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It tastes great!
In English, there is no equivalent for
Guten Appetit. Some people say “Enjoy
your meal” or, more informally, “Dig
in!”. But we often say nothing.
Adjectives (not adverbs) are used af-
ter verbs that tell us how somebody or
some thing looks, feels, sounds, tastes
or smells. This is because the subject
of the sentence is being described, and
not the action of the verb:
- Mmm, that smells good (not: well)!
- This tastes fabulous (not: fabulously)!
Cheers!
Before enjoying a drink, we say,
“Cheers!” or more formally, “Here’s to
your good health”. In the pub, glasses
are usually clinked only once — if at all.
Countable and
uncountable nouns
Countable nouns can be counted and
have plural forms:
- Five bananas, please.
- How many prawns would you like?
Uncountable (or mass) nouns are the
names of materials, collections, liquids
etc. We cannot use numbers with un-
countable nouns. Most have no plurals:
- Would you like some more water?
- Shall I bring any food to the party?
Make an uncountable word countable
by putting “a piece” or a similar expres-
sion in front of it:
uncountable countable
bread a loaf of bread, a slice of bread
water a bottle of water, a glass of
water, a litre of waterSome nouns can be either countable or
uncountable:
- Is there any ice cream in the freezer?
(uncountable) - Come on, let me treat you to an ice
cream. (countable)