The Necessary Vocabulary

You drink tea from a cup or a mug. But mug has a second meaning:
'He's a mug' =he robs people and beats them up.
Mug rhymes with thug, which also has the above meaning:
'Her boyfriend looks like a thug!' =he looks like a criminal, and that is usually not very promising.
To mug is a verb:
'I've been mugged!' =I've been robbed!
'She mugged my mug yesterday!'

Well we hope not. But if that's true, then probably:
'Mugging is a piece of cake for her' =it is very easy for her.
You can also say:
'Learning languages is a piece of cake',
and if you don't agree:
'Learning languages is not my cup of tea' =I don't really enjoy it, and I'm no good at it.

Water is normally boiled in what is called a kettle and nowadays is usually electric.
'Put the kettle on, Jenny' =Pour water into it and turn it on.
It is important not to mix up a kettle with cattle (=farm animals like cows, mules, ox, etc.), as they are pronounced similarly:
'We keep cattle and sheep' - that's what we do on our farm.
'We always keep the kettle on' - because, for example, we drink tea all the time.

Tea may come in teabags (=little bags enclosing the tea) or loose (=so that you use a spoon to take it out from where it is). To make tea is to brew it (=pour water over loose tea or a teabag), however this is a technical description, and it is more natural to use the verb to make:
'I'll make us some tea and you'll tell me all about yourself'.
Another liquid that is brewed is beer and the place where this is done is called  a brewery:
'My grandfather built this brewery in 1896',
while you can brew tea in a teapot (=a bigger container designed for that) or just in your mug.

If the tea is very hot, you can sip it (=drink by taking each time only a small portion of the liquid into your mouth and swallowing it).
'Is this yours? Can I have a sip?' =can I drink a bit of what you are drinking?

When it is hard to tell what is the exact colour of a given thing, you can use the word for the colour closest to it and add -ish at the end of it:
'Henry bought a new submarine. It's sort of yellowish and very strange in shape'
Actually, you can use do it with anything (you're only limited by your imagination) although remember it is peculiar to (=characteristic of) spoken English
'What's the time?'
'Five o'clock. Ish' =it's five o'clock. Almost or just after it.

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