What's In My Fridge? - Elementary / Pre-Intermediate - Useful Language

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Present. What's in My Fridge? (Food & Drinks)

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If an Elementary student has to describe a picture of a shopping basket or speak about his or her fridge, or about food and drinks, teachers will probably expect the student to use at least "there is", "there are", some, any / no (there are no apples, but there are some oranges; there aren't any apples, but there are some oranges), the numbers, prepositions of place, and the verb "have (got)". Verbs of likes and dislikes might also be expected, e.g. I like pasta very much, but I don't like noodle soup! Some teachers also care about structure, so it's always a good idea to describe things in some kind of order.

In this episode I have included all kinds of things, but you can make it shorter! At the Elementary (A1) level, monolog(ue)s last for about a minute.

I'm going to speak about my fridge. What's in my fridge?

On the top shelf I keep the dairy products -- there are some low-fat yoghurts (or yogurts), there is some cheese and there is some butter, too. Oh, and there are some eggs – 5!
On the middle shelf there is some Spanish ham – it's not boiled ham, it's cured ham. And there is a container with some food leftovers! I think it's yesterday's potato salad! There is another container with "chorizo" and "salchichón" -- that's like salami. It's very popular in Spain!
On the bottom shelf there is some chicken – two breasts. There are two steaks, too.
On the very bottom shelf there are some drinks – there is beer, well, there are two cans of beer. There is some coke – well, there are four cans of coke. And there is some orange juice and there are two cans of lemon soda.

The bottom drawers are for vegetables. Native speakers say "veggies"! There are some green vegetables: fresh spinach for salads, there is some parsley, and there are two lettuces. There is some broccoli, two zucchini (US) / courgettes (UK), an eggplant (US) / aubergine (UK). There is a green bell pepper and a red bell pepper. We also have some baby carrots, and a few cherry tomatoes. Oh, and there are a few lemons, too.

In the door, on the bottom shelf, we keep/have the milk. At the moment, there is a bottle of milk. There is also some coke. (There is some coke. There is a bottle of coke.) On the middle shelf there are some jars of jam. There is some strawberry jam, some blackberry jam, some apricot jam, and a jar of plum jam. On the top shelf there is some mayonnaise. Native speakers say "mayo". There are three jars of mustard. There is some ketchup, too. And there is a cheese dip. We have/eat it with crackers, with nachos or with celery or carrot sticks -- this is healthier!

In the freezer there is some fish and meat, and behind that there are some frozen veggies, too. There is also some chocolate ice cream! And there are four ice cube trays, one on top of the other!
That's my fridge. Well, but I have more food in the kitchen! On the kitchen table there is a bowl with ripe fruit. There are a few bananas, some oranges and some apples, there is a pear, and we also have a jar of nuts – chestnuts, peanuts, nuts...

In the kitchen cupboards we keep the flour, the sugar, the salt, the spices and some cans of soup. There are some pulses: a kilo of lentils, and a half a kilo of chickpeas. There is some rice. There is also some coffee, some chamomile tea and some cocoa. And noodles to make soup! And pasta, of course!

Last, we have a cloth bag for the bread.

That's all!

(About 500 words, 5 minutes – You only have to speak for about 1 minute!)

Extra on vocabulary

More on the fridge itself:
Bins, drawers, boxes
Shelf/Shelves, tiers, trays
Containers: plastic container, glass container
Freezer, icebox – Check the poem called "This Is Just to Say" by WCW!

More on fruit and vegetables: a piece of fruit. How many pieces of fruit do you have a day/every day? I would like some fruit for dessert? What have you got? (UK) / What do you have? (US) / What is there for dessert? OK, then I'll have an apple. A (crunchy) red apple, please.
Pineapples, figs, grapes, melon, watermelon, clementines, nectarines, peaches, mangoes, avocados, celery, leeks, garlic, cabbage, cauliflower, green beans, artichoke, asparagus.

More pulses in English are: white beans, red beans, frijoles beans…

Marmalade can only be orange or lemon marmalade. Jam is used for other flavo(u)rs.

Prepositions: in the corner, next to the milk there is a bottle of white wine, on the container there is a saucer with a piece of meat, at the back of the fridge,  further back, between the milk and the whine there is a bottle of soda (soft drink – there are different flavo(u)rs: cherry, cola, orange, lemon, tonic water…), behind the fish there is a package of frozen peas

 

On the Talking People Podcast you will find a similar exercise called "Describing my house"

There is an EOI youtube channel with learners practicing (US) / practising (UK) for their Speaking Test in different moments of the course. Check it out at http://www.youtube.com/englisheoigetafe lower case (minúsculas)