Learn how to use the verb "Cook"
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| Hi, everybody. Welcome back to Know Your Verbs. |
| My name is Alisha, and in this episode, we're going to look at the verb cook. Let's get started. |
| Okay. First, let's look at the basic definition of this verb. The basic definition is to prepare food for eating using a heating process. Here are some examples. |
| He cooked an amazing meal for dinner. She's cooking breakfast. |
| Now let's look at the conjugations for this verb. Present, cook, cooks. Past, cooked. |
| Past participle, cooked. Progressive, cooking. |
| Now let's talk about some additional meanings for this verb. The first additional meaning I want to talk about is to alter or to fabricate. Here are some examples. |
| Rumors are saying that company cooked the books. He cooked up a good lie to tell his mother. |
| Okay, so in both of these example sentences, we see the verb cook used to mean to alter a story or to fabricate. To fabricate means to create something. In other words, to tell a lie. You might see this used when people are talking about company news, especially company financials. |
| The first example sentence here uses the expression cook the books, or the past tense cooked the books. This is a common slang expression, which means the company or the person altered their financial information or altered their accounting information to make the company look better than it actually is. When you see this expression used to talk about money or to talk about data, it means that there's something strange or something that's not true about the money information or the data that's presented. People like to use the expression cook the books, where the books means this kind of financial data, like you're looking at it in a book form, if that's helpful to remember. |
| This is kind of a special phrase that we use in this case. But in other cases, outside of company situations and other sort of money related situations, we can also use cook to mean to tell a lie or to come up with a lie, as in the second example sentence, he cooked up a lie to tell his mother. This means he came up with some kind of lie. The difference between say create a lie or come up with a lie and cook to lie is pretty small. But when we use cook, if you think back to the original basic definition of cook, like to prepare something for eating, it takes time, right? So the idea with cook up a lie is like you have to think about it for a while. You have to think of something that's going to be good, right? It's not like you just decided on that thing. When you cook up a lie or you cook up a story to tell someone, it sounds like you took a little bit of time to come up with that thing. |
| So that's the reason somebody might choose to use the verb cook in some cases and why they might just say tell a lie or tell a story in other situations. So this is the first additional meaning of cook. Let's head on to the second additional meaning. To occur or to happen. Here are some examples. Hey guys, what's cooking? Sounds like there's a party cooking at the neighbor's house. Okay, so this use of cook is a very casual and usually a pretty friendly way of asking what is happening or what is going on. In the first example sentence, we see the very casual, hey guys, what's cooking? So that just means what are you doing? What is happening right now? Tell me what's up. It's another way to greet someone. So your friend group might use this, your friend group might not use this, but that's what it means. It doesn't sound rude or impolite or anything like that. |
| It's just another way to ask what's currently happening. So that's something I use personally a lot, but you can feel free to use it if you like it. The second one uses the same word cooking to talk about something that's happening but nearby, in this case at the neighbor's house. Sounds like a party is cooking at the neighbor's house. So this use of cooking, this example sentence with cooking, kind of shows that something is good in some way. So not only is there a party happening, but we can hear it or maybe we can kind of get some idea of what might be happening over there. So it has kind of a good feeling. |
| So this is another sort of key point with this use of cook, which means to occur or to happen. Yes, something is happening, but also it's something good that is happening or something positive that is happening. So in the first example, when someone asks, Hey guys, what's cooking? It sounds like what good things are happening. In the second example too, we have the example of a party. It sounds like something good is happening too. So it tends to have this feeling of something fun or exciting or good associated with it. |
| So if you hear this use of cook, that's what it means. And it usually has the feeling of something good going on. The next additional meaning of cook is to use fire on something as preparation. Here are examples, strong heat cooks clay pots and makes their forms solid. |
| The jeweler cooked the gold over high heat until it melted. Okay, so both of these example sentences use fire, but they use fire on things other than food. So the basic definition of cook is referring to using heat or some kind of heating process to prepare food for eating. But these example sentences use cook to refer to using fire or perhaps some other kind of heating element or heating process to prepare something that is not food. |
| In the first example sentence, it's clay pots. So when we want to finish a clay pot after shaping it, we put it in the fire usually, or you put it in something very, very hot to solidify the form, to make the form solid. So we might use the verb cook to talk about that, cooking those clay pots to make them finished. In the second example sentence, we see it's about a jeweler that's using heat to melt gold. So we might use the verb to cook, like cooking the gold over high heat until it melts. So these refer to using heat to prepare something that is not food. So you might see this one used from time to time. So yes, we can use cook to talk about things that we eat to prepare those things and to prepare things that we don't eat as well. |
