Ordering at a restaurant

When my husband and I travel to different countries, we always make sure we know how to say 1 key phrase in the language of that country. The 1 phrase is: Beer, Please. It has come in handy! With that aside, there are other phrases that are useful when ordering food and drinks at a restaurants.

Look at this menu and try to work through the dialog below.

Menu:

Stuffed Mushrooms (order of 5) – $6
Hamburger with Avocado Slices -$10
Tofu Hot Dog with Relish- $5
Split Pea Soup and Garden Salad – $4
Fries Covered in Chili- $2
Hushpuppies – $3
Coke – $2
Iced Tea – $2
Milk – $1

Exercise:
A waiter comes up to you and asks you questions. Answer him in whichever way you would like:

Waiter – Hello. How are you today?
You –
Waiter – Are you ready to order?
You –
Waiter – What would you like to have today?
You –
Waiter – and to drink?
You –
Waiter – And while you are waiting, would you like an appetizer?
You –

There are many different ways to order food, here are just a few ways that you could’ve answered:

I’d like to order a hamburger.

I’d like some hushpuppies, please.

Could I order a hamburger with extra pickles.

May I have everything on the menu! I’m starved!

A hamburger, please. And a side of fries. (Side is short for side order. It’s something you eat along with the main course.)

I want a hamburger, hold the onions. (Hold the onions means that they don’t want onions on the hamburger. You can say ‘hold’ for anything. Hold the mayo. Hold the mustard, etc.)

I think I’ll have some iced tea, as well.

Just water please, tap water.

hmmmm, and a coke. (On a side note, if you order iced tea in South Carolina and many Southern states, they will ask you, “Sweetened or Unsweetened?” Sweetened is super sweet iced tea sweetened with sugar. In other states like Texas and in the West and North, you will simply get unsweetened tea.)

One other thing – if you order a drink, you will get it with ice. So, if you don’t want ice you will have to say, “No ice please.”

Never heard of hushpuppies? Here is an article about them: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hushpuppy

Outer Space Idioms

For some reason I kept thinking about outer space today. So, I thought I’d write out a few of my favorite space related idioms and expressions in English:

Out of this world – Something that is exceptional
Wow, your cooking is out of this world!

Reach for the stars – Work towards a goal
If you reach for the stars, all of your dreams will come true!

Moon – to pull down your pants (and underwear) and show someone your backside
I dare you to moon those people over there. (Please don’t, it’s just an example. :))

Moonshine – illegal homemade whisky
Are you making moonshine in your garage?

Are you from Mars? – This is really asking someone if they are crazy or why are they different (like a Martian).
You’re wearing that outfit? You must be from Mars.

Sunshine – a cute, affectionate name for a friend or loved one
Good morning Sunshine. How are you? (Sunshine is not the light outside, but the person in front of you.)

Sunny – an adjective to describe someone who is cheerful and happy
You sure are sunny today, something good must’ve happened to you.

Talking about Newspapers in English

Many people might feel that newspapers are “a thing of the past“; however, to many others it is the “here and now.”

Newspapers are made up of many different sections. My favorite section of the newspapers are the comics or comic strips. It’s always fun to read about Garfield and Peanuts.

Then, there are the classifieds or classified ads. You can find so many things there. You could find a job or list your own car for sell. The section where people post what they are looking for is called the “want-ads“.

Lots of women (maybe men too) clip coupons. Most of the coupons are in the Sunday paper. Coupons can save people lots of money especially when the supermarkets double or triple the coupon value. All of the sudden a coupon worth $1.00 that is tripled, becomes $3.00 and you get the food product free. Nice!

Sports pages are very important for lots of people. They have listing for all of the games and upcoming events.

Columns are opinions of regular writers. The writers are called columnists.

Oh and then of course there is the news. The headlines are the most important news stories which are on the front page.

Hard news is the main news that is up-to-date and important.

Soft news is usually human interest stories or other types of stories.

A reporter is the person who writes the news for the paper. They go out to the scene of the news worthy event and they make phone calls to follow up on stories and leads.

The 3 longest words in English

The longest word in English is the word “smiles” because it has a ‘mile’ between the 2 s’s. Okay, okay that was a bad joke.

The 3rd longest word in English has 189,819 letters and it is the name of a type of protein. Here is a snippet of the word:

Methionylthreonylthreonyl…isoleucine

The 2nd longest word in English has 2,087,214 letters and means ‘girl’. Here is part of the word:

babyoubiquitouseadogablahomeffectonightobyeassymmetricityowlablaheat-enderopechoeslightlyuppiepitheturnsweetoastiedgedificexcretadamanterribl-educatedrumustablahisisterealityearnobodyesirapacityounderstandoorbellick-sensuousecretownevereadsimplelationatchomiciderectionaboblahisupered-iagramustoleratevenominalovenergyahoopsorryoudderunoxiouslut…oiletub

The longest word in English has 3,609,750 letters and means the current day or the day between the real day and an imaginative day. Here is part of the word:

somewhenotodayoundressomecologicalinenumerousexyeslowillingnesshotstr-angereactioneglectabulationumberightonightomorrowidoweremembersufficien-togethernessobviousoomphilariousayourselforeasonablexplorerideseriouservan-twinklechoingoosevenowomeneedoorbellikelectricalamplantingoverockslightly-ellowelluminousportuitionevereoccupiesilentouringadderoastsalmonearlyowlec-habitationationalizespecialegornamentitartanomineejectwolivesubjectwentiet-hypertextransformereappearstaticrazyoungsterunearbyachtoo…eddingown

I found this information on this site: http://longestwordinenglish.wordpress.com/ . I have to admit I think the longest word and the 2nd longest words are not as real as the 3rd longest because they were coined by writers. So, to me, it almost feels like they were cheating. 🙂 What do you think?

