IELTS & TOEFL Vocabulary: Talking about Food
Hello. My name is Emma, and in today's video, Iam going to teach you some great expressions
and some great thingsyou can say about food.
Now, this video willbe very, very helpful
if you are taking the IELTS, because they oftenask you about food in the speaking section,
and same with if you're doing the TOEFL, becauseoftentimes there is a question on food; not
always, but often. Also, just this video canbenefit everybody, because food is something
a lot of people talk about, and so these expressionsare very good to use in everyday situations.
All right, so let's get started.
I have, here, a question. This question comesup a lot on IELTS, sometimes on TOEFL, and
in everyday life.The question is:
"What kind of food do you like?
And what kind of food doyou dislike or not like?"
So I've written here some keyexpressions you can use to...
Which mean "like" and "dislike". Now, forIELTS and TOEFL people, you really want to
show off your vocabulary, so these are somegreat ways to do that. All right, so let's
look at some of these.
The first one:
"I really like..." This is betterthan just saying: "I like", because
you're actually, you know, giving anamount. "I really like something."
So, for me: What kind of food do you like?I like Korean food,
so I can say: "I reallylike bibimbap.",
"I enjoy bibimbap.",
"My favourite dish is bibimbap."
"Dish" is similar tofood, but it's not...
We wouldn't use it for talking about applesor oranges. We use it for talking about a
cooked meal. Okay? So a "dish"means something that is a meal.
So: "My favouritedish is spaghetti.",
"I'm keen on pizza."
And here, be carefulwith this part: "on".
"I'm keen on pizza."
Okay, for these two, ifyou're comparing two foods,
you can use thesetwo expressions.
So, for example:
"I prefer bibimbap to sushi.
I prefer lasagna to pizza."
So it means I'm saying: "I likepizza better than sushi." Okay?
So, key here, preposition "to".
"I prefer __________to __________."
Similar-I'll jump on this side-
"I'd rather", "I'd rather eat".
This means the same thing as "I prefer".The "d" here stands for "would".
"I'd rather eatbibimbap than sushi.
I'd rather eat Chinese dumplingsthan McDonalds." Okay?
So you can use these expressions, too.Very helpful for TOEFL and IELTS.
Okay, what about for dislike, thingswe don't like? Here are some examples.
"I really don't like..."
For me: "I really don't like McDonalds.I really don't like hamburgers.
I really don't like hotdogs."
This has the exact same meaning: "I can'tstand hamburgers. I can't stand anchovies.",
"I'm not keen on tuna. I'mnot keen on oysters."
Okay? And finally:"I really dislike...
I really dislike sardines."
Okay? So these all mean "don'tlike", and these all mean "like".
These are great expressions to use when you'retalking about food on the TOEFL or the IELTS,
or everyday life.
So now let's look at some new vocabularywe can use when describing food.
Okay, so another question they might ask youon the IELTS or the TOEFL, or maybe one of
your friends mightask you this, is to:
"Describe your favourite dish."
Okay, I'm just going tosay this very quickly:
The pronunciation of this word:"favourite", "favourite". Okay?
Not "fav-our-ite". And "dish", what's a dishagain? A dish is like a meal. Okay? So:
"Describe your favourite meal." This isa very common IELTS question and TOEFL.
So, when you describe
your favourite dish, you might wantto talk about how good it is. Okay?
"It's incredible, it's amazing."
So here are some words we can use thatcan help you maybe get a higher score
on your vocabulary. The first one... Andthese all mean pretty much "delicious".
The first one: "tasty". Ice cream is tasty.Chocolate is tasty.
We can say "flavourful". This means it has a lot of differentflavours to it, it has a lot of different taste. So,
bibimbap is flavourful. Mexicanfood is flavour-, flavourful.
You can also usethe word "divine".
"Divine" means it'sincredible, it's amazing.
"Oh, the pizza was divine.
The tacos were divine." Okay? Soit means really, really good.
And then we also have thisone, you can be rich in money,
you can also, for food, be "richin flavour". So I could say:
"The... The food from last night, dinner last nightwas rich in flavour. The cake is rich in flavour."
Okay? So these are all greatexpressions you can use.
Now, we have the different types of tasteor the different types of flavour. Okay? So
I'm going to tell you about each one, andI'm going to give you an example of each.
So the first one: "sour", "sour". Okay? So Iknow the spelling looks like "sou" or something,
but it actually is pronounced: "sow-er". So,"sour" is a taste, and it's like the taste
of a lemon. Okay? You know that taste, it'svery strong, and it causes you to go like...?
That's sour. So lemons are sour, limes aresour. There are certain types of candy, when
you put it in your mouth, it's very sour.So it's like tasting like a lemon.
We also have the word "sweet".Chocolate is sweet, candy is sweet.
We have the word "bitter", "bitter","bitter". You'll notice with the "t",
in North AmericanEnglish, we pronounce
this like a "d", so I'm not saying: "bitter",I'm saying "bidder", but you can do it either
way. If something is bitter, it has... It'snot sweet, it's not sour, and it's not salty.
