Welcome to the Unit 10 Review! In this unit, you learned how to talk about cooking, recipes, and food. You practised imperatives to give instructions, can / can't to talk about ability and permission, and polite ordering language to ask for food in a café or restaurant.
Cooking verbs are very useful in the kitchen. Here are the main verbs you learnt:
| Verb |
Meaning |
| boil |
cook in hot water |
| fry |
cook in oil in a pan |
| bake |
cook in an oven |
| roast |
cook in an oven with oil |
| chop |
cut into small pieces |
| peel |
take the skin off |
| stir |
mix with a spoon |
| pour |
put liquid into something |
| add |
put something in |
| mix |
put things together |
Look at the imperative. We use it to give instructions. We do not add a subject:
- Chop the onions. (not "You chop")
- Don't add too much salt.
- First, boil the water. Then add the pasta.
Use words like first, then, after that and finally to put the steps in order. This makes your recipe clear and easy to follow.
For ability and permission, we use can / can't:
- I can cook pasta. (ability)
- She can't bake a cake. (ability – negative)
- Can I have a coffee, please? (request / ordering)
Remember: can is the same for I, you, he, she, we and they. The negative is can't (or 'cannot' in formal writing): 'I can't cook', 'They can't bake', 'He can't boil an egg'.
For polite orders in a café, we often use:
- Can I have a burger, please?
- I'd like a glass of water.
- Anything else? / That's all, thank you.
Using capital letters — Always begin every sentence with a capital letter. Also use capital letters for names of people and places, and for the personal pronoun 'I'. In a recipe, capital letters also start the name of the dish.
Now it's time to review everything and write your own recipe!