| Great, now let's move on to some variations. The first variation is to let someone cook. To let someone cook means to allow someone time and space to do something that seems interesting or useful. Here are some examples. Let him cook, he's working on an interesting idea. We should let them cook, they're bound to do something crazy. Okay, so this let someone cook is kind of a recent slang or a recent way that people like to use this word. |
| So when we use let someone cook, it means someone seems to be doing something interesting or someone seems to be doing something that might be kind of exciting or helpful for us in some way. And so when maybe one person wants to interrupt that person, wants to like go and ask them what they're doing or wants to maybe stop them, somebody else, a third person there will usually stop them and say, no, wait, let that person cook, which means let them continue doing that thing. So give them some time and give them some space to continue whatever it is that they're doing because we want to see the result. So if you see this used in popular media, that's what it means. So there are usually at least three people in the situation when this expression is used. |
| There's the person doing the thing, there's the person who wants to interrupt that person for some reason, and then there's a third person that stops them and says this expression, no wait, let them cook. So that means they're doing something interesting or they're doing something that we want to see, so please don't interrupt them. That's how this expression is used. The second variation is to be cooked. This means to be in trouble or to have a bad image. Here are some examples. Oh, we missed the last bus. We're cooked. |
| People wrote tons of hate comments on that guy's rude post. He's cooked. All right, so this use of to be cooked does not refer to food. We use this one with people. So when we use this verb with people, it means that someone is in trouble, like someone is under fire, someone has lots of heat and lots of pressure on them, like food, kind of. But the idea with this is that it's for a bad reason. So if we say like, oh, they cooked that guy in the comment section of that YouTube video, it sounds like they wrote lots and lots of awful things about him. It sounds like something bad happened to him. So in these example sentences, we see situations in which the person or the people are in trouble. In the first example sentence, they're expressing, oh, we missed the last bus. So that means that they are in a situation that is trouble and maybe they're not going to get out of it anytime soon. In the second example sentence, it's about people writing rude comments on someone's rude post. |
| So we're expressing that that guy who posted that thing is now in trouble with the expression, oh, he's cooked, or maybe they cooked him. So there are a few different ways that we can use cooked to talk about this. So if you see cooked used in this way to talk about a person being cooked, it's probably referring to something bad that happened to that person. Great, let's review what we talked about in this lesson. I'll introduce two example sentences that are both correct, but that have different meanings of the verb. Choose the sentence that expresses the appropriate meaning. |
| Something's cooking over there. The CEO cooked the data. Which sentence uses the to alter or to fabricate meaning of cook? The answer is the second sentence. The CEO cooked the data. In this sentence, our big hint is the data there. So we often use this use of cook for altering or fabricating or telling lies with things like money and with data. So that's a big hint with this sentence. Great, let's move on to the second review. They cooked all kinds of raw materials for the design project. She's doing great, let her cook. Which sentence uses the to use fire to prepare something meaning of cook? The answer is the first sentence. |
| They cooked all kinds of raw materials for the design project. This sounds like the team of people used fire or some kind of heating element to prepare raw materials to use in a project. So when we want to talk about using fire to prepare something other than food, we can use cook in this way. Great, let's move on to the third review. She cooked an amazing meal for dinner. What's cooking tonight? Which sentence uses the occur or happen meaning of cook? The answer is the second sentence. What's cooking tonight? |
| This is the casual way of expressing what's happening tonight that is also good. So this is generally used as a greeting. This is a big hint that that person is asking not about what's on the menu, but rather what kinds of things are happening in that scene. Great, let's move on to the last one. We missed the project deadline. Our boss is going to cook us. |
| She cooked up a story about missing her train. Which sentence uses the to be in trouble meaning of cook? The answer is the first sentence. In this situation, the person speaking has missed a project deadline, which is probably a problem at work. They follow up by saying, our boss is going to cook us. Or you could say we're so cooked as well. There are a few different ways to express this kind of feeling of being in trouble with cooked. |
| So when you see these kinds of bad situations or these problem situations arise with the verb cook involved, that probably means that person is in trouble. |
| Awesome, so I hope that you learned a lot of information about different ways to use the verb to cook. |
| There are, of course, more, but you need to check the dictionary for a little bit of extra information there beyond the scope of this video. |
| Thanks very much for watching this episode of Know Your Verbs, and I will see you again next time. Bye! |
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