It almost... It has a strong taste, and thetaste is like coffee. If you've ever had a
cup of coffee with no milk and no sugar,just the coffee, that taste is very bitter.
We have the word "salty". Okay? So this iswhen you put a lot of salt on something.
Fish is very salty. If you've ever eatentuna from a can, it can be very, very salty.
Same with french fries. Okay? People put salt onfrench fries, it makes the french fries salty.
Okay, now we have the word "oily","oily", "oily", and "greasy".
Be careful with the pronunciation of these two; I hear alot of students make mistakes. So: "oily" and "greasy".
For this one, you actually have to smile whenyou say it. So, just like "cheese", "grease",
"greasy". An example of something that's oilyor greasy (they mean the same thing) is a
cheese pizza. If you look at a cheese pizza,the top of it is, like, almost wet, and it's
filled with pretty much fat, so we call thatoily or greasy. Okay? French fries can also
be oily or greasy. Usually unhealthy food,not healthy food is usually oily and greasy.
Fast food is usually oily and greasy. McDonalds,Burger King, all of these fast food chains
usually have quitegreasy and oily food.
Okay, the next word: "ripe", "ripe". If somethingis ripe, it means it's ready to be eaten.
So, we usually use this with fruit and sometimesvegetables, but a lot the times with fruit.
If you think about an apple, when anapple is ready to be eaten, it's ripe.
"Oh, this apple tastes so good.It's ripe."
Or mango, if you've evereaten a mango, you can't eat
it when it's green; you wait for it to turn adifferent colour. When it turns into a red
colour or a different colour, we sayit's ready to be eaten, it's ripe.
So, "ripe" means readyto be eaten, for fruit.
Finally, we have the word "spicy".It has the same meaning as "hot".
And so, spicy food
or hot food, if you imagine a red pepper...A red pepper is very spicy, it's very hot.
Indian food is very spicy, it's very hot.So, "spicy" means there's a lot of flavour
in it, and usually it makes your mouth feellike it's on fire if it's too spicy. Okay?
So that's the word "spicy" and "hot".Again, they mean the same thing.
All right, we also have some other words thatare very important when describing food.
The first one is "raw", "raw". Okay? And noticehow my mouth, it really opens up wide: "raw".
If something is raw, it means it isnot cooked. Okay? So it's not cooked.
If you think about sushi, sushi is fish thatis raw. It is not cooked fish; it is raw fish.
Another example is if you eat, youknow, maybe you don't cook something
in your refrigerator, you eat it
raw. It hasn't been cooked.Broccoli, you can eat broccoli raw.
It means it hasn'tbeen cooked yet.
Oh, and finally... Sorry, there's a mistake,here. This should be an "l", great.
"Bland",
so it rhymes with "and", "bland". "Bland"is when something is very boring,
there's no flavour. Okay? So, forexample, imagine eating soup
and there's no salt, no pepper,
no spices, it's just pretty much boiled water,that would be very bland. Okay? There's no
flavour. A lot of students tell me Canadianfood is a little bit bland. I don't know if
I'd agree, but I've heard a lot of studentssay that, so it means it's boring and without
flavour. All right, so let's come back here andlet's do some pronunciation together next.
Okay, so another question that's verycommon if you're talking about food is:
"Do you like to cook? Do you like to cook?" Thiscomes up a lot on the IELTS test, the speaking test,
as well as sometimes the TOEFL.So, we have two answers here.
"Yeah, I can cook. I like it."
I've also written:"I can't cook."
So the reason I bring thisup is for pronunciation.
A lot of students don't know the differencein pronunciation between "can" and "can't".
Because on the TOEFL and IELTS you are markedon pronunciation, that's one thing they look
for, this is a way to improve yourpronunciation mark. Okay: "I can cook."
"Can" is pronounced...
If you know who Barbie is, her boyfriend wasnamed Ken. So I can put that here, Ken.
It's pronounced the same way: "I can cook."This is very different from "can't". My mouth,
for this, gets very big and wide, it's almostlike somebody's pulling my mouth apart when
I say: "can't", "I can't cook."
Which one is louder? Iwant you to listen.
"I can cook.",
"I can't cook."
This one is the loud one. Okay? Soif they ask you a question about:
-"Oh, do you like to cook?"
-"Oh yeah, I love cooking.I can cook really well."
or "No, I hate cooking.I can't cook." Okay.
Another thing you can say if you get askedthis question, is you can talk about your
specialty. Your speciality is the thing you'regood at cooking. Okay? So for me, my specialty
when it comes to cookingis gingerbread cookies.
I make very, very goodgingerbread cookies.
I'm famous for my gingerbreadcookies, so I would say:
"Oh, my speciality is gingerbread cookies.What's your speciality?"
Okay? Some of you might say:"Pizza", some of you might
say something totally different. So the specialty...And it's pronounced "spec-ial-tee", is the
thing you cook the best. Soit's a good word to use.
Okay, finally, last thing I want to talk about,these are some common foods that students
mispronounce. Okay? Again, you're gettingmarked on pronunciation, so let's just look
at these words and how to pronouncethem correctly. The first one:
"chocolate".
