Daily Life English: Around Town With Me

Vanessa: You are invited to  

join me in my house and around my town to learn  English for your real daily life. Today you are  

going on a journey. First, you will join me here  in my kitchen where we'll talk about important  

vocabulary for the kitchen. And then you'll  join me outside my home in the grocery store  

where we go around the grocery store talking  about all of the important vocabulary words,  

expressions, and things you might see in  an American grocery store. And finally,  

you'll join me at the gas station as I fill up my  car with gas and I walk you through those steps  

so that you can grow your vocabulary and just  express yourself for those daily life situations. 

Hi, I'm Vanessa from speakenglishwithvanessa.com,  and like always, I have created a wonderful free  

PDF worksheet for you with all of today's kitchen,  grocery store, and gas station vocabulary,  

including every definition, sample sentence,  and at the bottom of the free worksheet,  

you can answer Vanessa's Challenge Question  so that you never forget what you've learned.  

You can click on the link in the description to  download that free PDF worksheet today. All right,  

let's get started in my kitchen. Let's  move over to the kitchen where I will  

be explaining a couple key items and things  that you might see in the kitchen. Let's go. 

Welcome to my American kitchen. Today I'd like  to give you a mini tour around the kitchen.  

And I'm curious what's different from your  country? We all probably have a place to cook,  

but I'm sure that it looks different all around  the world. So let's get started by taking a look  

at the place where we keep our food, the fridge. Fridges in the US kind of have a stereotype of  

being huge, and it's true. This is our  fridge. It is very big and it's great  

for keeping lots of food. Because I have  kids the fridge is covered in memorabilia,  

things from our children, pictures. Underneath the  fridge is the freezer, which you can't really see,  

but it is also very big. It's great for keeping  lots of things/ every two weeks or every three  

weeks, I buy a lot of food, so I guess this is  different depending on the size of your fridge. 

Beside the fridge is the oven or the stove.  So here's the stove top and underneath here  

is the oven, but it's pretty typical in the US to  have either an electric stove top like I have or  

a gas stove top that has a little flame and it  cooks. This is what I have. There's knobs for  

turning it on. And over here are some other  little appliances like our toaster. We have  

a four slice toaster. There are four people  in our family, so this is very convenient.  

And let me take you over to this side to take  a look at where we wash the dishes. So fun. 

Before we get to the sink, I have my electric  tea kettle. I'd say that having an electric  

tea kettle is pretty common in most homes in  the US. Over here is my sink. So this is a  

really typical sink in the US. It has two basins.  These are the sink basins. And there is hot and  

cold water that come out. We also have a little  drinking water spigot right here. This is common  

but it's not always filtered. It's often just  cold. It might be filtered a little bit more  

than your usual tap water. That water isn't that  great to me. Instead, really excellently filtered  

water tastes so good. We also have a spray  nozzle. This is also really typical in the  

US. Right now it won't spray anything because  I haven't turned on the water in the sink. But  

if I turn on the water in the sink, I can spray. On this side is my husband's coffee supplies and  

our countertop where we do most of our food  preparation. And a cutting board. I have a  

little thing for compost. It's quite full right  now actually. I need to take it outside. But  

whenever we have food scraps or things like  that, I can put them in that little compost  

container because we don't have a disposal, which  is pretty common in the US, especially in modern  

houses. But my house is from the late 1960s. One thing that you might notice I don't have  

in here and that is laundry. We have a separate  laundry room. It's actually just like a big closet  

that has a washer and a dryer in it. You will  never see a washer and a dryer visible in the  

kitchen. It's possible that it might be in  a closet, behind doors that you can't see,  

like a little laundry closet. These rooms are  always separate and that's just how it is. There's  

one more appliance I'd like to show you, but I'm  going to need to bring you down here to show you. 

