"Eh? Oh, I get it," Lavi grinned back at him. "Having a language lesson, are we? Sure. Cup, food, liquid," he repeated the words Albel had used, careful to use exactly the same tone and emphasis. There were a lot of languages were slight variations in those things could completely change the meaning of a word - Chinese, as a major example.
He paused briefly, then decided to stick with English for his side of the lesson, since Albel had already demonstrated knowledge of one English word. "Cup, food, liquid," he named each thing in turn. Then he took a sip of his drink, and shuddered. "Tastes like pureed grass," he repeated Albel's earlier statement. He had no idea what he was saying, exactly, but he figured it was probably accurate enough.