"My mother is drinking tea with milk."

Translation: Mia patrino trinkas teon kun lakto.

[aukevdlee]

Why is it "lakto" and not "lakton"? She drinks the milk as well.

[yh1723]

"kun" is a preposition, which doesn't need an accusative.

Also, what she's drinking is tea "teon" - what kind of tea? "teon kun lakto"; the milk is only there because it's part of the tea. If she was drinking tea and milk, we'd say "teon kaj lakton"; no preposition, so both would take the accusative.

[JiangtianG]

What about in scenarios like "She's having a burger with soda" where soda is not part of the burger? Do we have to say something like Ŝi manĝas hamburgeron kaj trinkas sodakvon or is there a shorter way to say it like Ŝi manĝas hamburgeron kun sodakvon? Thank you.

[salivanto]

Leaving aside the question of what the correct Esperanto word for "soda" is -- this is fine.

• Mi trinkas kafon kun kremo.
• Mi manĝas hamburgeron kun akvo.
• Mi manĝas picon kun amikoj.

It doesn't mean that we've mixed the water with our burger or that we're eating our friends.