SMART way to improve vocabulary | TOP Collocations for tastes and smells

Hi there, this is Harry and welcome back to Advanced English lessons with Harry where

I try to help you to get a better understanding of the English language.

So in this particular lesson, we're going to take a look at collocations.

And the collocations that I have for you today are connected with food and drink, to do with

taste and smell.

Okay, so collocations connected with taste and smell.

So advanced English, looking at collocations about taste and smell.

As always, I'm going to go through the list that I have for you one by one, then I'll

go back through them and give you some examples and situations when you might use those.

So in total, we've got 10.

Okay.

10 In total,

so let's start.

Subtle flavour.

Or subtle flavours in the plural.

Distinct... distinctive aroma, distinctive aroma.

To bring out the flavour.

Bring out the flavour.

A bitter aftertaste, a bitter aftertaste.

A bland, taste, bland taste.

Peculiar taste.

To give off a smell.

Overpowering stink.

Revolting stench.

And finally, to catch a whiff.

To catch a whiff of something usually.

Okay, let's go through them one by one.

Subtle flavour or subtle flavours.

Well, often when you select or find or look at a new recipe for some dish you haven't

tried before, you are really excited about how it's going to look and most importantly,

how it's going to taste.

And when you look at the ingredients that are required as you read down to the recipe,

you see some very interesting spices that you haven't used before.

All of those spices together will add subtle flavours to the taste of the food.

So when you finish cooking it and you can smell it, you give a little sample taste and

you get those subtle flavours of almond or those subtle flavours of sweetness that the

spices have added.

And something perhaps that you weren't quite expecting, but you're really really pleasantly

surprised because it really gives that extra little bit of something to the meal.

So you find the recipe, you let your family know that tonight we're going to do something

a little bit different, not quite sure how it's going to turn out because it's the first

time you've done it.

And when you see the smiles on their faces and Mmm... the nice sounds, you know that

it's been a success.

And so they can taste those little subtle flavours of something different.

So the taste of apricot, or the taste of coconut, or whatever it is that you've added that will

give that little bit of something special that will make it memorable and a dish that

you will repeat perhaps time and time again.

Okay, so subtle flavours.

Distinctive aroma.

Well, distinctive means something very noticeable, something very special.

So when it's something's distinctive, you can recognise it immediately.

So if somebody has a distinctive feature perhaps on the side of their face on the head or whatever,

it's something that's easily recognised.

So a distinctive aroma is the aroma, is the smell of something.

So certain perfumes the perfume that my wife prefers has a distinctive aroma smell that

you can get.

So if you go into the kitchen when somebody has been cooking, and no matter what it is,

you get that aroma of coconut.

Or you get the aroma of cinnamon, or you get the aroma of some particular spice that she's

added you're not quite sure what the dish is.

But you know, instantly when you go into the kitchen, that there's a distinctive aroma

that you can spare so, Oh, that smells really really good.

I really like the the smell of that.

I hope it's my favourite dish.

Yeah, okay.

So it's something that you can smell when you go in.

The aroma, for example, of fish.

If you're cooking some particular salmon, you'll always get that distinctive aroma of

of that fish baking in the oven when you walk into the kitchen.

So distinctive, something very very noticeable.

The aroma, the... the smell that gets into your nose and really really pleasant to...

associated with the food has been cooked.

To bring out the flavour.

Well, when we are cooking, we always want to bring out the flavour, particularly the

flavour of the meat.

So when you're reading the recipe and you see the various tips that these special cooks

and celebrity cooks give you, it's all about bringing out the flavour.

So, of course, anybody can take a lump of meat, stick it into the oven and roast it.

But unless you follow the recipes that the they give you, it's not so easy to bring out

the flavours.

At Christmas time I like to cook the turkey.

It's one of my favourite jobs to do at Christmas, I always follow a recipe of Jamie Oliver,

a very well-known celebrity chef in the UK.

Now, he has wonderful recipes but he has a really really great recipe for roasting turkey.

And when you follow the simple step by step that he does, usually in the preparation,

this is what is special about his recipe, and it brings out the flavour.

And so for the last two or three years when I followed his particular recipe, it really

brings out the flavour of the turkey meat.