A lot of students say:"choc-o-late", that's incorrect.
It's like this "o" doesn'texist: "choc-late".
We have this word, many students say:"veg-e-table". Sorry, four: "veg-e-ta-ble".
We don't pronounce it this way. Firstoff, make sure your "v" is good: "veg".
We say: "vegtable", "vegetable",
"I like vegetables."
Okay, a lot of students make... Make mistakeswith this word, too. The pronunciation of
this: "fruit", "fruit".Okay? So not "frete",
a lot of students pronouncethe "i" as a "e"
sound. It's not"frete", it's "fruit".
And finally, similar to"chocolate", many students
mispronounce theword "broccoli".
They say: "broc-co-li", butit's actually just: "brocc-li".
The "o", here, it's quiet; it'sa silent "o", so: "broccoli".
Okay, I hope you'veenjoyed this video.
We've learned a lot ofnew words about food,
a lot of ways to talk about it. Ifyou're doing the TOEFL or IELTS,
I hope you use some of these words, because theycan help you in terms of your vocabulary mark,
as well as they can help you withyour grammar and pronunciation.
I also want to invite you to comevisit our website at www.engvid.com.
There, you can actually do a quizto practice all of these words,
and to make sure that you understandthem and that you can use them.
I wish you luck if you're doing theIELTS or if you're doing the TOEFL,
or if you're simplylearning English.
Until next time, take care.
A common speaking topic on both the IELTS and TOEFL is food. In this class, I will teach you some vocabulary and grammar that you can use when talking about food. These expressions can help you score higher on both tests. I will also give you some common examples of speaking questions you may hear. If you are not taking these tests, this lesson will still help you improve your vocabulary and conversational English. Try our quiz at http://www.engvid.com/ielts-toefl-vocabulary-talking-about-food/ to practice these words. Good luck on your test! MORE IELTS TIPS: http://www.goodluckielts.com/ MORE TOEFL TIPS: http://www.goodlucktoefl.com/ TRANSCRIPT Hello. My name is Emma, and in today's video, I am going to teach you some great expressions and some great things you can say about food. Now, this video will be very, very helpful if you are taking the IELTS, because they often ask you about food in the speaking section, and same with if you're doing the TOEFL, because oftentimes there is a question on food; not always, but often. Also, just this video can benefit everybody, because food is something a lot of people talk about, and so these expressions are very good to use in everyday situations. All right, so let's get started. I have, here, a question. This question comes up a lot on IELTS, sometimes on TOEFL, and in everyday life. The question is: "What kind of food do you like? And what kind of food do you dislike or not like?" So I've written here some key expressions you can use to... Which mean "like" and "dislike". Now, for IELTS and TOEFL people, you really want to show off your vocabulary, so these are some great ways to do that. All right, so let's look at some of these. The first one: "I really like..." This is better than just saying: "I like", because you're actually, you know, giving an amount. "I really like something." So, for me: What kind of food do you like? I like Korean food, so I can say: "I really like bibimbap.", "I enjoy bibimbap.", "My favourite dish is bibimbap." "Dish" is similar to food, but it's not... We wouldn't use it for talking about apples or oranges. We use it for talking about a cooked meal. Okay? So a "dish" means something that is a meal. So: "My favourite dish is spaghetti.", "I'm keen on pizza." And here, be careful with this part: "on". "I'm keen on pizza." Okay, for these two, if you're comparing two foods, you can use these two expressions. So, for example: "I prefer bibimbap to sushi. I prefer lasagna to pizza." So it means I'm saying: "I like pizza better than sushi." Okay? So, key here, preposition "to". "I prefer __________ to __________." Similar-I'll jump on this side-"I'd rather", "I'd rather eat". This means the same thing as "I prefer". The "d" here stands for "would". "I'd rather eat bibimbap than sushi. I'd rather eat Chinese dumplings than McDonalds." Okay? So you can use these expressions, too. Very helpful for TOEFL and IELTS. Okay, what about for dislike, things we don't like? Here are some examples. "I really don't like..." For me: "I really don't like McDonalds. I really don't like hamburgers. I really don't like hotdogs." This has the exact same meaning: "I can't stand hamburgers. I can't stand anchovies.", "I'm not keen on tuna. I'm not keen on oysters." Okay? And finally: "I really dislike... I really dislike sardines." Okay? So these all mean "don't like", and these all mean "like". These are great expressions to use when you're talking about food on the TOEFL or the IELTS, or everyday life. So now let's look at some new vocabulary we can use when describing food. Okay, so another question they might ask you on the IELTS or the TOEFL, or maybe one of your friends might ask you this, is to: "Describe your favourite dish." Okay, I'm just going to say this very quickly: The pronunciation of this word: "favourite", "favourite". Okay? Not "fav-our-ite". And "dish", what's a dish again? A dish is like a meal. Okay? So: "Describe your favourite meal." This is a very common IELTS question and TOEFL. So, when you describe your favourite dish, you might want to talk about how good it is. Okay? "It's incredible, it's amazing." So here are some words we can use that can help you maybe get a higher score on your vocabulary. The first one... And these all mean pretty much "delicious".