Talking about TV – Part 2

Here are some more TV related words and phrases…

couch potato – Someone who watches too much TV. You are such a couch potato! Get up and go get some exercise!

episode – This is one particular show of a TV series. I really loved watching last night’s episode of Lost!

pilot – This is the first show of a new series. It’s also called the pilot episode. Wow, that pilot episode was amazing. I’ll be watching this series from now on.

season finale – This is the last episode of a TV show for the season. A TV show season runs from about September to May. That season finale made me so mad, it left the show hanging.

series finale – This is the final episode of a TV show. I’ll be sad to watch the series finale of Ugly Betty.

cancelled – When a TV show doesn’t have enough viewers, then they stop making the show or they ‘cancel’ it. I was so bummed when Jericho got cancelled.

prime time – This is the most popular time when people watch TV. It’s from 8pm-11pm on the East Coast. In Texas, it’s from 7pm-10pm. The most popular TV shows are aired during this time. Then, news follows the programs at 11pm or 10pm depending on where you live. I can’t wait for 7pm, so I can watch all of the prime time shows.

lineup (or line-up) – This is an expression that means the order of shows on a particular night. Friday night’s lineup is great. First, you have Desperate Housewives, then you have CSI.

host – This is the person to stars in a talk show or a game show. I would love to be a game show host and give away money!

live coverage – This is when someone from the news station is at a specific location and they report on the situation in real time. It is not pre-recorded. My brother is a meteorologist and sometimes does live coverage of a big storm. (This is true!)

anchor – This is the main person who reports the news. They can also be called newscasters. This anchor is great. He tells the news how it is, without any bias.

Talking about TV in English – Part 1

I’m on a “media” role with my “Talking about” series, so I thought I’d write a post about TV!

Television has many names: TV, Telly (British English), idiot box, small screen, TV set, the tube & the boob tube.

Soap Operas is one type of TV program. Soap Operas usually are shown from 10:00am in the morning until 2pm in the afternoon. They are shown at that time for elderly women and house wives, but many college students watch them as well. They are a never-ending series and they have a new show every day. They just keep going and going. There are bizarre things that happen on soap operas, like baby switching, people being possessed by the devil, and sex changes. There is never a dull moment!

Talk shows are programs where a host talks about a particular topic during each show. They have guests on their shows as well. “The Oprah Winfrey Show” is an example of this type of program. There are also late-night talk shows like “Jay Leno”.

Reality shows are a fairly new type of show. They’ve only been around for about 10 years. They use average people and they make the people do odd things, like eating cockroaches. YUCK!

Game shows are shows where average people get to win money by answering questions or playing some kind of silly game.

Dramas are shows which usually last 1 hour per episode. They are a bit more serious in nature, but some can still be funny. “24” and “CSI” are examples of this type of program.

Sit-coms are comedies which usually last for 30 minutes per episode. “Friends” was a very popular sit-com in the past.

Then, of course, there are cartoons and news programs.

6 words that have the same plural and singular forms

Is the plural of moose, meese? No. Moose is the same in its singular and plural forms. Here are 6 words I wanted to mention today, where the singular and the plural forms are the same:

deer – I see 1 deer. There are 20 deer grazing in that pasture.

moose – There are lots of moose in Canada. I saw a moose when I went to Alaska.

Sheep – I count sheep when I go to sleep. My sister had a pet sheep when she was little.

bison – There are very few bison left. I saw a bison when I was little.

Swine – There are many swine at the farm. My daughter gave one swine a hug.

aircraft – Look at all of the aircraft in the sky. Please sir, would you board the aircraft?

6 verbs that have 2 past tenses

Here are 6 verbs that have 2 past tenses which are both accepted as correct in English.

learned/learnt
burned/burnt
smelled/smelt
spelled/spelt
spilled/spilt
spoiled/spoilt

Does it matter if you use one word over another? It doesn’t matter as they are both correct; however, the ‘ed’ form is used in American English and the ‘t’ form is used more in British English.

Fish or Fishes???

Do you know what the plural of fish is? Is it fish or fishes?

The answer is, it is both.

We usually use “fish” as the plural of fish when we are talking about 1 kind of fish.
I saw many spotted fish today in the lake. (They were all the same kind of fish.)

We usually use “fishes” as the plural of fish when we are talking about 2 different kind of fish.
I bought 10 different kind of fishes for my fish tank. (They were all different species.)

However, according to most dictionaries you can use either form in either instance.

Talking about Books in English

Here are some useful phrases you can use when discussing books:

That book was a great read! (or an easy read.)

It was a page-turner. I couldn’t put the book down. I had to read it to the end.

The characters in the book were so real. I felt like I really knew them!

This book was written by an up and coming author. (new author with promise)

The book written about Obama was very timely. (Timely – meaning that it was written when it was most relevant.)

That book was not quite what I expected. I thought it would be more emotional and less scientific.

I didn’t think that this book would be good; however, it exceeded my expectations.

This is an award-winning book. It won 5 awards.

This book is lifeless. I didn’t like it at all.

He’s a terrible author; his book is full of clichés. (overused expressions or ideas)

We have a book club where we read a new book every week. Do you want to join?