El taco lleva maíz.

In Spanish, especially when talking about food, llevar is very commonly used to mean to contain, to include, or to come with an ingredient.

So in a food description, lleva maíz sounds very natural.

• lleva = includes / contains / comes with
• tiene = has

Both can be understood, but lleva is often more idiomatic for recipes, dishes, and ingredients.

For example:

• La ensalada lleva tomate.
• La sopa lleva ajo.

Lleva is the third-person singular present tense of llevar.

The subject here is el taco, which is singular, so the verb also has to be singular:

• yo llevo
• tú llevas
• él / ella / usted lleva

So:

• El taco lleva maíz.

El taco can be used in Spanish to talk about something in a general or classifying way, not just one specific taco.

This is very common in Spanish. The definite article is often used where English might use:

• a
• no article at all
• or a general statement like tacos

So El taco lleva maíz can sound like:

• a general description of the taco
• the taco in question
• a menu-style statement about what the taco contains

If you say Un taco lleva maíz, it can also work, but it sounds more like a taco contains maize/corn, meaning any one taco of that type.

Because maíz is being used as an ingredient or substance, and in Spanish, nouns used this way often appear without an article.

So:

• lleva maíz
• lleva arroz
• lleva queso
• lleva tomate

This is similar to English, where we usually say:

• It contains corn not
• It contains the corn

If you added an article, it would usually make the meaning more specific:

• lleva el maíz que compré ayer = it contains the corn I bought yesterday

It is singular, but it is being used as a mass noun.

That means it refers to the substance or ingredient in general, not to individual kernels. This is similar to English words like:

• rice
• water
• bread

So maíz here means corn as an ingredient, not corns.

The accent mark shows where the stress goes: ma-ÍZ.

It also helps show that the a and í are pronounced in separate syllables:

• maíz = two syllables

Without the accent, Spanish spelling rules would suggest a different pronunciation. So the written accent is important here.

Yes, you can, and people will understand you.

But there is a small difference in feel:

• El taco lleva maíz → more natural for ingredients, recipes, menus, food descriptions
• El taco tiene maíz → more neutral, more literal, still correct

So if you are describing what a dish is made with, lleva is often the better choice.

No. Although llevar often means to carry, to take, or to wear, it has several common meanings in Spanish.

One of them is exactly this food-related use:

• to include
• to contain
• to be made with

For example:

• La pizza lleva queso.
• Este postre lleva leche.
• La salsa lleva cebolla.

So this is a very useful extended meaning of llevar to learn.

In most of Spain, ll is usually pronounced like y in English yes, so lleva sounds roughly like YEH-ba.

A few notes:

• The exact sound can vary by region.
• In many places, ll and y are pronounced the same.
• The v in Spanish is usually pronounced more like a soft b sound than an English v.

So lleva is often approximately:

• YEH-ba

That is only an approximation, but it is a useful starting point.

Yes, if the context is already clear.

Spanish often leaves out information that is already understood. So if you are talking about a taco and someone asks what it contains, you could simply say:

• Lleva maíz.

That means:

• It contains corn.

But if you want the full sentence with the subject stated, El taco lleva maíz is perfectly natural.