11.3 Food, Shopping, Money and Health

Cambridge A2 Key KET

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1 Introduction & Exam Overview

1.1 What Is Cambridge A2 Key (KET)? 1.2 Exam Format: Three Papers 1.3 Who Takes A2 Key and How It Is Delivered 1.4 Study Hours and Preparation Path

2 Scoring, Grades & Results

2.1 The Cambridge English Scale 2.2 Grades A, B, C and Certificates 2.3 How Your Overall Score Is Calculated

3 Reading Parts 1–3: Understanding Texts

3.1 Reading Overview (Parts 1–5) 3.2 Reading Part 1: Short Texts and Main Message 3.3 Reading Part 2: Multiple Matching 3.4 Reading Part 3: Longer Text Detail and Gist

4 Reading Parts 4–5: Vocabulary and Grammar Cloze

4.1 Reading Part 4: Multiple-Choice Cloze 4.2 Collocations and Phrasal Verbs for Part 4 4.3 Reading Part 5: Open Cloze 4.4 Grammar Words for Open Cloze

5 Writing Part 6: Guided Message

5.1 Writing Overview (Parts 6–7) 5.2 Part 6 Guided Writing Task 5.3 Model Emails and Content-Point Checklists

6 Writing Part 7 & Assessment Criteria

6.1 Part 7 Picture Story 6.2 Narrative Language and Connectors 6.3 Writing Assessment: Content, Organisation, Language

7 Listening Parts 1–3

7.1 Listening Paper Overview 7.2 Listening Part 1: Short Dialogues and Pictures 7.3 Listening Part 2: Gap Fill Notes 7.4 Listening Part 3: Conversation Multiple Choice

8 Listening Parts 4–5 & Detail Skills

8.1 Listening Part 4: Gist and Main Message 8.2 Listening Part 5: Matching 8.3 Numbers, Times, Prices and Spelling

9 Speaking Test

9.1 Speaking Test Format 9.2 Speaking Part 1: Interview 9.3 Speaking Part 2: Discussion 9.4 Speaking Assessment Criteria

10 A2 Grammar Essentials

10.1 Present and Past Tenses 10.2 Future Forms, Modals and Obligation 10.3 Comparatives, Superlatives, Adverbs and Word Order 10.4 Questions, Negatives and There Is/Are

11 A2 Vocabulary Topics

11.1 People, Home and Daily Routines 11.2 Free Time, Hobbies, Travel and Transport 11.3 Food, Shopping, Money and Health 11.4 Places in Town, Services and Simple Technology

12 Functional Language for Exam Tasks

12.1 Requests, Offers, Invitations and Suggestions 12.2 Opinions, Agreeing, Disagreeing and Preferences 12.3 Describing People, Places and Events; Simple Narration

13 Exam Day and Test Strategy

13.1 Digital vs Paper-Based and the 2026 Change 13.2 What Happens on Exam Day 13.3 Full Practice Tests and Timing Plans

14 Results and Next Steps

14.1 Interpreting Your Statement of Results 14.2 From A2 Key to B1 Preliminary

11.3 Food, Shopping, Money and Health

Key Takeaways Explain This Topic AI

Meal language (have breakfast/lunch/dinner), restaurant phrases, and food groups support Speaking, Writing invitations, and Listening orders or prices.

Shopping chunks—try on, fit, size, receipt, exchange—plus shop types help Reading notices and Listening store dialogues.

Money language (cost, pay by card/cash, change, discount, expensive/cheap) is a top Listening detail target with numbers.

Basic body and illness vocabulary (headache, temperature, make an appointment) appears in practical texts and short conversations.

Collocations such as make a reservation, take medicine, and do the shopping are frequent Part 4-style partners.

Last updated: July 2026

11.3 Food, Shopping, Money and Health

Quick Answer: Master meal collocations , restaurant phrases , shop and price language , paying , and basic health chunks ( I’ve got a headache , make an appointment ). These topics create dense Listening number items and natural Speaking answers, and they supply many Reading Part 4 verb–noun partnerships.

Food, shops, money, and health are “street English.” If you can order lunch, understand a price, and say you feel ill, you unlock a huge part of A2 Key life topics.

