English Food & Cooking Vocabulary

Level: A1. Food comes up every single day — at home, in a shop, in a cafe. This page gathers the most common English food and cooking words, grouped by job: meals, drinks, basic ingredients, things on the table, and the verbs you use to eat and cook, each with a plain meaning and a short example you can copy.

By the end of this page you can…

…name common meals, drinks and foods, count them correctly with words like some, a cup of and a piece of, and use the kitchen verbs eat, drink and cook in simple sentences.

How this list was chosen

Every word here comes from the English frequency list (hermitdave/FrequencyWords), which ranks words by how often they appear in a large collection of everyday subtitles. From that list we kept the food words an A1 learner needs first and grouped them by meaning rather than by rank. The Rank column is the word’s real position in the list — a lower number means it is more common.

Meals and eating

Rank	Word	Meaning	Example
533	food	what we eat	The food is ready.
373	eat	put food in your mouth	We eat at seven.
398	drink	take liquid into your body	I drink water with lunch.
1391	cook	make food with heat	She cooks dinner every night.
1276	breakfast	the first meal of the day	I have eggs for breakfast.
876	lunch	the midday meal	Let us have lunch now.
560	dinner	the evening meal	Dinner is at eight.
2065	meal	food eaten at one time	It was a lovely meal.
983	hungry	needing food	I am very hungry.

Drinks

Rank	Word	Meaning	Example
378	water	the plain drink	Can I have some water?
666	coffee	a hot dark drink	I drink coffee in the morning.
928	tea	a hot drink from leaves	She made a cup of tea.
1473	milk	a white drink from cows	Add milk to your tea.
2427	juice	a drink from fruit	A glass of orange juice, please.
1050	wine	an alcoholic grape drink	They opened a bottle of wine.

Everyday foods

Rank	Word	Meaning	Example
1882	bread	baked food from flour	I cut a slice of bread.
2371	rice	small white grains	We eat rice with dinner.
1503	meat	food from animals	He does not eat meat.
1224	chicken	meat from a hen	I cooked some chicken.
888	fish	an animal from water, eaten as food	We had fish for dinner.
2323	egg	food from a hen in a shell	I boiled two eggs.
1857	cheese	a food made from milk	A piece of cheese, please.
2436	fruit	sweet food from plants	Eat more fruit.
648	sweet	with a sugar taste	This cake is very sweet.
1494	cake	a sweet baked food	She made a birthday cake.

In the kitchen and at the table

Rank	Word	Meaning	Example
1127	kitchen	the room for cooking	He is in the kitchen.
1438	cup	a small container for hot drinks	A cup of coffee, please.
1057	glass	a container for cold drinks	Pour a glass of water.
2105	plate	a flat dish for food	Put it on the plate.
1399	knife	a tool to cut	Use a knife to cut the bread.
1433	restaurant	a place to buy a meal	We ate at a restaurant.
541	order	ask for food in a cafe	I will order a salad.
1252	taste	the flavour; to try	This soup has a nice taste.

Example sentences

Play each line, then say it aloud. These show the food words in natural, everyday patterns.

I am hungry, let us eat something.

'Hungry' describes you; 'eat' is the action.
Can I have some water, please?

Use 'some' with uncountable water, not 'a water'.
We have breakfast at seven every morning.

'Have breakfast' is the common way to say it.
She cooks dinner for the family every night.

Present simple third person adds -s: cooks.
I ate a big lunch, so I am full now.

Irregular past: eat/ate.
He drank two cups of coffee this morning.

Irregular past: drink/drank; count with 'cups of'.
Would you like tea or coffee?

A polite way to offer a drink.
I cut a slice of bread and some cheese.

Count bread and cheese with 'slice' and 'some'.
They do not eat meat, so I made a salad.

'Do not eat' for a habit; meat is uncountable.
A glass of orange juice, please.

'A glass of' counts the drink.
The soup is hot, so eat it slowly.

'Hot' describes temperature here.
We ordered fish and rice at the restaurant.

'Order' is what you do in a cafe or restaurant.
This cake is sweet and very delicious.

'Sweet' and 'delicious' both describe taste.
Put the plate on the table with a knife and fork.

Table words: plate, knife, fork.
How much is a cup of tea here?

Ask the price with 'How much is…'.
I will have the chicken, please.

'I will have…' to order a dish.
Add some milk and sugar to your coffee.

'Some' with uncountable milk and sugar.
She is in the kitchen, cooking our meal.

'Kitchen' is the room; 'meal' is the food.

Recap cheat-sheet

A few patterns to fix before the quiz.

Cheat sheet: how to count English food words with some, a cup of and a slice of.

Quick recap before the quiz.

Pattern	Example
uncountable + some	some water, some rice, some bread
count with a container	a cup of tea, a glass of water
count with a portion	a slice of bread, a piece of cake
ordering food	Can I have…? / I will have…

Practice

Food vocabulary practice

Try each one, then press Check. No sign-up, nothing is sent anywhere — it all runs in your browser.

1 Match each word to its meaning.

breakfast Match for breakfast
cook Match for cook
hungry Match for hungry
restaurant Match for restaurant

Show answer

breakfast → the first meal of the day
cook → make food with heat
hungry → needing food
restaurant → a place to buy a meal

Linking a word to its meaning helps you recall it faster.

2 Complete with the past of 'eat': Yesterday I ____ a big lunch.

Hint: eat is irregular

Show answer

ate — The past of 'eat' is 'ate', not 'eated'.

3 Count water with this word: Can I have ____ water, please?

Hint: used with uncountable nouns

Show answer

some — Water is uncountable, so use 'some', not 'a'.

4 Which is correct? I bought two foods. I bought some food. I bought a food. I bought foods.

Show answer

I bought some food. — 'Food' is uncountable: use 'some food'.

5 Pick the right drink word for the morning. a cup of coffee a coffee cups two coffee a coffees

Show answer

a cup of coffee — Count coffee with a container: a cup of coffee.

6 Put the words in order.

Show answer

I will cook the dinner — After 'will' use the base verb: I will cook the dinner.

Quiz

Next set: English Animals Vocabulary
Previous set: English Time Expressions
Verbs you need to cook: 100 Essential English Verbs
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English Food & Cooking Vocabulary

By the end of this page you can…

How this list was chosen

Meals and eating

Drinks

Everyday foods

In the kitchen and at the table

Example sentences

Recap cheat-sheet

Practice

Food vocabulary practice

Quiz

Food vocabulary quiz

Next

All English vocabulary topics

Vocabulary