Question 1

Why is there no word for "I" in this sentence?

Accepted Answer

The verb ending already tells us who is doing the action! Agrego comes from the verb agregar (to add). Because it ends in -o, it means "I add". You could say Yo agrego, but Spanish speakers usually drop the yo unless they want to add extra emphasis.

Question 2

Why isn't there an article like la or una before carne?

Accepted Answer

Just like in English, when you talk about an uncountable food or substance in a general sense (saying "meat" rather than "the meat" or "a piece of meat"), you can leave the article out.

Question 3

Is carne a masculine or feminine word? It doesn't end in -o or -a.

Accepted Answer

Carne is a feminine noun (la carne). Nouns that end in -e can be either masculine or feminine, so it is always a good idea to memorize the "the" word (el or la) whenever you learn a new word that ends in -e.

Question 4

Why do we use a la before ensalada?

Accepted Answer

A means "to" and la means "the" (used here because ensalada is a feminine noun). Together, a la simply means "to the". Remember that if you were adding meat to a masculine noun, like arroz (rice), the word a and the word el would combine into the single word al (al arroz).

Agrego carne a la ensalada.

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