Exam Map

• Area Exam use
• Food likes/dislikes Speaking Part 1; Writing invites
• Restaurant dialogues Listening Part 1–3; functional reading
• Prices and offers Listening numbers; short notices
• Shopping problems too small , exchange , receipt
• Health short conversations; messages to cancel plans
• Part 4 have lunch , pay the bill , take medicine
• Meals and Food Language
• Meal collocations

• Chunk Note
• have breakfast / lunch / dinner / supper standard meal verbs
• have a snack small eat between meals
• make breakfast / make a sandwich prepare food
• cook dinner heat/prepare a meal
• eat out eat at a restaurant
• have a picnic eat outdoors
• skip breakfast not eat that meal
• Food groups (useful labels, not endless lists)

• Group Example items
• fruit apple, banana, orange, grapes
• vegetables salad, carrots, potatoes, tomatoes
• meat / fish chicken, beef, fish
• dairy milk, cheese, yoghurt, butter
• drinks water, juice, tea, coffee, fizzy drinks
• carbs bread, rice, pasta, cereal
• sweet food cake, ice cream, chocolate
• Preference and diet phrases

• Chunk Example
• I’m vegetarian / vegan diet identity (recognition + simple production)
• I’m allergic to… nuts, milk (important safety phrase)
• It tastes delicious / awful opinion
• spicy, sweet, salty, fresh simple adjectives
• healthy / unhealthy food evaluation
• homemade cooked at home
• takeaway / takeout food to take home

Speaking model: I usually have cereal for breakfast. For lunch I have a sandwich at work. I love pasta, but I don’t eat much meat. I’m trying to eat more vegetables.

• Restaurant and Café Language
• Booking and arriving

• Chunk Use
• book / make a reservation / book a table reserve
• a table for two number of people
• menu / set menu what you can order
• waiter / waitress / server staff
• order ask for food
• starter / main course / dessert meal parts (British materials)
• bill / check payment request
• tip extra money for service (cultural note)
• take away food not eaten in
• Polite order frames

Frame Example

Could I have…, please? Could I have the chicken, please?

I’d like… I’d like a green salad.

• What do you recommend? asking for help
• Is it possible to…? change a dish
• I’m sorry, we haven’t got… staff response
• Enjoy your meal staff phrase
• Problem language (Listening gold)

• Chunk Meaning
• It’s cold / burnt / undercooked food quality problem
• I ordered…, not… wrong dish
• Could we have some water? request
• We’re in a hurry time pressure

Original Listening-style exchange:

A: Could I have the fish, please?

B: I’m sorry, we haven’t got any fish today. The chicken is very good.

A: OK, I’d like the chicken. And a bottle of water.

Detail question: What does the customer choose in the end?

• Shopping: Places, Actions, Problems
• Shop types (high frequency)

• Shop What you buy
• supermarket general food and household
• bakery bread, cakes
• butcher’s meat
• greengrocer’s fruit and vegetables
• chemist’s / pharmacy medicine
• newsagent’s papers, snacks
• clothes shop clothes
• shoe shop shoes
• bookshop books
• department store many sections
• shopping centre / mall many shops together
• market stalls, often cheaper
• Shopping action chunks

• Chunk Meaning
• go shopping activity
• do the shopping buy the needed food/household list
• look for a… try to find
• try on a jacket / shoes test clothes/shoes on body
• fit / don’t fit size is right/wrong
• be too big / too small / too expensive problems
• take (it) in / take (it) back return (as taught in materials)
• exchange swap for another size/item
• get a refund money back
• keep the receipt proof of purchase
• be on sale / in the sale reduced price
• queue / wait in a queue line up
• open / closed; opening hours times
• Clothes shopping mini-dialogue chunks

Excuse me, have you got this in a medium / in blue?

Can I try it on?

Where are the changing rooms?

It fits perfectly. / It’s a bit tight.

I’ll take it. / No, thanks, I’ll leave it.

Part 4 partners: try on , take back , pay for , look for , sold out .

Money, Prices, and Paying

Numbers + money = classic Listening detail .

Price language

Chunk Example

cost / costs It costs £12.

• How much is it / are they? price question
• expensive / cheap / reasonable value adjectives
• free £0
• discount / offer / special price reduction
• half price 50% off
• pound, euro, dollar, cent, pence currencies (as relevant)
• change money returned after cash payment
• Paying

• Chunk Note
• pay by card / pay cash / pay by contactless method
• PIN / enter your PIN card security (recognition)
• credit card / debit card card types (light)
• ATM / cash machine get cash
• borrow / lend direction care: lend me £5 / borrow £5 from you
• save money / spend money / waste money money verbs
• afford have enough money
• bill (restaurant or utilities) amount to pay

Number listening tips:

Watch teens vs tens ( thirty / thirteen ).

