Lesson 25 Notes

April 29th, 2007
CoffeeBreakSpanish.com
In this edition:
shopping
Lesson 25
Notes
¿Me va bien?
Lesson 25
Programme Notes
Welcome to Coffee Break Spanish, the podcast
aimed at independent learners of Spanish. In
Coffee Break Spanish we’ll be guiding you
through the basics of the Spanish language and
helping you to learn to communicate in Spain
and Spanish-speaking countries.
In this week’s programme we’re moving on to a
new topic: shopping. We’ll be learning useful
vocabulary for going shopping in a Spanishspeaking country, and also learning how to try on
clothes using Spanish.
“what does ‘ir de compras’ mean?” Mark
explains the phrase ir de compras in Spanish:
ir a las tiendas para comprar cosas
to go to the shops to buy things
Can I help you?
The first thing you’re likely to hear when you’re
browsing in a shop is:
¿en qué puedo ayudarle?
how can I help you?
Introducción
In the opening section of this week’s show, Mark
and Kara had the following conversation:
Mark:
Hola a todos.
Kara:
Aquí estamos con otro
programa de Coffee Break
Spanish.
Mark:
¿Cómo estás, Kara?
Kara:
Muy bien ... un poco cansada.
¿Qué tal estás tú?
Mark:
Muy bien, gracias. Esta semana
he tenido mucho que hacer.
Mark says he tenido mucho que hacer. This means “I
have had lots to do”. We’ll be covering this kind
of phrase in future lessons as it refers to the past.
As the introduction continues, Mark asks Kara:
¿te gusta ir de compras?
do you like going shopping?
When Kara doesn’t fully understand the
question, she asks, ¿qué quiere decir ‘ir de compras’?,
1
Note that the infinitive of “to help” is ayudar. In
the sentence above, the pronoun le is added to
the end. This is the polite object pronoun
referring to “you”. If the question above referred
to a younger person, or indeed someone known
to the speaker it would have been as follows:
¿en qué puedo ayudarte?
how can I help you (informal)
Having said that, it’s unlikely that you would
hear this in a shop.
Sometimes it’s quite difficult to come up with the
exact phrase you require – we’ll be covering
various phrases later in this lesson which will help
you to ask to see an item or to try something on.
A phrase which will buy you some time to allow
you to think up your next bit of Spanish is:
sólo estoy mirando
I’m just looking
We came across the -ando ending in a previous
lesson. It’s very often translated as “-ing”, so
mirando means “looking”, and cantando means
“singing”, etc.
¿cuánto cuesta?
how much is it?
If you were asked ¿lo quiere? or ¿la quiere? which
means “do you want it?” you could say:
no estoy seguro/a
I am not sure (m/f)
If there is more than one item, you would use
the plural form of the verb:
¿cuánto cuestan?
how much are they?
You can then say:
vuelvo más tarde
I’ll come back later
Note that vuelvo literally means “I come back”, ie.
in the present tense. In English we would tend to
say “I will come back later”, but it’s perfectly
natural in Spanish to say “I come back later”.
Look at the following short dialogue. Note that
dep. stands for dependiente, the word for “shop
assistant”:
Dep,:
¿En qué puedo ayudarle?
Kara:
Sólo estoy mirando
Kara picks up an object and is looking at it. The
shop assistant asks her:
Dep,:
¿Lo quiere?
Kara:
No estoy segura. Vuelvo más
tarde.
Kara says, “I’m not sure. I’ll come back later”.
If you want to buy the item, you can say:
me lo llevo
I’ll take it
Note that there are other ways of saying the
same thing. You could say:
quiero comprar esto
I want to buy this
Equally you could say:
quiero comprarlo
I want to buy it
Paying for things
Having established that you’re interested in a
particular item, you may want to ask how much
it costs:
Coffee Break Spanish: Lesson 25
Depending on which country you’re in, you
could be told the price in euros, pesos, etc. Here’s
a selection of currencies from various Spanishspeaking areas:
Argentina
peso
100 centavos
Belize
dólar
100 centavos
Bolivia
peso
100 centavos
Chile
peso
(chileno)
100 escudos
Colombia
peso
100 centavos
Costa Rica
peso
100 céntimos
Ecuador
quetzal
100 centavos
El Salvador
colón
100 centavos
Guatemala
quetzal
100 centavos
Guyana
dólar
guyanés
100 centavos
Haiti
gourde
100 céntimos
Honduras
lempira
100 centavos
Mexico
peso
100 centavos
Nicaragua
córdoba
100 centavos
Panama
balboa
100 centésimos
Paraguay
guaraní
100 céntimos
peru
sol
100 centavos
Puerto Rico*
dólar
100 centavos
Rebública
Dominicana
peso
100 centavos
page 2
Spain
euro
100 céntimos
Uruguay
peso
100 centésimos
Venezuela
bolivar
100 cénitmos
*Note that the official currency in Puerto Rico is
the US Dollar and, as such, is referred to as both
the Spanish dólar and the English “dollar”.
