Mañana cocinaré bacalao con tomate, aunque mi hermana dice que prefiere la merluza.

Cocinaré is the simple future of cocinar.

It is formed by taking the infinitive and adding future endings:

• cocinar + é → cocinaré
• cocinar + ás → cocinarás
• cocinar + á → cocinará
• cocinar + emos → cocinaremos
• cocinar + éis → cocinaréis
• cocinar + án → cocinarán

So cocinaré means I will cook.

The written accent on é shows the stress falls on the last syllable: co-ci-na-RÉ.

Spanish often omits subject pronouns when the verb form already shows who the subject is.

Here, cocinaré clearly means I will cook, so yo is unnecessary.

You could say Yo cocinaré bacalao con tomate, but adding yo usually gives extra emphasis, for example:

• Yo cocinaré bacalao, no ella.

In a neutral sentence, leaving out yo sounds more natural.

No preposition is needed. Mañana by itself can mean tomorrow.

So:

• Mañana cocinaré... = Tomorrow I will cook...

This is very normal Spanish word order. Time expressions often go at the beginning of the sentence to set the scene.

You could also say:

• Cocinaré bacalao con tomate mañana

but starting with mañana sounds very natural and slightly more organized or contextual.

The ñ is a separate letter in Spanish. It sounds roughly like the ny in canyon, though the Spanish sound is usually cleaner and more compact.

So mañana is approximately:

• ma-NYA-na

Not manana.

Also note that mañana has the normal stress on the middle syllable:

• ma-ÑA-na

This is a very common learner question.

In this sentence, the difference comes from how Spanish often treats food nouns with different verbs:

1. After verbs like cocinar, comer, comprar, Spanish often uses the noun without an article when talking about food as something being prepared or consumed:

   • cocinar bacalao
   • comer arroz
   • comprar pan

2. After verbs expressing likes and preferences, such as gustar, encantar, or preferir, Spanish often uses the definite article when talking about a food in general:

   • prefiero la merluza
   • me gusta el chocolate
   • prefieren las lentejas

So here:

• cocinaré bacalao = I’ll cook cod
• prefiere la merluza = she prefers hake

This does not mean the Spanish article always works exactly like the in English. Often it is just the normal Spanish way to talk about a category of food.

Literally, con tomate means with tomato.

But in cooking, especially in Spain, it often suggests served with tomato sauce or cooked in a tomato-based way, not necessarily just a raw tomato sitting next to the fish.

So bacalao con tomate sounds like the name of a dish or a standard preparation.

This is very common in food Spanish:

• pollo con arroz
• calamares en su tinta
• bacalao al pil-pil
• merluza en salsa

Aunque introduces a contrast. It usually means although, even though, or sometimes though.

Here it connects two ideas:

• Tomorrow I’ll cook cod with tomato
• my sister says she prefers hake

So the second part contrasts with the first: the speaker plans to cook cod despite the sister’s preference.

It works much like English although in this kind of sentence.

Because here the speaker presents the sister’s opinion as a real, known fact.

After aunque, Spanish can use either:

• indicative when the information is presented as factual or accepted
• subjunctive when it is hypothetical, uncertain, or not really being accepted as factual

So:

• aunque mi hermana dice que prefiere la merluza
  = the speaker accepts that she says this / this is a real fact

Compare with something like:

• aunque mi hermana diga que prefiere la merluza...

That version sounds more like:

• even if my sister says she prefers hake...
• or although my sister may say she prefers hake...

So the indicative fits the sentence very naturally.

Because both refer to a current situation:

• dice = she says
• prefiere = she prefers

The sentence is talking about what the sister says now and what her preference is now.

If the whole thing were placed in the past, the verbs would likely change too:

• Mi hermana dijo que prefería la merluza.

That is the normal tense pattern for reported speech in Spanish.

After verbs of saying, thinking, knowing, believing, etc., Spanish normally uses que to introduce the next clause.

So:

• dice que prefiere la merluza
• pienso que es buena idea
• creo que va a llover

In English, that is often optional:

• She says that she prefers hake
• She says she prefers hake

In Spanish, que is usually required here.

Because preferir is a stem-changing verb in the present tense.

The change is:

• e → ie

So:

• yo prefiero
• tú prefieres
• él/ella prefiere
• nosotros preferimos
• vosotros preferís
• ellos prefieren

Notice that nosotros and vosotros do not undergo the stem change.

So prefiere is the correct third person singular form to match mi hermana.

Yes. Mañana voy a cocinar bacalao con tomate... is completely natural.

Both forms can talk about the future:

• cocinaré = simple future
• voy a cocinar = near future / going to cook

In everyday spoken Spanish, especially informal speech, ir a + infinitive is very common.

The simple future is also very common, but it can sound:

• slightly more neutral,
• slightly more formal,
• or simply like a straightforward future statement.

In this sentence, either version works well.

Yes, aunque could come at the beginning.

Original order:

• Mañana cocinaré bacalao con tomate, aunque mi hermana dice que prefiere la merluza.

Reversed order:

• Aunque mi hermana dice que prefiere la merluza, mañana cocinaré bacalao con tomate.

The comma is used because the aunque clause adds a contrasting comment to the main statement.

This punctuation is very natural in Spanish:

• main statement, then contrasting clause
• or contrasting clause first, then main statement

So both word orders are correct; they just shift the emphasis slightly.