I’ll preface this by saying that English is not my mother language and I’m sorry if this isn’t the right community, but I didn’t find a more appropriate one.
Last year I started to notice more and more people on YouTube for example using the verb “to put” without a preposition – like “Now I put the cheese” – which sounds very weird and kind of feels wrong to me. Is this really used in spoken English and is it grammatically correct?
It’s slangy, for sure. It’s said in a way where the rest of the sentence is not explicitly stated but implied. Like, "Now I put the cheese… " (On the burger), and then I put the bun. (Again, on the burger.) It’s not terribly uncommon, but it does happen.
It’s widely used, so I wouldn’t draw some connotation from it.
Instructions can feature a fair amount of ellipsis: Put ham. Put cheese. Put bread.
Everybody knows it’s ellipsis, and they’ll be a little put out if you expect full sentences instead of rapid fire and terse instructions.
Sorry, but I don’t think this is right. You’d say “add ham” not “put ham.” “Put ham” doesn’t mean anything without the preposition. “Put ham in/on”
Add is just an operator. I’m not sure what the limits are to operators, but most English native speakers don’t overthink it. (Or, they get overly concerned with their specific operator - which is no standard at all).
If they started with put, then it makes sense for put to follow.