Mi madre añade un puñado de maíz a la ensalada.

Añade is the third-person singular present indicative form of añadir.

So mi madre añade means my mother adds or my mother is adding, depending on context.

A quick pattern:

• yo añado = I add
• tú añades = you add
• él/ella añade = he/she adds

In this sentence, mi madre is a third-person singular subject, so añade is the correct form.

In modern Spanish, possessives like mi, tu, su, nuestro normally go before the noun without an article.

So:

• mi madre = my mother
• tu casa = your house

Using la mi madre is not standard modern Spanish.

You can also sometimes hear structures like la madre mía, but that is much less neutral and usually more expressive or literary. For normal everyday Spanish, mi madre is the standard form.

Un puñado de literally means a handful of.

It comes from puño = fist, so the idea is the amount that fits in your hand.

It is a very common expression for approximate quantities, especially in cooking:

• un puñado de arroz = a handful of rice
• un puñado de nueces = a handful of nuts

In recipes, it often suggests a rough, non-exact amount.

Because puñado is a masculine noun.

So it takes:

• un puñado
• el puñado

Even though the amount refers to something being held in the hand, the gender depends on the noun puñado, not on the thing being added.

Because puñado needs de to link it to what the handful consists of.

This is a very common Spanish pattern:

• un vaso de agua = a glass of water
• una taza de café = a cup of coffee
• un kilo de patatas = a kilo of potatoes
• un puñado de maíz = a handful of corn

So de here works like of in English.

After quantity expressions like un puñado de, Spanish usually uses the noun without an article when speaking generally about the substance or ingredient.

So:

• un puñado de maíz
• un poco de sal
• un kilo de arroz

If you said un puñado del maíz, that would usually mean a handful of the corn, referring to some specific corn already mentioned.

The accent mark shows the word’s stress and helps show that the vowels are pronounced separately.

Maíz is pronounced roughly ma-EES.

Without the accent, Spanish spelling rules would suggest a different stress pattern. The accent helps mark the correct pronunciation.

Also, the a and í are not blended into one syllable here; they form a break, so the word has two syllables: ma-íz.

Because the verb añadir commonly uses the pattern:

añadir algo a algo = to add something to something

So in this sentence:

• un puñado de maíz = the thing being added
• a la ensalada = the thing it is being added to

That is why a appears here.

Because ensalada is a feminine singular noun:

• la ensalada

The contraction al only happens with a + el:

• a + el = al
• a + la = a la

So:

• al plato = to the plate
• a la ensalada = to the salad

Spanish often uses the definite article more naturally than English does.

Here la ensalada refers to the specific salad being prepared, so the salad is the natural choice in Spanish.

In cooking instructions and everyday speech, Spanish often uses the article with foods, meals, and body parts where English may use a possessive or no article.

So a la ensalada sounds completely normal.

Yes, that is possible.

The original sentence:

Mi madre añade un puñado de maíz a la ensalada

is the most neutral order for everyday use.

But Spanish word order is more flexible than English, so you can also say:

Mi madre añade a la ensalada un puñado de maíz

That version puts slightly more focus on a la ensalada or sounds a bit more like recipe-style phrasing. Both are grammatical.

Yes. Depending on context, you might also hear:

• agrega = adds
• echa = puts in / adds
• pone = puts

In Spain, añadir is very common in cooking and recipes because it sounds precise and neutral.

So all of these may be possible in the right context, but añade is an especially natural choice here.

The ñ is not the same as English n.

Añade is pronounced approximately ah-NYA-deh.

The ñ sounds like the ny in canyon for many English speakers.

So:

• n = regular n
• ñ = a different sound, like ny

This matters because ano and año, for example, are completely different words.

Yes. Since mi madre is she, you could say:

Ella añade un puñado de maíz a la ensalada.

In Spanish, though, subject pronouns like ella are often omitted when the verb already makes the subject clear:

Añade un puñado de maíz a la ensalada.

That could mean she adds a handful of corn to the salad, but without context it could also be understood as he adds or even as a recipe instruction depending on the situation. Keeping mi madre makes the subject fully explicit.