Їжа та напої

When you need it

Food and drink words are needed every day: in a shop, in a café, at a friend's table, in a school task about your favourite meal. They also carry an important piece of grammar, because many food nouns in English cannot be counted, and that decides whether you say a, some or nothing at all. Learn each noun together with the way it is counted.

Core words

A few British and American differences come up in every café. What British people call chips, Americans call fries; what Americans call chips, British people call crisps. British English says a starter and a main course, American English an appetizer and an entrée.

When you describe taste, sweet, salty, spicy and sour cover most dishes, and fresh is the usual word of praise for fruit, fish and bread. To say that you do not like something, I'm not keen on it is softer and more polite than I don't like it.

Useful phrases

• What would you like? — I'd like a coffee, please.
• Could I have the menu, please? — Here you are.
• Are you ready to order? — Yes, I'll have the chicken salad.
• Can we have the bill, please? — Of course.
• a cup of tea, a glass of water, a bottle of milk, a slice of bread, a piece of cake, a kilo of apples: these phrases let you count uncountable food.
• What do you have for breakfast? — Toast and coffee. The preposition is for.
• I'm vegetarian. — I don't eat meat or fish.
• Enjoy your meal. — A polite thing to say when food arrives.
• Help yourself. — Take as much as you want.
• Would you like something to drink? — Just water, please.

Common mistakes

• ✗ Can I have a bread? We need two breads.
  ✓ Can I have some bread? We need two loaves of bread.
  In English bread, rice, cheese, butter and milk cannot take a or a plural, even where shop Ukrainian or Russian says два хліби / два хлеба; count them with a slice of, a loaf of, a bottle of.
• ✗ I eat a lot of fruits and vegetables.
  ✓ I eat a lot of fruit and vegetables.
  Ukrainian фрукти and Russian фрукты are plural, but English fruit in general is uncountable; fruits is only for different kinds.
• ✗ I like Italian kitchen.
  ✓ I like Italian food. I like Italian cuisine.
  Кухня means both the room and the style of cooking, but English kitchen is only the room; cuisine /kwɪˈziːn/ is the more formal word for a style of cooking.
• ✗ Put some salad in the sandwich. (meaning: the green leaves)
  ✓ Put some lettuce in the sandwich.
  Ukrainian and Russian салат is both the plant and the dish, while English separates them: lettuce grows, salad is served.
• ✗ Give me a coffee.
  ✓ Could I have a coffee, please? I'd like a coffee, please.
  Дайте, будь ласка / Дайте, пожалуйста is polite, but an English imperative sounds like an order; a question with could or the phrase I'd like is the normal polite form.

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