In almost every kitchen in the US, you will find  a lovely dishwasher. Oh, I love the dishwasher  

so much and I feel so grateful for this, but it's  very typical in the US. I think you would be very  

hard-pressed to find a house in the US that does  not have a dishwasher. Beside the dishwasher is  

our trash can. And we have a recycling bin out  of view. In the US, most places, most cities,  

offer recycling, but usually you just throw all  of your recycling in one bin and you don't need  

to sort it, so you don't need to sort glass and  paper. I know some countries you have to sort  

colors of glass. There's a really strict process. I'm curious, is your kitchen  

different than mine? Let me know. Well, thank you for joining me in the kitchen.  

Let's go outside the home to the grocery store. In  the US we say grocery store more than supermarket,  

so let's head there and see what you can learn. All right, first things first, we are going  

to go through the parking lot and get a cart. I  call this just a cart, but some people call it a  

shopping cart, and here in the south where I live,  people call it a buggy, a buggy. Our first stop is  

the free fruit snack for kids. This is Freddie's  favorite thing to do in the grocery store,  

so I sure hope they have something for him. Look at this, Freddie? You want a banana?  

Yeah? Okay, can you open it? Maybe you need  some help. Wow. Hold it down there. Yummy.

Dan: Freddie, did you get a banana? All right.

Vanessa: All right,  

let's go get some stuff from the produce section. 

Notice that I said the word produce section.  This just means where you can buy fruits and  

vegetables, but let's pay attention to  the pronunciation of that word produce.  

The emphasis is at the beginning. Produce.  Produce. There's another word which is a verb,  

to produce something. I produce one YouTube video  every week. Here the emphasis is at the end,  

produce. I produce a video. This is different  than the produce section. We're in the produce  

section right now and let's see what's going to  happen next. Who knows? It could be anything. 

Should I get the single ones  or should I get the bag?

Dan: Get a bag. We can make some sparkling water.

Vanessa: Well, let's see. There's 94 cents for this  

and there's 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 in here for $5. It's  a better deal, but they're in a bag. Look at this.

Dan: What do you think? Should we get lemons?

Vanessa: Yeah, let's get some lemons.0. 

When you're buying produce, you have  two options. You can buy loose produce,  

like the broccoli that I bought or you can buy  bagged produce like the lemons that I bought,  

or here like the potatoes. And really there are so  many to choose from. It's pretty unbelievable the  

type of options that we have these days.  I feel so lucky to have these options. 

As we go through the bulk section where you can  buy items in bulk, you'll see these bananas in  

a bag that are on sale. I want you to know  the difference between on sale and for sale.  

These bananas are on sale. That means there's  a discount, it's on sale. But really every item  

in the grocery store is for sale. For sale means  that you can buy it. There's no special discount.  

There's no special price. It's just for sale. Here we are at the deli counter. At the deli  

counter, you can order freshly sliced lunch meat.  You might say, "I'd like half a pound of turkey  

please, or I'd like a pound of cheddar cheese,  please." We decided to not order anything today  

because there was only one person working early in  the morning and the wait was too long, but that's  

all right. Let's move on to the next thing. In the bakery, you can get some freshly  

baked donuts, bread, or cakes. Because  Freddie is turning two soon at the end  

of March we've been talking about cakes  a lot recently. He's very excited about  

getting a birthday cake or cupcakes. Let's see. What cake would you like for your birthday?

Freddie: This.

Vanessa: This one?

Freddie: Yeah.

Vanessa: This one or this one?

Freddie: This one.

Vanessa: This one?

Freddie: This one.

Vanessa: This one?

Freddie: Yeah.

Vanessa: This one. Oh, the one with  

the cereal all over it. That looks exciting. You know what would be really good?

Freddie: Yeah.

Vanessa: We could get some hummus.

Freddie: Hummus.

Vanessa: You want some hummus?  

That's bell pepper hummus. That's yummy. Y.

Dan: Yummus, Freddie.

Vanessa: Thank you. 

In the grocery store, you have the option  to get fresh fish or frozen fish but watch  

out because usually the fresh fish has  been previously frozen. You can also get  

fresh cuts of meat or you can get prepackaged  meat. If you want to get a fresh cut of meat,  

you could say, "I'd like two pounds of ground  beef, please." This is a really polite and  

common statement that you can use. Now I'm going down an aisle. Notice  

this pronunciation, aisle. The S is  silent. Go down an aisle. Or you can say,  

"It's on aisle three." Great pronunciation. Crackers? You excited about crackers?

