numbers you need for prices and quantities
module: the grocery store
nine lessons in. you can ask where something is. now you're standing in front of it, needing to know what it costs and how much to grab. that's today.
numbers are one of those things people want to skip because it feels like math class, not spanish class. understandable. but you cannot buy anything, ever, without them. so, here we go.
the numbers you actually need first
not 1-100 in order like a worksheet. just the ones that turn up on a price tag.
- uno, dos, tres, cuatro, cinco — one through five
- seis, siete, ocho, nueve, diez — six through ten
- veinte — twenty
- treinta — thirty
- cuarenta, cincuenta — forty, fifty
most grocery price tags are going to be some combination of these plus "y" (and) wedged in the middle. veinte y cinco. treinta y dos. that's the whole trick. you know your ones and tens, you just glue them together with "y."
say them out loud right now, in order, five times. i mean it. don't read them, say them.
cuánto cuesta
your money phrase. "cuánto cuesta" — how much does it cost. say it pointing at literally anything in your house right now. cuánto cuesta esto — how much does this cost.
the answer comes back as a number, sometimes with "dólares" on the end, sometimes not, since we're not using pesos here and people drop it half the time. listen for the number. that's the part that matters.
quantities — the other half
price is one thing. how much you want is the other, and it's the part beginners forget to practice.
quiero — i want. your workhorse verb for this whole lesson. quiero dos — i want two. quiero medio kilo — i want half a kilo. (produce sections around here sometimes list both pounds and kilos, so both words are worth knowing even if you mostly think in pounds.) una libra — a pound.
put it together: quiero dos libras de manzanas. i want two pounds of apples. that sentence gets you through the produce section at any store in american fork.
the practical steps, at home, before you say it to a stranger
- pull up a grocery receipt — a real one, from your own last costco or macey's run. find five prices on it.
- say each price out loud in spanish. slow. sound out the tens and ones separately if you have to, then glue them.
- now pick five items from your own kitchen. say "quiero" plus a number plus the item. quiero tres manzanas. quiero un litro de leche. the grammar doesn't have to be perfect, say it anyway.
- next time you're actually at the store, read three price tags out loud in spanish before you put anything in the cart. just to yourself. nobody's watching, and if they are, let them.
that last one's the real homework. not a worksheet. standing in an aisle muttering numbers at a shelf.
a confession, and where this habit came from
i've mentioned i eavesdrop a little. i keep a notebook of things i overhear in checkout lines at costco and macey's, phrases just sitting there in public for free. one time i wrote down a whole back-and-forth between two women ahead of me in line, arguing pleasantly about which apples were on sale, gala versus honeycrisp, going round on the price per pound. i felt like a complete creep standing there scribbling in a little notebook while they talked about apples. but i walked out with three new words i didn't have before, one of them a number word i'd been getting wrong for months.
so here's the opinion, straight: vocab lists are mostly a waste. you can memorize two hundred words off a sheet and still freeze up at a register. but ten phrases, said a hundred times each, in real places, with real numbers attached to real things you're actually buying — that sticks. the checkout line is a better classroom than most classrooms. you don't need a trip anywhere. you need your own grocery list.
one honest caution here, nothing dramatic: don't get so deep into counting under your breath that you miss what the cashier's actually saying to you. numbers are the goal, not a wall you hide behind. if they ask you something and you blank, that's fine, we covered that two lessons ago. "más despacio, por favor." slower, please. use it.
before next time
next time we're doing yes, no, and please and thank you, which sounds basic but you'd be amazed how often people skip it. before then, go find one real price tag somewhere in your house or your car (a receipt in the cupholder counts) and say the number out loud, three times, before you do anything else today.