Whereas previous years when I'd cooked it yet tasted fine, but it was either a little

bit dry or cooked a little bit too long.

But in the last few years accent it's really brought out the flavour of the meat.

So that's what we mean by bringing out the flavour, doing something different.

A little bit special, a little bit of sauce, a little trick that these chefs have that

will help you to bring out the flavour of whatever you happen to cook.

A bitter aftertaste.

Well, some foods unfortunately when we cook them may not turn out the way we had expected

or intended.

And when you bite into something, it leaves a bitter aftertaste and makes you shake or

shiver.

So an aftertaste is a taste that you find after you've bitten or swallowed that particular

food.

And perhaps you have to take a quick drink of water to get rid of it and I don't like

that bitter aftertaste.

Perhaps the first bite is actually okay.

But later you get that after taste of something that's not quite so pleasant.

So there are certain foods that can do that for you.

For me, mangoes.

I don't like mango fruit.

When I bite into it, it smells nice, has a nice fruity smell and the initial taste but

often for me, it leaves a bitter aftertaste and I just don't like.

So some people have food choices.

They like some that they don't like.

For me it just happens to be mango and I get that bitter aftertaste.

A bland taste.

Well, there's nothing worse than having bland food.

Bland means ordinary or tasteless.

Okay, so you eat something you might as well be eating wet paper, a bland taste.

And when something tastes bland or looks bland, it's just nothing.

Yeah, you've got no excitement, no interest.

And perhaps you're waiting for something special described on the menu is something really

good and tasty.

And then when you taste it, nothing is another another bite.

Still nothing.

So it's a bland taste something like as I said, tasting wet paper, bland.

Now, when we use about taste, we shouldn't say it's a sweet taste, or it's nice taste.

We should say it has a nice taste or it has a sweet taste.

Or we could just say it tastes nice or tastes sweet.

It tastes nice or tastes sweet.

It's not it is sweet taste or it is nice taste.

It has a sweet taste, or it has a nice taste.

Okay, so just be careful how you use the English around that.

So next we have a peculiar taste.

Well, when something has a peculiar taste, it could be that it's just something you don't

recognise.

Okay?

So, for example, it might be a new curry.

And you're not sure it's the recipe says curry, and you put in all the ingredients that they

asked you to add.

You've mixed it the way it told you.

But it just has a peculiar taste like there's something either missing or just something

about it that's not quite right.

So you continue with it.

It's not that it's bad.

It's... and it's not that it's, it's got a foul taste.

It's just a peculiar taste.

And it's just something you cannot put your finger on.

Okay, so you might ask your partner to taste it and see what he thinks or she thinks, and

they taste it and go, Yeah, why don't you try adding a pinch of salt?

Or why don't you add a pinch of some other spice that will just change the flavour of

it and perhaps that will work.

So you get a peculiar taste not something you can immediately recognise or identify.

All you can say.

It's just a peculiar taste.

Not so sure I'd cook that again.

Or if I do, perhaps I might just change one or two of the spices cause they're not really

my cup of tea now.

So a peculiar taste.

When something gives off a smell, it usually means something negative.

Okay?

So for example, if you come home from that holiday and you walk into the kitchen, you

open the fridge and there's something giving off a smell, it usually means that you've

left something in the fridge a little bit too long.

Milk has gone stale.

Cheese has gone mouldy something there that just isn't right.

So you hunt around in the fridge smelliness and smell.

Oh, yeah, that's it.

Yeah, so gives us a smell so you're able to identify what it is.

And it gets binned immediately.

So when something gives off a smell, it usually refers to something bad, okay?

That doesn't necessarily have to be food.

But in relating... in relation to food, it's usually something that hits your your nose,

as soon as you come into the house or into the kitchen.

Could...

It could be a piece of overripe fruit that you've left in the fruit basket, a banana

or something that's just gone a little bit too long.

So you get that deadly sweet smell of the the rotten fruit.

So you just have to be really, really careful, it gives off a smell.

Or if you walk into a greenhouse where there's lots and lots of vegetables, and the sun is

very hot, there's a certain smell that you'll get in the greenhouse when you walk your walk

in, so it gives off a smell.

An overpowering stink.

Well, a stink, again, is a bad smell.

