Breakdown of El cocinero mezcló el ajo con sal y pimienta para darle más sabor a la carne.
con
with
y
and
más
more
para
for
a
to
mezclar
to mix
dar
to give
el sabor
the flavor
la carne
the meat
el cocinero
the cook
el ajo
the garlic
la sal
the salt
la pimienta
the pepper
le
to it
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Questions & Answers about El cocinero mezcló el ajo con sal y pimienta para darle más sabor a la carne.
What tense is mezcló, and why does it carry an accent on the ó?
mezcló is the third-person singular form of mezclar in the simple past (pretérito perfecto simple). In Spanish, most –ar verbs in that tense have the stressed ending –ó. The written accent shows you pronounce it mez-CLOH, distinguishing it from other forms like the present subjunctive mezcle or the first-person singular mezcló (which would look the same but doesn’t exist for –ar verbs).
Why is there a definite article before ajo (el ajo) but no article before sal or pimienta?
Spanish often uses the definite article el or la when talking about an ingredient in a general sense (e.g., el ajo, la cebolla). However, sal and pimienta are treated as uncountable mass nouns in cooking contexts, so they usually appear without an article when listing seasonings (con sal y pimienta).
Why is con used in mezcló el ajo con sal y pimienta instead of just y?
The verb mezclar (to mix) normally takes con to link what you’re mixing together. You’re saying “he mixed the garlic with salt and pepper.” If you said mezcló el ajo y la sal, it would sound like two separate things (“he mixed garlic and salt”) rather than one action of combining them.
What function does para + infinitive serve in para darle más sabor?
Para + infinitive expresses purpose or “in order to.” Here, para darle más sabor means “in order to give it more flavor.” It answers why the cook mixed the ingredients.
How do you break down darle in para darle más sabor?
darle is made of:
- dar (infinitive “to give”)
- le (indirect object pronoun “to it” or “to him/her”)
Together, darle means “to give it.”
Why is le used instead of lo or la for la carne?
The action is “to give flavor to something.” In Spanish, the recipient of an action (the indirect object) takes the pronoun le, no matter its gender. Here, la carne is the recipient, so we use le (“to it”), not lo/la, which are direct-object pronouns.
Why does the sentence include both le and a la carne? Isn’t that redundant?
Spanish requires the clitic pronoun le even if you mention the indirect object noun phrase (a la carne). This “double marking” (clitic + noun) is normal whenever the indirect object is explicitly stated.
Why is más placed before sabor instead of saying sabor más?
When using más as an adverb meaning “more,” it precedes the noun it modifies: más sabor (“more flavor”). Saying sabor más would be unnatural in Spanish—adjectives or adverbials usually go before what they qualify in this case.