Freddie: Crackers.

Vanessa: All right, we got to get some pretzels.

Dan: Pretzels.

Vanessa: I want to get this kind.

Freddie: Hold it.

Vanessa: You want to hold it? Okay.

Dan: What do you have there?

Vanessa: And I'm  

going to get this one. That's our special snack.

Dan: Shake it. Good job putting it in the cart.

Vanessa: That's our special  

snack. We don't get many treats like chips  and stuff, but pretzels. We love pretzels.

Dan: Always got to get pretzels.

Vanessa: Yep. 

I'm walking past a case of frozen meat and on the  other side is an end cap. An end cap is a shelf on  

the end of an aisle. The chips are on the end cap. We're going to get some poster board for Theo.

Freddie: Me.

Vanessa: And for Freddie. Okay. You need some poster  

board too? Is it down here? Oh, let's go down  here. We need some poster board. Oh, look at this.

Dan: Is it right kind?

Vanessa: Yes. 

Next I'm going to be walking to the dairy section.  The dairy section includes milk products like  

milk, yogurt, cheese, and also for some reason  eggs are included in this. The dairy section is  

refrigerated. There are refrigerated items in this  section. Let's take a look at this pronunciation.  

Refrigerated. That final T is going to sound like  a D in American English because it's surrounded by  

vowels. This is very common for American English.  I'm going to say the word again and I want you to  

try to say it with me. Refrigerated. Refrigerated.  I'm in the refrigerated section getting some  

refrigerated items. I hope that this helps. I  know this word is tricky, but you can do it. 

All right, let's go get  yogurt. Where's the yogurt?

Freddie: The yogurt.

Vanessa: That way.

Freddie: That way.

Vanessa: That's right. It's that way.

Freddie: It's that way.

Vanessa: Do you think we need to buy any eggs?

Freddie: Yeah.

Vanessa: We actually  

don't need to buy any eggs because  our chickens make so many eggs. 

We are looking for plain whole milk yogurt.  Vanilla, vanilla, vanilla. I don't want vanilla  

yogurt. Plain whole milk yogurt, but this is so  expensive. Do we need yogurt that bad, Freddie?

Freddie: Need yogurt.

Vanessa: Okay, we need yogurt that bad.

Dan: We talked about. That's on sale.

Vanessa: Okay. 

Now it's time for a little splurge. A splurge  is something you don't need, maybe it's a  

little too expensive, but you really want it.  I'm going to get some sparkling water with a  

little bit of fruit juice in it. It's so tasty. Let's talk a little bit about alcohol. In the  

state where I live, North Carolina, you can buy  wine and beer in the grocery store. This is a very  

simple thing to do. But if you want to buy hard  liquor, so this is considered like rum or vodka,  

you need to go to a special store called a  liquor store. Here in the South where I live,  

we call these an ABC store. But you need to  go to this specialized store if you want to  

buy something else, not just wine and beer.  But for now, I'm not going to get any of it. 

I need to get some more gardening  gloves. Believe it or not.

Dan: Oh, you actually need some.

Vanessa: Yeah, mine  

have holes in all the fingers. The point of  gardening gloves is to keep your hands safe,  

but if they have holes in all the fingers.  And this will save me a trip to Lowe's. 

Before we check out, there's one keyword that  I haven't talked about yet and we need to talk  

about it. Can you guess what it is? It's the  word grocery. Grocery store. That's where I'm  

at and I'm buying groceries. There's two different  pronunciations for this and it's just a regional  

difference or a personal preference. You can say  grocery with an S sound in the middle. Grocery.  

