00:00
I once ordered ice cream in a restaurant inIreland.
I thought I was asking for one bowl of ice cream.
What arrived was a tray with five or six scoops.
That sounds like quite a lot of ice cream.
Welcome to What Does That Even Mean? from yourEnglish Toolbox.
I am Juan, and today I want to share a realmisunderstanding.
I am Martin.
And I am Julia.
In Spanish, we talk about a bola of ice cream.
In the restaurant, I asked for a bowl of icecream.
I expected a single serving, but a very generoustray arrived.
Your request made sense in English, but it did notspecify one scoop.
Let us look at the difference between a scoop anda bowl.
First, what exactly is a scoop of ice cream?
A scoop is an amount of ice cream served using aspecial spoon.
Often, it looks like a rounded ball.
So one scoop is one bola de helado.
Exactly, when we are talking about the serving.
You can ask for one scoop, two scoops, or threescoops.
And what is a bowl?
A bowl is a deep, round dish that can hold food.
You can have a bowl of soup, a bowl of cereal, ora bowl of ice cream.
So a bowl tells me about the container or serving,
not the exact number of scoops.
That is right.
Depending on the restaurant, a bowl of ice cream
might contain one scoop, several scoops, oranother amount.
In my case, it was five or six.
Your story shows why familiar words can sometimeslead us to the wrong idea.
The English bowl and the Spanish bowl both referto a container.
But a Spanish bola of ice cream is the serving weusually call a scoop.
So the important difference is between the portionand the container.
Exactly.
You can have two scoops in one bowl.
What if I want just one scoop next time?
You can say, could I have one scoop of vanilla icecream, please?
Or ask, how many scoops come in the bowl?
That question makes the size of the order muchclearer.
You can also ask for your scoop in a cone or in abowl if both are available.
A cone is the crisp, pointed container often usedfor ice cream.
So I could say, one scoop in a cone, please.
Or one scoop in a bowl, please.
One phrase describes the amount, and the otherdescribes the container.
03:01
Let us practice with the listeners.
Before the quiz, let us build another ordertogether.
Imagine that you want one scoop of chocolate icecream in a bowl.
Could I have one scoop of chocolate ice cream in abowl, please?
That sentence gives the amount, the flavor, andthe container.
If you only want to know the portion size, you canask a question first.
How many scoops come in a bowl?
The answer may be different in differentrestaurants.
A small word can make a big difference when youorder.
Compare one bowl of ice cream with one scoop ofice cream.
One bowl tells the restaurant about the dish,
but it does not say how many scoops I want.
One scoop tells them the amount,
but you can still say whether you would prefer acone or a bowl.
If the menu is unclear, asking is often theeasiest solution.
How many scoops are included?
That is natural and polite.
You can also point at the menu and ask what comeswith the dessert.
You want exactly two portions of ice cream.
Do you ask for two scoops or two bowls?
Two scoops tells them the number of portions.
Now you want this portion served in a dish ratherthan a cone.
What can you say?
Two scoops in a bowl, please.
Notice how a small detail can make an orderclearer.
And how an unexpected order can become a story youremember.
On our website, you can read the transcript
and practice the difference between scoop, bowl,and cone.
The episode link is in the description.
Thank you for listening to my story.
See you next time on Your English Toolbox.
