Sunday, October 20, 2019
Basic Vocabulary Youll Need to Go Shopping in France
Basic Vocabulary You'll Need to Go Shopping in France If you are shopping in France, youll need to know the lingo. You could just stick with one shop or market, go in, pay and get out. But most of us do more than that in our search for the right product and the best bargain. You need to be able to read signs so that youre choosing the right shop, getting the best quality, ferreting out authentic bargains and speak intelligently with salespeople. Keep in mind that France (and most of Europe) may have megastores, but most people still shop at their local small shops in order to find the freshest, highest-quality products. So dont discount the words for specialty stores; you will need to know them. Shopping Vocabulary une à ©picerie  small grocery storele marchà ©Ã‚  farmers marketle supermarchà ©Ã‚  supermarketun hypermarchà ©Ã‚  superstore, giant supermarketla boucherie  butcher shopla boulangerie  bakeryla charcuterie  pork butchers shop and delicatessenla confiserie  candy storela crà ©merie, la laiterie  dairy shopla fromagerie  cheese shople magasin de fruits et là ©gumes  greengrocerle marchand de vins  wine shopla pà ¢tisserie  pastry shopla poissonnerie  fish storela banque  bankla blanchisserie  laundryla laverie automatique laundromatla droguerie  drugstore / hardware storele grand magasin  department storele kiosque  newsstandle magasin de confection femme/homme/enfants clothing store for women, men, children; magasin de và ªtements  clothing store in generalla pharmacie  pharmacyla poste  post officele pressing  dry cleanerla q uincaillerie  hardware storele tabac  tobacco shopfaire les courses  to do the shopping [for essentials]; aller faire les courses to go shoppingfaire du shopping  to go shopping, to shop [for specific items such as shoes]; partir faire les magasins to go on a shopping trip/expedition les soldes the sales; faire les soldes to shop the salesclient / personne qui faire ses courses shopperà ªtre accro au shopping to be a shopaholiccher (chà ¨re) expensive; coà »ter cher  to be expensive a bargain une affaire; a good bargain une bonne affaire; bargain prices prix avantageuxmarchander to bargain, to haggle; negocier, traiter avec quelquun to bargain with someoneheures douverture business / shop hours   Expressions Related to Shopping Bon marchà ©: can be translated as either inexpensive or cheap. Bon marchà ©Ã‚ can be both positive, indicating a reasonable price, and negative, insulting the products quality. Bon rapport qualità ©-prix: The French expression un bon rapport qualità ©-prix, sometimes written un bon rapport qualità © / prix, indicates that the price of some product or service (a bottle of wine, car, restaurant, hotel) is more than fair. Youll often see it or a variation in reviews and promotional materials. To talk about a better value, you can make the comparative or superlative form of bon, as in: un meilleur rapport qualità ©-prix better valuele meilleur rapport qualità ©-prix  best value To say that something is not a good value, you can either negate the sentence or use an antonym: Ce nest pas un bon rapport qualità ©-prix. /  Il na pas un bon rapport qualità ©-prix. Its not a good valueun mauvais rapport qualità ©-prix poor valuele pire rapport qualità ©-prix worst value While less common, its also possible to use a different adjective altogether, such as un rapport qualità ©-prix incroyable amazing valueun rapport qualità ©-prix intà ©ressant good valueun faible rapport qualità ©-prix poor value Cest cadeau: is a casual, informal expression meaning Its free. Its inexpensive. The underlying meaning is that youre getting something extra that you werent expecting, like a freebie. It can be from a store, a boutique or a friend doing you a favor. It doesnt necessarily involve money. Note that Cest un cadeau with the article is a simple non-idiomatic, declarative sentence that means It is a gift. Noà «l malin: The informal French expression Noà «l malin refers to Christmas. Malin means something thats shrewd or cunning. But this expression isn’t describing Christmas or the sales, but rather the consumer- the cunning consumer who is far too smart to pass up these amazing bargains. At least that’s the idea. When a store says Noà «l malin, what they’re really saying is Noà «l (pour le) malin (Christmas for the clever.) For example, Offres Noà «l malin Christmas offers [for the savvy shopper] TTC: is an acronym that appears on receipts and it refers to the grand total that you owe for a given purchase. The initials TTC stand for toutes taxes comprises (all taxes included). TTC lets you know what you will actually be paying for a product or service. Most prices are quoted as TTC, but not all, so its essential to pay attention to the fine print. The opposite of TTC is HT, which stands for hors taxe; this is the base price before the addition of the European Union-mandated TVA (value-added tax), which stands at 20 percent in France for most goods and services.
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