Do you get confused about how to describe what you’re eating in English?
Today we’ll answer a listener question about how to quantify snacks and different types of food.
Today we’ll show you some new and native ways to talk about food that you probably haven’t learned before.
Here is a question from a listener:
Let’s say you are eating some sectioned oranges. If someone asks you,”what are you eating?”
Would you say,”I am eating some oranges” or “I am eating an orange”or are there any other better ways to answer it? Hope my questions are interesting enough to talk about. Thank you for taking your time for watching the video and reading my message. It’s beautiful weather and sometimes rain in Japan like old saying ” April showers bring May flowers” Hope you enjoy the spring after the long winter.
-Regards, Kaori and Anna with hugs, and peace and love!
The answer:
- In that case you could have said a lot of things:
- I am eating an orange- (obviously it’s an orange)
- I am eating some orange slices.
- I am eating a piece of orange.
- Would you like an orange slice?
Follow count/non-count:
- Non-count: cereal, some cereal. Countable: a bowl of cereal
- Non-count: some bread. Countable: a slice of bread, a loaf of bread.
- Countable: a bag of carrots, a carrot, a baby carrot, a carrot stick, a carrot
- You guys already know this so today’s lesson will be new and native ways to label countable and non-count food. Instead of “some” you can say:
- A bit of, a tiny bit of
- A little
- A hint of
Example:
- A: Would you like a little ice cream.
- B: Sure I’ll just have a tiny bit.
A little:
- A: I try to have a little meat with each meal.
A hint:
A: It tastes like there’s a hint of cilantro in this.
B: Yeah I put in just a tiny bit.
Listen to the full episode to get more details.
What questions do you have about today’s episode?
Let us know in the comments below.
