At the Supermarket: Food and Shopping Vocabulary in English

Learn useful English for grocery shopping. This free A1 lesson for adult beginners covers food categories, supermarket departments, quantities, and simple conversations with store staff. Its 14 interactive slides include food sorting, audio vocabulary, two videos, grammar quizzes, and a shopping role-play.

What you will learn

• Recognize common food words and food categories.
• Name supermarket departments and ask where to find an item.
• Describe quantities with many, much, and a lot of.
• Use container and portion words such as a carton of milk and a loaf of bread.
• Choose how much or how many for quantity questions.
• Practice a polite shopping conversation.

Food vocabulary and categories

Begin with the drag-and-drop activity. Sort the food words into groups and say some examples aloud.

• Fruit: apples, oranges, lemons, cherries, and pineapple.
• Vegetables: onions, carrots, cucumbers, tomatoes, and potatoes.
• Fish: sardines, tuna, and salmon.
• Grains and grain products: rice, flour, cereals, and bread.
• Meat: sausages, ham, and chicken.
• Dairy: milk, yoghurt, cream, and cheese.

Practice the question What do you usually buy at the supermarket? Answer with a short list: I usually buy milk, bread, and apples.

Supermarket departments in English

Watch the grocery store video and listen for the department names. The vocabulary cards help you practice produce, poultry, meat, and bakery words.

• Produce department: fruit and vegetables.
• Dairy department: foods such as milk, cheese, and butter.
• Fish and seafood department: fish and shellfish.
• Meat and poultry departments: meat and poultry such as chicken.
• Bakery: bread and other baked products.

An aisle is a passage between rows of shelves. Ask Where is the shampoo? and practice an answer such as It is in aisle four. Store layouts differ, so use the department names to ask staff for help.

Countable and uncountable food nouns

Some foods can be counted individually: one apple, two apples, or three cookies. Other food words, such as milk, rice, flour, and salt, are usually uncountable when we talk about an amount.

Use there are with plural countable nouns: There are many apples on the table. Use there is with uncountable nouns: There is a lot of rice in the jar.

Many goes with plural countable nouns. Much goes with uncountable nouns, especially in questions and negative sentences: Is there much milk? There is not much milk. Use a lot of with both types: a lot of rice and a lot of cookies.

Food quantities: containers and portions

Use a container, measure, or portion word to describe a quantity. These expressions are also called partitives. You can count the containers or portions while keeping the food noun unchanged: one carton of milk, two cartons of milk.

The measures video introduces more examples, including a piece of cake, a jug of lemonade, and a tablespoon of sugar. Watch, repeat the expressions, and complete the picture quiz.

How much or how many?

Use how many with plural countable nouns: How many apples are there? Use how much with uncountable nouns: How much milk is there?

You can also count portions: How many loaves of bread are there? There are three loaves of bread. Notice that the plural of loaf is loaves.

Compare How much milk is there? with How many bottles of milk are there? The first question asks about the amount of milk; the second counts bottles. Practice the audio conversation and choose the correct question words in the grammar activity.

Shopping role-play: asking for help

Customer: Excuse me. Where is the butter?
Store assistant: It is in the dairy area at the back.
Customer: Thank you. Where is the shampoo?
Store assistant: It is in aisle four.
Customer: Thank you for your help.
Store assistant: You are welcome. Have a good day.

Take turns as customer and store assistant. Change the items and locations to practice another conversation. Start politely with Excuse me and finish with Thank you.

Practice with the interactive lesson

1. Sort food words and discuss what you usually buy.
2. Watch the supermarket departments video and practice the vocabulary audio.
3. Watch again and answer the video quiz.
4. Practice there is, there are, and food quantities.
5. Watch the measures video and complete the portion-word quiz.
6. Practice how much and how many questions.
7. Act out the shopping conversation and name three things you buy at the supermarket.

Teachers can use food pictures to model quantities before learners speak. For self-study, make a short shopping list and read it aloud using expressions such as a loaf of bread and two cartons of milk.

Review transport vocabulary in Lesson 8, or explore more free A1 English teaching materials.