Breakfast
What do you usually eat for breakfast? Do you think breakfast is important? What did you have for breakfast when you were a child? Is breakfast important for you? What do you usually eat for breakfast?
Vocabulary
  • To start off (phrasal verb) - to begin by doing something, or to make something begin by doing something.
  • Meal (noun) - an occasion when food is eaten, or the food that is eaten on such an occasion.
  • Cereal (noun) - a food that is made from grain and eaten with milk, especially in the morning.
  • Cornflakes (plural noun) - small, thin yellowish-orange pieces of dry food made from crushed maize, often eaten with milk and sugar in the morning.
  • Scrambled eggs (plural noun) - eggs mixed with a little milk and mixed again as they are being fried.
  • Toast (noun) - sliced bread made warm, crisp (= hard enough to break), and brown by being put near a high heat.
  • To replenish (verb) - to fill something up again.
  • Consistent (adj.) - always behaving or happening in a similar, especially positive, way.
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Questions and Answers
M: What do you usually eat for breakfast?

R: Oh, actually, I don't have breakfast really. The closest thing I get to eating would be the protein shake I have every morning. Hopefully, that counts.

M: Do you think breakfast is important?

R: Well, it's definitely a good idea to start off the day with something. I'm just not convinced it has to be a full meal, like bacon, fried eggs or other things like that. At least not every day, that cannot be healthy.

M: What did you have for breakfast when you were a child?

R: Usually it was a bowl of cereal, like cornflakes or something, but sometimes, especially on the weekends, when there was more time, it would be scrambled eggs on toast or something like that.

M: Is breakfast important for you?

R: For me in particular? I would say so since I work out in the mornings and I need to replenish my energy reserve so I can work afterwards. Properly, anyway.

M: Do you eat something special for breakfast on the weekends?

R: No, I'm actually pretty consistent in that regard, now that I think about it.

M: Is breakfast your favourite meal of the day?

R: I think that depends on the day, to be honest. You don't really know what your favourite meal of the day is until the day is finished. I look forward to it, though.
Discussion
M: Hey, Rory, thank you for your answers! Yum, yum, yum. Dear listener, are you hungry?

R: Ugh, I am now.

M: So we say like we eat something for breakfast. Okay? Or we have breakfast. Like I usually have eggs for breakfast. Do we normally use an article? Like I don't have a breakfast, I don't have breakfast?

R: Not normally, no. It's without the article.

M: Yeah. So you can say I don't usually have breakfast. Well, I usually, I always have breakfast. And Rory skips his breakfast.

R: I don't skip my breakfast. I just don't have anything solid.

M: Rory has a protein shake every morning for breakfast. Okay? So protein shakes count as breakfast. And you can say, for example, like, oh, I don't normally have breakfast, but I drink a glass of water, hopefully that counts. This is my breakfast. A glass of water.

R: Well, some people wake up with a glass of water. In the morning, which is apparently supposed to be quite good for you.

M: Yeah, it should be like warm water with some lemon, you know? It's definitely a good idea to start off the day with something. So start off the day with a good breakfast, right? Or start of the day with some food, or, again, a glass of water. But Rory is not convinced that it has to be a full meal. A meal is like breakfast, dinner, and lunch, like a proper meal. You can say like, okay, I'm not convinced that it has to be a full meal. I disagree with Rory. I think I am convinced that breakfast should be breakfast. It must be a full meal, you know, like coffee, fried eggs, you know? Bacon, yum, yum, yum. Some, you know, fried tomatoes. A full English breakfast is for us for a reason, dear listener, okay? It's beautiful. What is a full Scottish breakfast? And how is it different from a full English breakfast?

R: As far as I know, I think it's got haggis with it and black pudding, which is kind of a blood-based product. And I can just double-check because I've not had one in quite some time. Yes, it's got black pudding, haggis and scones made from potatoes and a Lorne sausage. But all of these are meat products which, or vegetable products, which come in a slightly different form in the English breakfast. So really it's the same thing.

M: Delicious, dear listener. You can talk about something traditional in your country. What do people normally have for breakfast? What is a traditional breakfast in your country? And what do you call this thing that many people have for breakfast in Conan Doyle's novels, Sherlock Holmes had it for breakfast.

R: What did he have for breakfast? I have no idea. Tea? I don't know.

M: No, this like healthy thing.

R: Well, that's not narrowing it down.

M: It's made of oats.

R: Oh, porridge.
M: Porridge. Yes. So we can say, like, what kind of porridge can we have for breakfast?

R: I guess we can have many kinds of porridge. You can have porridge with honey or chocolate, or just by itself, plain porridge. I cannot think of any more, because I don't really eat porridge.

