Dave's ESL Cafe's Student Discussion Forums

[Blossom]

I came across these words in a recipe.

� Every 2 minutes, you *want* to toss the peppers.
� Add the wine. Continue to cook, covered, an additional 5 minutes. *You want the peppers are very tender* and caramelized.
� You *want* to pulsate food processor 4 times.
� *You do not want to over processes.*


I do not understand the use of want here. What is the writer trying to say? Is this bad English, or is it colloquial?

What does *over processes* mean?

[Blossom]

Here is another problem I have found in a web page on sandwich recipes

This sandwich is like none you will ever taste.

What does this mean?

[asterix]

� Every 2 minutes you should toss the peppers.
� Add the wine. Continue to cook, covered, an additional 5 minutes, until the peppers are very tender and caramelized.
� You should pulsate food processor 4 times.
� You should not over process.

To over process = to carry out a process for too long

[asterix]

I suppose it means it is the best you will ever taste.

[Blossom]

Thanks.

But such a strange use of the word *want*

I came across another use of *want* recently when my teacher said, "Do you want to help me carry the books?" I said "No." But apparently he did not mean "Do you want to!" He meant, "Carry my books. Thats an order."

[iitimone7]

correct, blossom. want can be a very complicated word. iitimone7

[Smoothie]

The use of the word 'want' in a recipe is telling you what you want to do if you want to follow the directions. It is telling you what to do. If you still have trouble understanding it, think of it as 'you should do' instead of 'you will want to'.

Concerning the example of people asking by saying, "Do you want to...?" It is a good example of a polite form of a question.

I'm an American living in China; when I was learning some questions in Chinese, it was hard for me to accept them right away because they seemed rude. I know this is just a cultural difference and now I'm seeing the other side of the coin. Our polite forms can be confusing for non-native speakers.

We don't want to seem too demanding, nevermind if we are!

[iitimone7]

thanks for the perspective, smoothie!!

iitimone7

[tri]

that's right. *want* might seem a little confusing.
'You want to'..or 'You might wanna' both mean something like 'you should' or 'it's best if you...'