In this week’s Everyday Grammar, we continue a trip around the world. But, instead of seeing famous places, we will learn about wonderful foods of different countries. We will also learn about grammar and writing along the way.
Background
In a recent lesson, we explored how to describe a national dish. We asked our listeners and readers around the world to write us messages about their country’s national dish.
Today, we give feedback on some of the writing that we received.
Ukraine
Let's start in Ukraine.
Here is part of a message Yanina wrote to us:
Borsch is the national dish of Ukraine. Borsch consists of water, vegetables, meat and spices.
Yanina’s message was wonderful. Yanina used the structures we described in our previous lesson – the phrasal verb “consist of,” as well as exact nouns: water, meat, and spices.
Our main suggestion is to include a few more details about borsch. Perhaps use adjectives such as savory, spicy, or rich. For example, you might say, “Borsch is a rich, savory dish that consists of water, vegetables, meat, and spices.”
Taiwan
Next, we read part of a message from Mei in Taiwan.
Beef noodle is the national dish of Taiwan. It is a cozy dish that consists of noodles, boneless beef, and full of vegetables.
Every year, the Taipei International Beef Noodle Festival holds a competition to find Taiwan’s best beef noodle soup.
Our main suggestions are to include “soup” at the beginning of the message and remove “full of” from its position before the noun “vegetables.” We might change the first sentence to this:
Beef noodle soup is the national dish of Taiwan. It is a cozy dish that consists of noodles, boneless beef, and vegetables.
We especially enjoyed Mei’s use of the adjective “cozy.” It suggests warmth and comfort. The term really helps bring the dish to life!
Brazil
Now let’s learn about Brazil’s national dish. Here is part of a message from Leonardo:
Feijoada is the national dish of Brazil. It's a delicious dish that consists of rice, black beans, pork and kale! And get better when you have it drinking caipirinha!
Leonardo’s message described the dish very well. Our main suggestions are for the final sentence. We suggest including a subject – as in “the dish,” - and including the short word “with.” Also, a caipirinha is the national alcoholic drink of Brazil. We might update the sentence to something like this:
And the dish gets better when you drink a caipirinha with it!
Russia
Now let’s turn to part of a message from Julia in Russia.
The traditional national dish is soup shchi or cabbage soup. It is in two versions. In first version the main ingredient is fresh cabbage, in second version the main ingredient is sauerkraut.
Julia’s message was very interesting because it explored two versions of the same dish. One with fresh cabbage and one with preserved, or pickled cabbage, known as sauerkraut. Our main suggestions are to include “known as” in the first sentence and to change the structure of the following sentences a little. One way to update the message might be like this:
The traditional national dish is a soup known as shchi or cabbage soup. There are two versions of it. In the first version, the main ingredient is fresh cabbage. In the second version, the main ingredient is sauerkraut.
Iran
Finally, let’s examine part of a message from Firouzeh. The message describes Iran’s national dish.
Ghormeh Sabzi is the national dish of Iran. It is main dish that consist of Red beans, Vegetable, Dried Lemo , and Meat . It is served with rice.
Firouzeh’s message was clear and easy to understand. Our central suggestions are to remove “main” and add an –s to the verb “consist.” Also, be sure to not capitalize the nouns vegetable, meat, and so on. These nouns are not capitalized because they are not at the beginning of a sentence and are not proper nouns. That means they are not names of people or places for example.
We might update the message to something like this:
Ghormeh sabzi is the national dish of Iran. It is a dish that consists of red beans, vegetables, dried limes, and meat. It is served with rice.
Closing thoughts
We enjoyed reading all the messages sent to us by our readers and listeners. Of course, there were messages that we did not include in this lesson or the previous lesson. We wish that we could have included all of them!
Still, we hope that everyone can take some ideas from today’s report. We also hope that you have learned a little about the wonderful kinds of dishes that exist in the world!
I’m John Russell.
John Russell wrote this lesson for VOA Learning English.
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Words in This Story
consist of – phrasal verb to be formed or made up of things
savory – adj. having a salty, tasty quality that is not sweet or sour
cozy – adj. small, comfortable, and warm; friendly and pleasant
caipirinha – n. a kind of mixed Brazilian alcoholic drink
capitalize – v. to use a capital letter to write a letter of the alphabet
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