Grocery. But for me, I say grocery with a sh  sound in the middle. Grocery store. Grocery  

store. Both of these options are correct  and it just depends on what you feel the  

most comfortable saying. So you could say, "I'm at  the grocery store or I'm at the grocery store. I'm  

buying groceries or I'm buying groceries."  Both of these are beautiful, very natural,  

and it's the most common expression that you're  going to hear in the US when we talk about a  

store where you buy food. It's the grocery store. Now it's time to check out. We can use this word  

as a noun or a verb. "Let's check out or let's go  to the checkout." You can also say the checkout  

counter, "Let's go to the checkout counter. I  need to buy the things that I put in my cart.  

Let's check out. It's time to check out." At the checkout counter, watch out,  

because there are a lot of snacks and junk food  waiting for you. The grocery store wants you to  

splurge and buy these things. For me, I try to  avoid them. It's always unhealthy, not really  

a good choice. But this is here to make a last  minute purchase. I want to know, in your country,  

are there a lot of snacks and junk food options  waiting at the checkout? I think this is kind  

of common around the world, but let me know in  the comments if this happens in your country. 

Now I'm asking the kind checkout lady if I have  her permission to film while I'm checking out.  

I wanted to give you this experience to  see the final step at the grocery store. 

Well, I forgot all of my bags today  so I can help to check out too.

Speaker 4: You want paper or plastic?

Vanessa: Let's do paper. 

Now, all of the items are going down the conveyor  belt and the checkout lady is scanning them while  

I put them in my bag. I usually bring my  own bags, but this day I was so focused on  

filming I totally forgot, so I chose to get paper  bags. I can compost the paper bags in my garden,  

but you might choose to get a plastic bag, because  you can reuse them as a trash bag in your house. 

It's time to pay for all of these groceries.  I'm scanning my membership card so that I can  

get a few discounts. And she asked me if I  want to use cash or credit or she might say,  

"Cash or card?" And you can choose which one.

Speaker 4: Thank you.

Vanessa: Thank you.

Speaker 4: You have a great day.

Vanessa: Thanks, you too. I appreciate your help.

Speaker 4: I hope it works.

Vanessa: Yes.

Speaker 4: Bye.

Vanessa: Bye. 

Now I go out through the automatic doors,  like magic, and load the groceries in the  

car. I load the groceries in the car and  then at home I will unload the groceries. 

Now that we've bought all of the groceries  that we need, it's time to fill up the gas  

tank. Join me as I go to the gas station and  fill up the car and talk about everything  

you need to learn along the way. Let's go. Before we go to the gas station, there's a couple  

expressions I want to share with you. The first  one is my gas gauge. So on my dashboard there is  

a gauge that shows me E to F, and that means empty  to full. Right now the gas gauge is closer to E,  

so that's why we're heading to the gas station.  And usually, if you have a somewhat modern car,  

if your car is low on gas, you will see a fuel  light or a gas light appear on your dashboard  

and that's a little warning to let you know  get some gas soon so that you don't run out. 

There's two idioms we can use to talk about my  situation right now. We could say, "I'm running on  

empty or I'm on E," and that's referring to empty.  Now we use this to talk about the car. I'm running  

on empty. That means I have hardly any gas in my  car. It's just fumes coming out. I better get to  

a gas station soon. But we can also use this  for your personal life. Let's say that you've  

been working really hard, you've been staying up  late, you've also been taking care of your family,  

you're exhausted. You have no energy left. You  can say, "Guys, I'm running on empty. I'm on  

E. I just need to take a nap. Can you guys just  chill for a moment so that I can go to the other  

room and take a 15 minute nap? I'm running on  empty." So this is great for talking about your  

car or for yourself. All right, let's head to  the gas station where I will introduce you to  

some more great daily life English expressions. All right, here we are at the gas station. In  

the US we call this a gas station and there's  usually a little convenience store where you  

can buy little snacks and things like that. Now  I want to let you know that there's different  

terms we use for gas that you will hear all  around the world and in the US. You've heard  

me say a few times gas. Well, this is not talking  about steam, this is short for gasoline. We put  

gasoline in the car and in the US we shorten  that to gas. But you could also say fuel,  

"I need to put some fuel in my car." And  there's a specific type of fuel called  

diesel fuel that in the US is not common for  ordinary cars, like what I have, but big trucks,  

construction vehicles, 18 wheelers, these type  of big tractor trailers, they use diesel fuel. 