M: Yeah, dear listener, so if you never eat porridge for breakfast, it's a very good idea to say that, oh, usually I eat oat porridge or barley porridge with almond milk. You see? Beautiful words for breakfast. When you talk about your childhood, you can say, oh, I used to have a full breakfast every morning, but not anymore, and I would usually have a bowl of cereal. So a bowl is this thing where you put cereal? Cereal is this, you know, cornflakes, a traditional American breakfast. Cereal with milk. And do we say cereals?

R: You can but it's in a slightly different context. So breakfast cereal for the having the one meal in the morning. Breakfast cereals for the choice that you can choose from. We also talk about cereals when we refer to different kinds of crops, so they have slightly different meanings and uses depending on the context.

M: But you can say breakfast cereals, for example?

R: You can talk about the different kinds, yes. But if you're talking about a bowl of cereal, then it's just one thing.

M: Yeah. And when there was more time, it would be scrambled eggs on toast. So when I was a child, when there was more time, it would be, okay? Kind of it often was. Scrambled eggs? Like you just do this with eggs on toast. And toast is an interesting word, dear listener. Why, Rory?

R: Why is toast special?

M: Because we don't use any article, dear listener. Toast is uncountable.

R: You might but it won't be for talking about what you have for breakfast.

M: So if you have eggs on toast, it's on toast. Or you can say, I have a slice of toast, like one piece of toast, but we say kind of like I usually have eggs with toast, even if there are many slices of toast, you say toast because you don't say toast, right, Rory? Meaning a slice of bread.

R: For talking about the breakfast thing. Yes.

M: Yeah. So, okay, I make a sentence, you correct me. Okay? Oh, I usually have toast for breakfast.

R: I usually have toast for breakfast.

M: I usually make a lot of toast for breakfast.

R: I usually have a lot of toast, or make a lot of toast for breakfast.

M: Yeah. Not, not toasts, toast.

R: Well, you might, if you're, if you have champagne and you're toasting someone.

M: Yeah. Because a different meaning is like, oh, let's drink champagne. Let's toast to happiness. Yeah? And I make a toast, let's drink champagne for everybody to be happy. So this is a toast. Replenish my energy. What is it? Replenish.

R: Just to restore the energy or to bring it back up to the level it should be.
M: Yeah. Could you give us another example with this "Replenish"?

R: Well in the morning, I have a protein shake to replenish my energy. Most people have coffee to replenish their energy, and if you're feeling tired, you could have an energy drink to replenish your energy. Oh, wow.

M: You can say that I'm consistent in this regard. So I'm consistent with my breakfasts. Yum, yum, yum. So every day I have the same thing for the rest of my life. So I'm consistent in this regard. Like breakfast-wise I'm consistent. And you can also say that I'm looking forward to my breakfasts. So I can't wait to have my breakfast, because it's so cool. And you know what? Like if I skip breakfast if I oversleep and I get up at like 1 pm in the afternoon, I still have breakfast.

R: Oh, my gosh. Well, is it really breakfast then, or is it lunch?

M: Yeah, yeah, yeah. I need to have like a proper breakfast, like a sandwich, or a cup of coffee, an omelette. Yeah. And dear listener, the task for you is, you should Google different breakfasts. Okay? So go to Google and like type in ideal breakfast. Okay? And there you'll see lots of interesting pictures, like 67 healthy breakfasts or 13 healthy foods. So everything is about "healthy".

R: Ooh...

M: A balanced breakfast. And could you choose one breakfast that you like. For example, chia pudding, chia seeds, gluten-free and vegan. Wow. Cottage cheese. You see? To have some interesting words that you can use. Like, don't be boring, like saying eggs and milk and cereal. Say something interesting. Okay? Imagine an interesting breakfast. Even if you never have such a breakfast, you should say it. Okay? There you go. Crickets? What? Insects?

R: I eat crickets for breakfast in the morning.

M: Wow.

R: No, I don't eat crickets for breakfast,

M: Your task is to choose a breakfast for yourself with interesting words, dear listener. Okay? And dear listener, we're gonna finish off with a horrible joke from Maria.

R: We're gonna finish Rory off with a joke.

M: Yeah, Rory, are you ready? Are you alive? Okay, first of all, we need some vocabulary. So imagine I drive my car, and if I want the car to stop, what do I do?

R: Press the brake?

M: Yeah. Now the joke. What's a car's favourite meal?

R: Oh, god, you're gonna say it's breakfast.

M: Don't kill the joke, Rory!!!

R: No, Maria, the joke died on delivery. Okay? No.

M: You can crack this joke if you have this topic, okay? Breakfast. And the examiner goes, like, oh, like, let's talk about breakfast. And you go, oh, I know a joke. And you crack this joke. And examiner dies.

R: And the examiner fails you.

M: Oh, thank you very much for listening! And we'll get back to you in our next episode with more horrible jokes or without them. Bye!

R: Bye!
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