This mini episode teaches a short lesson about two words that are often difficult for English learners—“vocabulary” and “menu.”
Episode 255 of the Everybody ESL podcast is a mini episode that teaches a short lesson about two words that are often difficult for English learners—“vocabulary” and “menu.” Send your questions about English and your suggestions for future episodes to EverybodyESL@gmail.com! (And let me know if you’d like to record the introduction to a future episode.)
Intro
“Hi, this is Roza, from Iran, Kurdistan Province. And you are listening to Everybody ESL.”
Welcome to episode 255 of Everybody ESL, the podcast for everybody who wants to improve their English, practice their English, or just learn more English. My name is Ben, and I have a mini episode for you today, where I am going to teach you about one English topic. You can subscribe to the Everybody ESL podcast at Apple podcasts, on the Stitcher app, and wherever you find your podcasts. If you like Everybody ESL, leave it a good review so other people can find out about it too. And if you have any questions, comments, or suggestions for me, please send an email to everybodyESL@gmail.com. Okay! Let’s get on with this mini episode.
The episode
In this episode, I am going to talk about two words that might look very different. But I think they have something in common. And I think that many people who are learning English make the same kind of mistake with these two words.
The words are vocabulary and menu. Vocabulary and menu.
Vocabulary is spelled v-o-c-a-b-u-l-a-r-y. And menu is spelled m-e-n-u. Vocabulary and menu.
I said that these words were similar, but how? How are they similar?
Let’s start with the word vocabulary. What does vocabulary mean? Vocabulary means “a list of words.” Depending on the situation, it could mean the list of all of the words in a language. Or it could mean a list of words that are used for a certain purpose. Or it could mean a list of words that you have to learn when you take an exam.
The important thing is that a vocabulary is a list. A vocabulary is a list of many words.
I have heard many people who are studying English use vocabulary to mean “a word.” So, they might say something like, “I need to learn many vocabularies.” I need to learn many vocabularies for this exam. Or “I always have a difficult time remembering those vocabularies.”
I understand why people use the word this way, but it isn’t correct. Because a vocabulary is not a word. It is a list of words.
In that case, what should you say instead of “I have to learn a lot of vocabularies for this exam”? You can say, “I have to learn a lot of words for this exam,” or “I have to learn a lot of vocabulary words for this exam.” That would mean “I have to learn a lot of words from this specific list.”
There’s another thing you could say, and it might make things a little more complicated. You can also say, “I have to learn a lot of vocabulary for this exam.” Because vocabulary can also be a noncount noun. So you can say, “I have to learn a lot of vocabulary” or “I have to learn so much vocabulary.”
But let’s ignore that use of the word vocabulary, and let’s focus on this: usually the word vocabulary refers to a list of words.
What about menu? Maybe now you can see why I say that vocabulary and menu are similar. Because in the same way that a vocabulary is a list of words, a menu is a list of foods. Every restaurant has its own menu, its own list of foods or list of dishes that it prepares—a list of dishes that it sells.
I have heard many people who are learning English say things like, “I really like the menus at that restaurant.” I really like the menus at that restaurant. What they mean is “I really like all of the dishes at that restaurant.”
In the same way that people often use the word vocabulary to mean “word,” people use the word menu to mean “food” or “dish.” But like a vocabulary, a menu is actually a list of things.
I should say that menu doesn’t always mean a list of foods. It can mean a list of options. Maybe you have seen the word menu used with different software. In that case, menu means a list of options, a list of different things you can tell the software to do.
But even then it refers to a list—a list of options.
Try to remember this about vocabulary and menu. These are both words that refer to lists of things.
And that is a short lesson about vocabulary and menu.
Outro
This is the end of episode 255 of Everybody ESL. Remember: if you have questions about English, or if you have comments or suggestions for the podcast, or if you would like to record an introduction that I can play at the beginning of future episodes—the same way Roza recorded the introduction you heard at the beginning of this episode—send an email to everybodyESL@gmail.com. I’ll be back soon with a new episode, and until then, keep going, keep practicing, and keep learning. Goodbye! I’ll see you soon.