6.4 Shopping and Prices — Epoché
What you will be able to do Ask the price of anything with one three-block sentence: 이게 얼마예요? Say that something is too expensive, in the two forms the corpus records: 너무 비싸요. and 너무 비싸네요. Ask for a discount in four attested ways, and choose the one that fits where you are standing. Tell a shop assistant that you are only looking, which is the sentence that buys you ten minutes: 구경 좀 할게요. Ask permission to touch something before you touch it: 만져봐도 되나요? Prerequisites : 6.3, and the numbers of 5.3 Vocabulary , because everything in this lesson turns on hearing a number said at speed. The instrumental ending for paying is from lesson 3.3 and the commitment ending for offering to pay is from lesson 3.10. Shopping is the second of the two transactions a visitor cannot avoid, and unlike a restaurant it has a negotiable part. In a department store nothing is negotiable and the vocabulary of this lesson is half wasted; in a market it is all in use, and the four ways of asking for a discount are graded from the blunt to the elaborate. Which one to use is a judgement about the place you are standing in, not about grammar, and the lesson says which is which. Dialogue A A customer in a clothes shop, browsing first and then asking about one item. Both speakers use the polite style. 어서 오세요! [1] Welcome! 구경 좀 할게요. [2] I'm just browsing. 만져봐도 되나요? [15] Can I touch it? 이 셔츠 얼마에요? [4] How much is the shirt? 너무 비싸요. [6] It's too expensive. 좀 깎을 수 없어요? [9] Can you cut it down a bit? 싸면 사요. [13] If it's cheap, I'll buy it. 카드 돼요? [17] Does my card work here? 현금으로 낼게요. [19] I'll pay in cash. 나중에 봐요. [32] See you later. The second line is the most useful in the lesson. A Korean shop assistant will approach and offer help within a few seconds of your entering, and this sentence, with the commitment ending of lesson 3.10, tells them politely that you would rather look by yourself. It is not a rebuff and it is not rude; it is the expected answer, and without it you will be followed around. The third line is worth a habit. In a market, picking things up without asking is a small discourtesy, and one four-block question prevents it. Dialogue B A market stall, where the price is negotiable and the customer is buying several of something. Both speakers use the polite style, and the customer works through the discount requests from the mildest upward. 이게 얼마예요? [3] How much is this? 한 상자에 얼마예요? [5] How much is it per box? 너무 비싸네요. [7] It's too expensive. 더 깎아 주세요. [8] Please give me a bigger discount. 가격을 깎을 수 있나요? [12] Can the price be discounted? 더 깎아주시면 안 돼요? [10] Can't you give me a lower price? 이거 3개 주세요. [14] I'd like three of these. 신용카드 받으세요? [18] Do you accept credit cards? 제가 살게요. [20] I'll buy that. 와인이나 맥주를 좀 살 거예요. [21] I will buy some wine or beer. The third line is a remark rather than an accusation. Saying that something is too expensive, with the sentence-final ending that softens a judgement into an observation, is the ordinary opening of a negotiation at a Korean market and is not taken as a complaint about the seller. The version without that ending is blunter and belongs in a shop where you have already decided not to buy. The ninth line is the offer to pay for somebody else, with the commitment ending from lesson 3.10. Between friends this is disputed rather than accepted, and the argument is part of the transaction. Saying It Another Way Asking for a discount has four attested forms, and they are not interchangeable. Read them in order of increasing indirectness. Korean English Where it belongs 더 깎아 주세요. [8] Please give me a bigger discount. a market, plainly, as a request 좀 깎을 수 없어요? [9] Can you cut it down a bit? a market or a small shop, softened by the word for "a bit" 가격을 깎을 수 있나요? [12] Can the price be discounted? neutral and impersonal, safe anywhere 더 깎아주시면 안 돼요? [10] Can't you give me a lower price? the most indirect, with a negative question 더 깎아주실 수는 없나요? [11] Can't you give me a lower price? the same, longer and more deferential The English translations flatten the difference almost entirely, which is why the third column is there. The pattern to notice is that Korean makes a request softer by making it longer and by turning it into a negative question, which is the same device English uses in "you couldn't possibly", and Korean uses it far more readily. Asking a price has several shapes too, and the difference is what is being asked about. Korean English 이게 얼마예요? [3] How much is this? 이 셔츠 얼마에요? [4] How much is the shirt? 한 상자에 얼마예요? [5] How much is it per box? 요금이 얼마예요? [25] How much is the fare? 버스 요금은 얼마예요? [26] How much is the bus fare? 버스 요금은 얼마인가요? [27] How much is the bus fare? 한국까지 비행기 표가 얼마쯤 해요? [22] How much is a plane ticket to South Korea? Every one of them ends the same way, with the question noun for "how much" and the copula of lesson 3.5. Only the last uses a different verb, and it adds a syllable meaning "roughly", which turns a demand for a price into a request for an estimate. That syllable is worth having: it lowers the stakes of the question and is normal in Korean where English would say "about". Two further questions use the same question word for different quantities. Korean English 얼마나 걸리나요? [28] How much time does it take? 얼마나 멀어요? [31] How far is it? 돈을 얼마나 가지고 계세요? [23] How much money do you have with you? 돈이 없어요. [24] I have no money. The form with the extra syllable asks about an amount of time, distance or quantity, where the bare noun asks about a price. Both come from the word listed in lesson 3.5, and confusing them produces a question about how expensive a journey's duration is. New words Ten words. Read them cold. Cover the meanings and read these aloud: 셔츠 , 가격 , 깎다 , 비싸다 , 싸다 , 표 , 만지다 , 헤드폰 , 얼마나 , 쯤 . Word Meaning Notes 셔츠 ko syeocheu a shirt Note for English speakers A loanword. The corpus spells the question about it with the non-standard form of the copula noted in lesson 3.10, which is a good example of how common that error is. 가격 ko gagye