When to say I DRINK ALCOHOL and I DRINK SPIRITS. Please, help me. English is not my 1st language.?

Question

And i need to explain that to my ESL sts. Thanks a lot!

Answer 1

Alcohol is the layman's way of saying it. If you say you drink "spirits", someone is going to think you are some sort of VooDoo Witch Doctor or something.

Answer 2

In the US we just ask - Do you drink? The other is implied.

Beer or alchohol maybe a question but not many people say "Spirits" here. Spirit is like a religious thing - Alcohol mean hard liquor.

A conversation would "go" like this. Hey, do you drink? Why, yes I do. What do you drink? Alcohol, man. Cool!

Answer 3

Saying "I drink alcohol" would be the more general-use phrase. It would include all alcoholoic drinks, and be understood by most everyone.
Saying "I drink spirits" would be a more formal statement and more specific to what you are drinking. Spirits would include the distilled liquors/liqeurs like gin, whiskey, vodka, schnapps, etc, but not wine, beer, wine coolers, etc. It would also be less understood generally, and more appropriate for more formal social settings where the distinction between beer or wine and 'spirits' is understood and appreciated.
I hope that helped.

Answer 4

Spirits, in the alcoholic sense, are things like vodka, whisky, gin and rum, and generally have high alcohol contents, over 40% volume. They are generally served in measures of 25 ml (single) or 50 ml (double). In some bars you may even be lucky enough to get a treble of 75ml. They are generally served 'on the rocks' (with lots of ice) or with mixers, which can be any non-alcoholic soda which goes with it. For example, vodka goes with (among other things) orange juice or lemonade, gin goes with tonic water, whisky goes with soda (though some have plain water, or coke or lemonade) and rum generally goes with Coke.

Alcohol is a general word to describe any drink with alcohol content, including beers, lagers, wines and spirits. Spirits is just a general term for a type of alcohol.

Answer 5

When you say "I drink alcohol" it means any kind of alcohol, beer included, cocktails, wine, etc.

When you say "I drink spirits" it means the type of alcohol that fits in the spirits category, in other words whisky, vodka, I think.

Answer 6

Spirits and alcohol are usually associated as the same thing, unless you want to include "spirits" as wine and beer as well. Perhaps you should be more specific and say "I consume beer, wine, hard liquours" etc...

Answer 7

Here in the states, we rarely call them Spirits. It's useally I drink Beer, or I drink Hard Liquor.

Answer 8

Just say "I like to get sloshed/trashed/bombed/plastered" those all work... non of that spirits and alcohol mumbo-jumbo

Answer 9

"I drink alcohol" is more common. "I drink spirits" is correct, but is old fashioned.

Frankly, if you just say "I drink" most people understand what you mean.