name the ingredient in a general way.

So:

• pepino = cucumber, as an ingredient
• milho = corn, as an ingredient

This is similar to how English can say things like We added cucumber and corn.

A few details:

• milho is naturally very often treated like a mass/ingredient noun
• pepino is normally countable, but in recipe-style language it can still appear in the singular to mean the ingredient generally

If you wanted to stress several whole cucumbers, you could say pepinos.

Because Portuguese often omits articles when listing ingredients or mentioning things in an indefinite, non-specific way.

So:

• pusemos pepino, milho... sounds natural for ingredients

If you used articles, the meaning would usually become more specific:

• pusemos o pepino = we put the cucumber, a specific one already known in the context
• pusemos o milho = we put the corn, again more specific

In ingredient lists and simple descriptions, the article is often left out.

All three are possible, but they are slightly different.

• azeitonas = olives, with no extra emphasis on quantity
• umas azeitonas = some olives, indefinite and natural
• algumas azeitonas = some olives, often with a slightly clearer sense of a few / several

So algumas makes the quantity explicit without giving an exact number.

Also, algumas agrees with azeitonas:

• azeitonas is feminine plural
• so the determiner is algumas

Yes.

A very neutral version would be:

• Pusemos pepino, milho e algumas azeitonas na salada.

The original:

• Na salada, pusemos pepino, milho e algumas azeitonas.

puts Na salada first for emphasis or as a topic. It can sound like the speaker is setting up the scene or contrasting it with something else.

So the change is mostly about focus, not basic meaning.

Yes. Depending on context, you could also hear verbs like:

• colocámos = we placed / put
• metemos = we put in, more colloquial in many contexts
• juntámos = we added

But pusemos is perfectly natural and straightforward.

Each verb has a slightly different feel:

• pusemos = simple, direct
• colocámos = a bit more neutral/formal
• metemos = more colloquial
• juntámos = emphasizes adding to what was already there