Survival Vocabulary. 4 Essential Food Verbs

Survival Vocabulary. 4 Essential Food Verbs

Verbs to Eat, to Cook and to Order

My dear readers,

In this post I am going to introduce you four essential verbs related to food. These are the verbs to eat x2, to cook and to order. 

At this stage I will not be focusing on the conjugations and tense forms, I will only tell you how to spell and pronounce the Imperfective and Perfective Infinitives and then I will put these verb forms into some simple context for you to learn some useful phrases from the very beginning.

To hear how all the words and phrases mentioned in this post are pronounced, please, visit my 'Say It in Russian' podcast on SoundCloud.
 
So let's start :-)
to eat 1

есть - Imperfective (homonymic to the Present form of the verb to be, like in the phrases 'У меня́ есть, у тебя́ есть' or I have got / you have got).

съéсть - Perfective (you always need to specify what exactly you are going to 'съéсть'). Съем тебя́, дéтка :-) - I will eat you, baby. 

поéсть - Perfective (it is not obligatory to say what you are going to eat).

To eat 2 
кýшать

This verb should actually be used when politely inviting to have meal, offering food, encouraging to try some dish etc. and shoud not be used when talking about yourself / yourselves. However, guess how many native speakers are aware of this nuance nowadays? :-)

кýшать - Imperfective
скýшать - Perfective (again you are going to offer to eat something). Скýшай я́блочко, Белосне́жка. - Eat an apple, Snowwhite.
покýшать - Perfective (it is not obligatory to say what you are going to eat).

to cook
готóвить - Imperfective
приготóвить - Perfective

to order
закáзывать - Imperfective
заказáть - Perfective

And now some examples:

Есть хоти́те? Хоти́те есть? - Do you want to eat? (Not too formal, meaning more like 'Are you hungry?').
Я хочý чтó-нибудь съесть. - I want to eat something.
Что у нас есть поéсть? - What do we have to eat? (There is a bit of a word play :-)

Кýшать хóчешь? Хóчешь кýшать? - Do you want to eat?
Я́блочко хóчешь скýшать? - Would you like to eat an apple?
Тебе́ на́до снача́ла пойти́ покýшать. - First, you need to have meal / to eat something.

Вы уме́ете готóвить? - Can you cook?
Что приготóвить на обе́д? - What to cook for dinner? (Meaning what would you like me to cook for dinner?)

Что Вы бýдете зака́зывать? - What will you be ordering?
Я хочу́ заказа́ть э́тот кокте́йль. - I would like to order this cocktail.

Now you have learnt 4 new verbs which are so important for the daily vocabulary. You have done a great job!

I know you still have many questions concerning using these verbs but, please, remember, we should take a little at a time. A snail is faster than a rabbit :-) This topic is to be continued and this will happen really soon.

Thank you for reading this post and being with me! Have a great weekend!