Note currency words and decimals in prices.

Listen for but after a first price ( It was £40, but I got it for £25 in the sale ).

Borrow vs lend (mini-trap table)

• Correct Meaning
• Can you lend me £10? You give me money temporarily
• Can I borrow £10? I take money temporarily
• She lent him her charger. She gave it temporarily
• He borrowed her charger. He received it temporarily
• Health: Body, Illness, Appointments

A2 health English is practical , not medical school.

Body basics (for symptoms)

• Area Words
• head head, face, ear, eye, nose, mouth, tooth/teeth, throat
• body back, stomach, chest, shoulder, arm, hand, leg, foot/feet
• general temperature, cough, cold, flu, pain
• Symptom and illness chunks

• Chunk Use
• I’ve got a headache / a cold / a cough / a temperature common symptoms
• My arm hurts / I’ve got a pain in my… pain
• I feel sick / ill / tired / better general state
• catch a cold become ill with a cold
• see a doctor / go to the doctor seek help
• go to hospital / to the dentist places
• take medicine / take tablets treatment
• stay in bed rest
• get well soon wish
• Appointments

• Chunk Example
• make an appointment book a time
• cancel an appointment stop the booking
• be free on Tuesday availability
• surgery / clinic doctor’s workplace (British surgery for GP practice)
• waiting room where you wait
• prescription paper/order for medicine
• pharmacy / chemist’s get medicine

Writing Part 6 link: cancel a meeting because you are ill: I’m writing to say I can’t come tomorrow. I’ve got a bad cold and a temperature. Can we meet next week instead?

Health collocations for Part 4

• Gap-friendly chunk Wrong rivals to reject
• make an appointment do an appointment
• take medicine drink medicine as default
• catch a cold take a cold
• feel better become better sometimes OK, feel is core
• Integrated Original Mini-Text (Food + Money + Health)

On Saturday morning Lena did the shopping at the supermarket. The chicken was on offer—half price—so she paid £4.50 by card and kept the receipt. At lunch she ate out with her brother. They ordered pasta and a salad. In the afternoon Lena felt ill; she had a headache and a temperature. She made an appointment to see the doctor on Monday and decided to stay in bed with tea and water.

Possible tested details: price; payment method; meal; symptoms; appointment day.

Part 4 verbs: did the shopping , paid by card , ordered , had a headache , made an appointment , stay in bed .

• High-Value Chunk Tables (Memorise as Sets)
• Table A — Food service

• Chunk Partner words
• order a meal, a drink, dessert
• pay the bill, by card, in cash
• book a table, a restaurant
• recommend a dish
• taste delicious, strange, sweet
• Table B — Shopping + money

• Chunk Partner words
• try on clothes, shoes
• look for a present, a size
• take back a jacket that doesn’t fit
• spend money, £20 on…
• save money, time
• cost £10, a lot
• Table C — Health

• Chunk Partner words
• have/got a cold, a fever/temperature, a pain
• take medicine, a break, your temperature (as taught)
• make an appointment
• feel ill, better, sick
• go to the doctor, to hospital
• Practice Tasks

Menu roleplay (3 minutes): partner is waiter; order starter + main + drink; ask for the bill.

Receipt story: invent three items with prices; say the total; pay by card.

Ill email: 40–50 words cancelling Saturday cinema (ties Writing Part 6).

Gap drill: remove six verbs from the Lena text and recover them under a timer.

Number ear: listen to any store advert; write every price you hear.

Common Errors

Error Better

I am hungry for two hours (unclear) I’ve been hungry for two hours is B1+; at A2 say I’m very hungry / I haven’t eaten since… carefully taught forms

The shoes don’t serve me The shoes don’t fit (me).

How many costs this? How much does this cost?

I have cold I have a cold. / I’ve got a cold.

• Make shopping Do the shopping / go shopping
• Account for restaurant bill bill (in many A2 British materials)
• Checklist
• I can describe my meals on a normal day
• I can order food politely and ask for the bill
• I know try on / fit / receipt / exchange
• I can ask and say prices; pay by card or cash
• I can explain simple symptoms and make/cancel an appointment
• I have personal answers: favourite food, last shopping trip, last time I was ill

With food, money, and health in place, you can handle most “daily problem” exam situations. The last vocabulary cluster adds places in town, public services, weather, and simple technology/media —the setting where many of these actions happen.