4.4 Buying Things and Asking the Price — Epoché
What you will be able to do Ask what something costs, in the question every shop hears. Say that something is too expensive, and ask for it cheaper. Ask whether a shop has a thing, with the A-not-A question from 2.13 or with the question particle. Have the three moves of a bargain, and know where bargaining is and is not done. Prerequisites : 3.3, which gives the numbers, 2.13, which gives the A-not-A question, and 4.3. Lesson 4.3 asked the price of a meal and complained that it was too expensive; this lesson takes both into a shop and a market. A shop needs fewer words than a restaurant and more speed, because the answer to your one question is a number said by somebody who says it a hundred times a day. The vocabulary below is small enough to learn in an afternoon; understanding the reply takes longer. Dialogue A A market stall. The customer (A) has picked something up; the stallholder (B) names a price, and the customer bargains. A 这个多少钱？ [1] — How much is this? B 只要十元！ [2] — Only ten yuan! A 太贵了！ [3] — That's too expensive! B 这个不贵。 [4] — It's not expensive. A 可以便宜一点吗？ [5] 我给你五块钱吧。 [6] — Can you make it a bit cheaper? I'll give you five. B 好吧，拿去吧。 [7] — Oh, all right. Take it. The customer's first line is the price question from 4.3 with 这个 , this one, in front: this, how-many money. Nothing in it says is or does it cost — the question word simply sits where the price will sit in the answer, which is the rule from 2.6 again. The stallholder's answer puts the number and the unit of money in exactly that place. In 只要十元 , 只 is only and 要 is to cost: it only costs ten yuan. (As one word, 只要 usually means as long as.) 元 is the unit written on price labels and receipts, and some speakers use it aloud too, as this stallholder does; in everyday speech the same unit is more often 块 , which is the word the customer uses when making an offer. Notice the order of the customer's moves: first that it is too expensive, then a request for a lower price, and only then a number. Dialogue B A clothes shop. The shop assistant (A) helps a customer (B) choose. A 你有喜欢的颜色吗？ [8] — Is there a colour you like? B 我最喜欢红色。 [9] — Red's my favourite. A 试试这个。 [10] — Try this one. B 有大的吗？ [11] — Do you have a bigger one? A 再试一下。 [12] — Have another try. B 我喜欢这个颜色。 [13] 我买了。 [14] — I like this colour. I'll take it. Both questions in this dialogue end in the question particle. The customer's 有大的吗？ is literally have big ones? ; the same thing can be asked with the A-not-A question of 2.13, built on the verb for having — 有没有 , have, not have — and the table below gives two shop questions in that shape. The assistant's second and third lines both soften the verb for trying: doubled in the first, have a try , and followed by 一下 , once, briefly , in the second. Saying It Another Way Seven lines from the corpus. The first four are the ones to memorise. Chinese English When 多少钱？ [15] How much is it? the plain question, said anywhere 太贵了。 [16] It's too expensive. the standard complaint about a price 可以便宜点吗？ [17] Can you knock a bit off? the request for a lower price, a little shorter than the customer's in Dialogue A 你们有没有米饭？ [18] Do you have any rice? asking whether a shop or a restaurant has something: the A-not-A question with have 这个卖不卖？ [19] Is this for sale? the same shape with the verb for selling 这个很便宜。 [20] This one's cheap. saying that something is cheap 很便宜，是吗？ [21] That's cheap, isn't it? the same remark with the tag question How This Differs from English Two ways to ask yes or no. English asks a yes-or-no question by moving a verb to the front or adding do . Chinese adds the question particle to a statement (2.5), or says the verb, then the negative, then the verb again (2.13). Both are ordinary in a shop. Either way, the usual answer repeats whichever half is true — 有 or 没有 — rather than a word for yes or no . Chinese has no single word that answers every question; 对 and 是的 confirm a statement, but a question about having is answered with the verb. A price is said, not shown. Prices at a market stall are spoken, and the number is the hard part rather than the vocabulary. Chinese numbers are regular — no reversal as in German, no quatre-vingts as in French — but the units come in tens of thousands rather than thousands, which becomes a problem only above ten thousand. Bargaining has a place. It is usual at market stalls and in tourist markets, and it is not done in shops with price labels, in supermarkets or in chain stores. Where it is done, the opening move is not a counter-offer but the sentence that it is too expensive, said with a smile — as in Dialogue A, the number comes last. A price written on a label is a price. New words Word Meaning Notes 钱 zh qián （ 錢 ） qián noun · money Note for English speakers From 1.11. Also the surname Qian; the character is the same. 这个多少钱？ How much is this? 块 zh kuài （ 塊 ） kuài measure word · unit of currency; piece Note for English speakers The spoken word for the yuan, and the measure word for lumps and pieces. 我给你五块钱吧。 I'll give you five. 便宜 zh piányi adjective · cheap Note for English speakers As a noun it also means an advantage gained, which is how Chinese talks about taking advantage of somebody. 这个很便宜。 This one's cheap. 可以便宜一点吗？ Can you make it a bit cheaper? 颜色 zh yánsè （ 顏色 ） yánsè noun · colour Note for English speakers The first character originally meant the face, and the second means colour; the compound is the ordinary word. 你有喜欢的颜色吗？ Is there a colour you like? 我喜欢这个颜色。 I like this colour. 红 zh hóng （ 紅 ） hóng adjective · red Note for English speakers Also means popular or successful, of a person. As a noun the colour is 红色 , red-colour. 我最喜欢红色。 Red's my favourite. 黑色 zh hēisè noun · black Note for English speakers Black plus colour, built like 红色 . Without the second character, 黑 also means dark. 猫是黑色的。 The cat is black. 绿 zh lǜ （ 綠 ） lǜ adjective · green Note for English speakers The vowel is the ü of 0.7, written with its dots after l. 我喜欢绿颜色。 I like green. 有没