Spanish shopping vocabulary: shops, quantities and paying
Short answer: link a quantity to the food with de: un kilo de tomates, una botella de aceite. Ask the price with ¿Cuánto cuesta? for one thing and ¿Cuánto cuestan? for several, or ¿Cuánto es? at the till. Most shops are named after what they sell plus -ería: pan (bread), la panadería (the bakery).
PON-gah-meh OO-nah doh-THEH-nah deh WEH-bohs por fah-BOR · “Can I have a dozen eggs, please?”Póngame (“put for me”) is how Spaniards ask for food at a counter; de joins the quantity to the food.
SUPERMERCADO SOL
un kilo de tomates2,40 €
una docena de huevos2,95 €
TOTAL5,35 €
Spain writes a comma where English writes a decimal point, and puts the euro sign after the number: 2,40 €.
Kinds of shop
Word + -ería = the shop that sells it
A suffix is an ending added to a word to make a new one. Spanish adds -ería to a product to name the shop that sells it. Every -ería shop is feminine, so it takes la. Tap a row to hear it.
Two shops break the pattern: el estanco (es-TAN-koh), the tobacconist, which also sells stamps, and el quiosco (KYOS-koh), the newspaper kiosk. And la librería is a bookshop: a library is la biblioteca.
Quantities
Quantities and containers: always with de
Every quantity joins the food with de (“of”) and no article: un kilo de manzanas, “a kilo of apples”. Spain shops by weight in grams and kilos.
The bars are drawn to scale: cien gramos is a tenth of un kilo; un cuarto (a quarter) is 250 g. Tap to hear each one.
Prices
How much is it? Prices and paying
Costar (to cost) is a stem-changing verb: the o in the middle becomes ue, giving cuesta and cuestan. The verb agrees with what is being bought, so one thing takes cuesta and several take cuestan.
¿Cuántohow-muchcuestacostsestethisbolso?bag
KWAN-toh KWES-tah ES-teh BOL-soh · “How much is this bag?”Why:One item, so cuesta.
¿Cuántohow-muchcuestancostlasthenaranjas?oranges
KWAN-toh KWES-tan lahs nah-RAN-hahs · “How much are the oranges?”Why:Several items, so cuestan.
¿Puedocan-Ipagarpayconwithtarjeta?card
PWEH-doh pah-GAR kon tar-HEH-tah · “Can I pay by card?”Why:Cash is en efectivo: ¿Puedo pagar en efectivo?
QueríaI-wanteddevolverto-returnesto.this
keh-REE-ah deh-bol-BEHR ES-toh · “I’d like to return this.”Why:Quería (“I wanted”) is the polite way to say “I’d like”. Bring el ticket, the receipt.
Dialogue
At the market stall
At a Spanish market there is often no visible queue. You join it by asking who is last, ¿Quién es el último?, then you go after that person. Your lines are on the right.
Tú
¿Quiénwhoesisel último?the last
kyen es el OOL-tee-moh · “Who’s last in the queue?”Use la última if you are asking a woman.
Señora
Yo.I
YOH · “Me.”She is last, so you go after her.
Frutero
¿Quéwhatleto-youpongo?I-put
keh leh PON-goh · “What can I get you?”Literally “What do I put for you?”
Tú
Medio kilohalf-kilodeoffresas,strawberriespor favor.please
MEH-dyoh KEE-loh deh FREH-sahs, por fah-BOR · “Half a kilo of strawberries, please.”