Simple phrases related to shopping are going to be essential if you ever plan on visiting India! You really won’t get on very well in a shop or at a market if for example you don’t know how to ask for the price of something, or if you can’t understand the shopkeeper when he replies! 

So for that reason today we’re just going to look at a simple little conversation between a shopkeeper and a customer. From this you should be able to pick up some important phrases and the structure of some really useful sentences! So are you ready to get going? 

Just to make things a little more interesting, I’ve put the English Translation right at the end. I want you to try and read through the whole conversation once or twice in Hindi first and see how much you can pick up, then read the English and check the words or phrases that you didn’t know! 

Shopkeeper: नमस्ते आप कैसे हैं? namaste aap kaise hain? 

Customer: मैं ठीक हूँ main theek hoon

Shopkeeper: अच्छा अच्छा acchaa acchaa

Customer: क्या यहाँ सेब है? kyaa yaahan seb hai?

Shopkeeper: जी हाँ, सेब बहुत अच्छे और सस्ते हैं jee haan, seb bahut acche aur saste hain.

Customer: हाँ, सेब का दाम क्या है? haan, seb kaa daam kyaa hai?

Shopkeeper: सेब का दाम तीन रुपये किलो है seb kaa daam teen rupaye kilo hai

Customer: हाँ, मुझको दो किलो सेब चाहिए haan, mujhko do kilo seb caahie

Customer: यह कितने का है? yeh kitne kaa hai

Shopkeeper: आम, पाँच रुपये किलो है  aam, paanch rupaye kilo hai

Customer: अच्छा, महँगा नहीं है. एक किलो कृपया  acchaa, mahangaa naheen hai. ek kilo kripaya.  

Shopkeeper: अच्छा अच्छा, ग्यारह रुपये कृपया acchaa acchaa, gyaarah rupaye kripayaa 

Customer: ग्यारह रुपये, धन्यवाद gyaarah rupaye dhanyavaad.  

Shopkeeper: धन्यवाद dhanyavaad

How was that? How much did you understand? Read it though again! Don’t look at the translation until you’ve tried to figure out it for yourself! 

Translation 

Shopkeeper: Hello, How are you?
Customer: I am ok
Shopkeeper: Good! 
Customer: Are there apples here? 
Shopkeeper: Yes sir, the apples are very good and cheap
Customer: Ok, how much are the apples? (Literally - apple’s price what is?) 
Shopkeeper: Apples are three Rupees per Kilo
Customer: Ok, I would like two Kilos. 
Customer: How much is this?
Shopkeeper: Mangoes, Five Rupees per Kils. 
Customer: Good, that’s not expensive. One Kilo please. 
Shopkeeper: Good, good. Eleven Rupees please
Customer: Eleven Rupees, thank you.
Shopkeeper: Thank you

I hope that you’ve learnt some new things today that you can hopefully apply to real life situations in future! Don’t forget you can always ask me if you have any questions by leaving a comment just below.

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