VOA日常语法2024--More Writing Feedback: What is Your National Dish?

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 savory¹, spicy², 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 cozy³ 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 alcoholic⁴ 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 limes⁵, 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

1 savory   

adj.风味极佳的，可口的，味香的

参考例句：

• She placed a huge dish before him of savory steaming meat.她将一大盘热气腾腾、美味可口的肉放在他面前。
• He doesn't have a very savory reputation.他的名誉不太好。

2 spicy   

adj.加香料的；辛辣的，有风味的

参考例句：

• The soup tasted mildly spicy.汤尝起来略有点辣。
• Very spicy food doesn't suit her stomach.太辣的东西她吃了胃不舒服。

3 cozy   

adj.亲如手足的，密切的，暖和舒服的

参考例句：

• I like blankets because they are cozy.我喜欢毛毯，因为他们是舒适的。
• We spent a cozy evening chatting by the fire.我们在炉火旁聊天度过了一个舒适的晚上。

4 alcoholic   

adj.（含）酒精的，由酒精引起的；n.酗酒者

参考例句：

• The alcoholic strength of brandy far exceeds that of wine.白兰地的酒精浓度远远超过葡萄酒。
• Alcoholic drinks act as a poison to a child.酒精饮料对小孩犹如毒药。

5 limes   

n.古罗马边境的城墙；酸橙( lime的名词复数 )；石灰；酸橙树；欧椴树

参考例句：

• an avenue of limes 两边栽有欧椴树的林荫道
• I will never go in a boat again without salt or limes." 以后不带盐或酸橙，我绝对不再乘船了。” 来自英汉文学 - 老人与海