VOA · Everyday Grammar
Advanced · C1learner speed7:002024-04-11public domain
Everyday Grammar digs into one grammar topic per episode — verb tenses, prepositions, sentence patterns — with plenty of spoken examples. Because you are listening to language about language, it doubles as grammar review while you train your ears.
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01In this week's Everyday Grammar, we continue a trip around the world.
02But, instead of seeing famous places, we will learn about wonderful foods of different countries.
03We will also learn about grammar and writing along the way.
04In a recent lesson, we explored how to describe a national dish.
05We asked our listeners and readers around the world to write us messages about their country's national dish.
06Today, we give feedback on some of the writing that we received.
07Let's start in Ukraine.
08Here is part of a message Yanina wrote to us.
09Borsh is the national dish of Ukraine.
10Borsh consists of water, vegetables, meat, and spices.
11Yanina's message was wonderful.
12Yanina used the structures we described in our previous lesson, the phrasal verb consist of, as well as exact nouns, water, meat, and spices.
13Our main suggestion is to include a few more details about borsh.
14Perhaps use adjectives such as savory, spicy, or rich.
15For example, you might say, borsh is a rich, savory dish that consists of water, vegetables, meat, and spices.
16Next, we read part of a message from Mei in Taiwan.
17Beef noodle is the national dish of Taiwan.
18It is a cozy dish that consists of noodles, boneless beef, and full of vegetables.
19Every year, the Taipei International Beef Noodle Festival holds a competition to find Taiwan's best beef noodle soup.
20Our main suggestions are to include soup at the beginning of the message and remove full of from its position before the noun vegetables.
21We might change the first sentence to this.
22Beef noodle soup is the national dish of Taiwan.
23It is a cozy dish that consists of noodles, boneless beef, and vegetables.
24We especially enjoyed Mei's use of the adjective cozy.
25It suggests warmth and comfort.
26The term really helps bring the dish to life.
27Now let's learn about Brazil's national dish.
28Here is part of a message from Leonardo.
29Feijoada is the national dish of Brazil.
30It's a delicious dish that consists of rice, black beans, pork, and kale.
31And get better when you have it drinking caipirinha.
32Leonardo's message described the dish very well.
33Our main suggestions are for the final sentence.
34We suggest including a subject, as in the dish, and including the short word with.
35Also, a caipirinha is the national alcoholic drink of Brazil.
36We might update the sentence to something like this.
37And the dish gets better when you drink a caipirinha with it.
38Now let's turn to part of a message from Julia in Russia.
39The traditional national dish is soup-shi, or cabbage soup.
40It is in two versions.
41In first version, the main ingredient is fresh cabbage.
42In second version, the main ingredient is sauerkraut.
43Julia's message was very interesting because it explored two versions of the same dish.
44One with fresh cabbage and one with preserved or pickled cabbage known as sauerkraut.
45Our main suggestions are to include known as in the first sentence and to change the structure of the following sentences a little.
46One way to update the message might be like this.
47The traditional national dish is a soup known as shi, or cabbage soup.
48There are two versions of it.
49In the first version, the main ingredient is fresh cabbage.
50In the second version, the main ingredient is sauerkraut.
51Finally, let's examine part of a message from Firuza.
52The message describes Iran's national dish.
53Gorma sabzi is the national dish of Iran.
54It is main dish that consists of red beans, vegetable, dried lemu, and meat.
55It is served with rice.
56Firuza's message was clear and easy to understand.
57Our central suggestions are to remove main and add an s to the verb consist.
58Also, be sure to not capitalize the nouns vegetable, meat, and so on.
59These nouns are not capitalized because they are not at the beginning of a sentence and are not proper nouns.
60That means they are not names of people or places, for example.
61We might update the message to something like this.
62Gorma sabzi is the national dish of Iran.
63It is a dish that consists of red beans, vegetables, dried limes, and meat.
64It is served with rice.
65We enjoyed reading all the messages sent to us by our readers and listeners.
66Of course, there were messages that we did not include in this lesson or the previous lesson.
67We wish that we could have included all of them.
68Still, we hope that everyone can take some ideas from today's report.
69We also hope that you have learned a little about the wonderful kinds of dishes that exist in the world.
70I'm John Russell.
// transcribed with Whisper AI — reading it is easy; catching it by ear is the skill
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