Basic Vocabulary Youll 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  Ã‚  small grocery storele marchà ©Ã‚  Ã‚  farmers marketle supermarchà ©Ã‚  Ã‚  supermarketun hypermarchà ©Ã‚  Ã‚  superstore, giant supermarketla boucherie  Ã‚  butcher shopla boulangerie  Ã‚  bakeryla charcuterie  Ã‚  pork butchers shop and delicatessenla confiserie  Ã‚  candy storela crà ©merie, la laiterie  Ã‚  dairy  shopla fromagerie  Ã‚  cheese shople magasin de fruits et là ©gumes  Ã‚  greengrocerle marchand de vins  Ã‚  wine shopla pà ¢tisserie  Ã‚  pastry shopla poissonnerie  Ã‚  fish storela banque  Ã‚  bankla blanchisserie  Ã‚  laundryla  laverie automatique   laundromatla droguerie  Ã‚  drugstore / hardware storele grand magasin  Ã‚  department storele kiosque  Ã‚  newsstandle magasin de confection  femme/homme/enfants clothing store  for women, men, children;  magasin de và ªtements  Ã‚  clothing store in generalla pharmacie  Ã‚  pharmacyla poste  Ã‚  post officele pressing  Ã‚  dry cleanerla q uincaillerie  Ã‚  hardware storele tabac  Ã‚  tobacco shopfaire les courses  Ã‚  to do the  shopping [for essentials];  aller faire les courses to go shoppingfaire du shopping  Ã‚  to go shopping, to shop [for specific items such as shoes];  partir faire les magasins to go on a shopping trip/expeditionles 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  Ã‚  Ã‚   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  Ã‚  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. /  Ã‚  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.