Like a stink of the smell of the shoes.

Or the training gear that your kids have used.

And they've left in their gym bag for the last week and forgot to put it in the washing

machine.

That will certainly stink.

Yeah, that would be a very overpowering stick.

But if some food has been left in the fridge longer than it should be.

Or somebody dropped something underneath the sofa behind the sofa.

And after a while it begins to smell, particularly when the summer days are long and hot.

So there's an overpowering stinking, you have to open all the windows and get some fresh

air in very very quickly.

Or indeed if you burn the meat in the cooker.

Perhaps you put meat in the cooker, and then you had to run out to get something and you

just forget about it.

You meet somebody and then you say, Oh my God, my God, I've left the the food in the

oven and you run home and there's your incinerated or your burnt piece of meat and there's an

overpowering stink of burnt meat.

It's black.

Yeah.

So it's not something that you can really serve up to the family and you have to throw

it out and start all over again.

So an overpowering stink overpower means something that almost knocks you out because it's so

so strong, so overpowering, really strong stink, very bad, heavy smell, okay.

And then we have a revolting stench.

Again, referring to bad smell.

So revolting, something that's revolting is very, very bad.

Stench is a really strong, deep smell like blue cheese.

I love it.

I absolutely love it.

My wife doesn't like it so much.

But it's amazing when you have it in its package or box looks absolutely beautiful.

When you open the box and slice into it.

Few hours later, it's a really really strong smell or a stench of blue cheese and you know

exactly what's in the fridge.

You don't have to be told by anybody but there's definitely blue cheese somewhere because you

can smell it.

As soon as you walk into the house or walk into the apartment and you get...

You know... for my wife, it's a revolting stench.

She doesn't like it.

I like it.

Love the taste, but the smell can be a little bit strong.

Okay, so a stench of blue cheese.

And then finally, to catch a whiff of something.

Well, it's not something overpowering, it's not something bad.

A whiff is an informal way to talk about a smell.

So to catch a whiff of something is just

Oh, somebody's having a barbecue.

I got a whiff of sausages cooking.

I wonder where that's coming from.

Or you get a whiff of pizza.

So one of the kids has come home and they've sneaked up the stairs with the box of pizza

and so you follow the smell into the bedroom and there they are tucking into their fever

favourite pepperoni and so you get or catch a quick whiff of food so it flows through

the the apartment it flows through the house very very quickly.

So you can catch a whiff of coffee.

As you walk past the coffee shop.

You don't have to be told where you are, just sniff the air and you can smell the aroma

of coffee perculating on... in the coffee machine.

So when you walk past a... any sort of coffee chain, you'll... you'll get that particular

smell.

So really really pleasant, not overpowering, but you catch the whiff of coffee and you

go, Yeah, I think I'll and grab one.

I'll go and get my Americano.

Okay, so all of these are just collocations and dealing with the tastes okay, so relating

to taste and also to smell.

And a lot of the words and collocations have used in relation to smell or bad smell.

So they're usually the ones we notice first, you know, we get a stench or a wave for something

stinks, something quite strong, so it's not so good.

But they can be good smells as well.

But when we're talking about good smells, then we use those words like aroma.

Yeah, okay, the perfume, the aroma, so they all relate to good smells, whereas stink and

stench are usually relating to bad smells.

Okay, so let me give them to you one more time.

Subtle flavour of subtle flavours.

A distinctive aroma.

Bring out the flavour of something.

A bitter aftertaste.

When you chew into something that doesn't really taste so good.

A bitter aftertaste.

A bland taste.

Really tastes of nothing, bland taste.

Peculiar taste, something you really can't identify.

To give off a smell.

And usually, when it gives off a smell, it's a bad smell.

An overpowering stink.

A revolting stench.

And then finally, to catch a whiff and to catch a whiff of something.

Okay, so again, try to use those particularly when you're in the kitchen and you're cooking

something you're opening certain packets, see what you get a flavour of, see what you

get an aroma of, see what is an after... bitter aftertaste or something that gives a particular

or peculiar taste or a very, very strong stench or stink.

Practice them, come back to me with any problems, I'll try to help you.

And as always, thanks for listening.

Thanks for watching.

Join me again soon.