If you want to pay buy credit card, you can ask:
¿puedo pagar con tarjeta de crédito?
can I pay buy credit card?
Note that pagar is the infinitive: the word puedo
meaning “I can” or “can I” is almost always
followed by the infinitive.
If you are trying to pay by credit card you may
well be asked for some for identification:
¿puedo ver su DNI?
can I see some identification?
The abbreviation DNI stands for documento
nacional de identificación, referring to a national
identification document. In most cases tourists
would provide a passport. Indeed, you may hear:
¿puedo ver su pasaporte?
can I see your passport?
Whenever you’re handing something over, it is
polite to say:
aquí tiene
here you are
Kara:
¿Puedo pagar con tarjeta de
crédito?
Dep.:
Claro que sí. ¿Puedo ver su
pasaporte, por favor?
Kara:
Sí. Aquí tiene.
Dep.:
Gracias.
No olvides...
There are certain other items you may require
when shopping:
un recibo
a receipt
una bolsa
a bag
Note that the word bolsa is used for a plastic or
paper bag in a shop. If you want to buy a leather
bag you’re more likely to use the word bolso.
These can be added to the phrase “can you give
me”:
¿me puede dar ... ?
can you give me ... ?
¿me puede dar un recibo?
can you give me a receipt?
¿me puede dar una bolsa?
can you give me a bag?
Shopping for clothes
You can also say:
tenga
here you are
Have a look at the following conversation in
which Kara decides to buy a hat, un sombrero:
Kara:
Me lo llevo.
Dep.:
Muy bien.
Kara:
¿Cuánto cuesta?
Dep.:
El sombrero cuesta quince
euros.
Coffee Break Spanish: Lesson 25
If you want to try something on, you can use this
phrase:
¿puedo probarme esto, por favor?
can I try this on, please?
The word probar literally means “to try”. In this
situation it’s used with the pronoun me and
means “to try on”. Esto simply means “this”.
We’ll be talking more about esto in next week’s
lesson.
The fitting rooms in a shop are:
page 3
los probadores
the fitting rooms
If you feel something doesn’t fit you, you can say:
¿dónde están los probadores?
where are the fitting rooms?
Using the word demasiado, you can come up with
the following reasons:
no me queda bien
it doesn’t fit me
You can ask:
es demasiado grande
it is too big
If you’re trying something on, you may want to
say that it fits you:
me queda bien
it fits me
You can, of course, turn this into a question:
¿me queda bien?
does it fit me?
es demasiado pequeño/a
it is too small
You can also say if you like or don’t like
something:
me gusta
I like it
The shop assistant may answer:
no me gusta
I don’t like it
sí, le queda bien
yes, it fits you
CoffeeBreakSpanish: Lesson 25 - Basic Vocabulary
ir de compras
to go shopping
¿en qué puedo ayudarle?
how can I help you?
mirar
to look
estoy mirando
I am looking
sólo estoy mirando
I am just looking
no estoy seguro/a
I am not sure
vuelvo más tarde
I’ll come back later
me lo llevo
I’ll take it
quiero comprar esto
I want to buy this
¿lo quiere? / ¿la quiere?
do you want it?
¿cuánto cuesta?
how much is it?
¿cuánto cuestan?
how much are they?
la tarjeta de crédito
credit card
¿puedo pagar con tarjeta de crédito?
can I pay with a credit card?
el DNI
ID
el documento nacional de
identificación
national identification document
Coffee Break Spanish: Lesson 25
page 4
el pasaporte
passport
¿puedo ver su pasaporte?
can I see your passport?
aquí tiene
here you are
tenga
here you are
¿me puede dar ... ?
can you give me ... ?
un recibo
a receipt
una bolsa
a bag
¿puedo probarme esto?
can I try this on?
los probadores
fitting rooms
¿dónde están los probadores?
where are the fitting rooms?
me queda bien
it fits me
no me queda bien
it doesn’t fit me
es demasiado grande
it is too big
es demasiado pequeño
it is too small
me gusta
I like it
no me gusta
I don’t like it
CoffeeBreakSpanish: Lesson 25 - Bonus Vocabulary
tengo que pensarlo
I have to think about it
¿es para un regalo?
is it for a present?
¿puede envolverlo, por favor?
can you wrap it, please?
estoy buscando ...
I’m looking for ...
una camiseta
a t-shirt
una camisa
a shirt
un jersey
a jumper
una falda
a skirt
un par de zapatos
a pair of shoes
un par de sandallas
a pair of sandals
un par de pantalones
a pair of trousers
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Coffee Break Spanish: Lesson 25
page 5