And I want to let you know that in the US we  do not use the word petrol to talk about what  

you put in your car for fuel. But this is more  common in Europe and in the UK. So if you hear  

someone in another English speaking country  say, "I need to put some petrol in my car,"  

they're talking about the fuel, the liquid, that  goes in the car. But here we call it simply gas. 

Now that I've pulled up to the pump, I need to  open the fuel door. Usually there's a little  

button or a latch down here to open the  fuel door and I'm going to start choosing  

which grade of fuel I want. So come on to  the other side of the car and let's start. 

Here in the US we have self-service gas stations.  That means you have to pump the gas yourself. But  

a long time ago they used to have full-service gas  stations where there was someone who worked here  

who would pump the gas for you. But I have to do  it myself and that includes paying for the gas.  

You have a couple options. For me, I'm going to  pay at the pump, but if you have cash, you need to  

pay inside. For me, I've never done this, I think,  because it's so much more convenient to pay with a  

card at the pump. So let's see how that works. I'm going to choose to pay with my card,  

so I will choose the option for debit. You could  also choose credit if you want. I need to insert  

and remove my card and then I will have to  choose which grade I want. But we're going  

to let it process for a moment. I'm going to  add my pin, which will keep my card information  

safe. It's authorizing. Do I want a receipt?  Nope, I don't need a receipt. And now I'm  

going to need to choose which grade I want. All right, so I already put in my payment  

information. Now I need to take out the pump and  choose which grade. I'm going to choose 87. That's  

the lowest. It's the cheapest also, but it's also  what my car needs. And I need to put it in the gas  

pump. So I'm going to take off the gas cap and  insert the gas pump into the gas tank. Turn it  

on. And you can see here that it is starting to  add gas to my car and the price is going up and up  

and up. Here in the US we generally have cheaper  fuel than other countries, especially Europe,  

but it still adds up after some time. All right, now that the gas is pumping,  

let me tell you some basic vocabulary here. This  is the gas pump, it's the piece that I put into my  

gas tank. And the tank is the term that we use  for that container that holds the gas in your  

car. And after I finish pumping gas, that's  the verb we use, to pump gas, I will need to  

close the gas cap so that everything is sealed  in the car and it's not a flammable hazard. 

All right, my gas just finished, so I'm going  to put the nozzle back, very important step,  

and I will also close my gas cap, make sure it's  locked, close the gas door, and that's about it.  

There's some other things that you can do at  the gas station if you would like. For example,  

you could use a squeegee and clean off your  windshield. You could throw away some trash.  

A lot of gas stations also have an air pump.  Sometimes they're free, sometimes they're a  

dollar. But you can add some air to your tires if  you need to, or you could go into the convenience  

store and pick up some snacks if you feel like it. So are you curious how much it cost me to fill up  

my car with gas? Well, here in the US we use  gallons. That might not be the same for you,  

but I put about 15 gallons of gas in my car and it  cost me $46. For me, I don't drive an awful lot,  

so this will last several weeks, but  it's still an expense that you have  

to pay if you want to get around in the US. Well, thank you so much for joining me in my  

home and around town for this English lesson.  Now I have a question for you. Do you have a  

car? Let me know in the comments. And don't  forget to download the free PDF worksheet  

with all of today's kitchen vocabulary, grocery  store vocabulary, and gas station vocabulary,  

sample sentences, definitions, and Vanessa's  Challenge Question that you can answer so that  

you never forget what you've learned. You  can click on the link in the description  

to download that free PDF worksheet today. Well, thank you so much for learning English  

with me and I'll see you again next Friday for  a new lesson here on my YouTube channel. Bye. 

But wait, do you want more? I recommend  watching this video next where you will  

join me in the bathroom to learn about  some important bathroom vocabulary,  

including some strange but common words to use to  talk about the toilet. Join me there to find out.