Learn how to ask about prices
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| INTRODUCTION |
| Betsey:Hello everyone and welcome back to PolishPod101.com. This is Beginner series, season 1, lesson 18, Name Your Polish Price! I’m Betsey. |
| Joanna:And I’m Joanna. |
| Betsey:In this lesson, you’ll learn how to ask about prices. |
| Joanna:The conversation takes place at a market. |
| Betsey:It’s between Jan and a sales clerk. |
| Joanna:They don’t know each other, so they’ll be using formal Polish. |
| Betsey:Let’s listen to the conversation. |
Lesson conversation |
|---|
| Jan:Przepraszam, ile kosztuje ta czekolada? |
| Sprzedawczyni:4 złote. |
| Jan:A te orzechy? |
| Sprzedawczyni:20 złotych za kilogram. |
| Jan:Jak kupię 2kg to spuści pani cenę? |
| Sprzedawczyni:Dobrze, jak weźmie pan 3kg, to będzie 55 złotych. |
| Jan:Zgoda! |
| Alisha: Let’s hear the conversation one time slowly. |
| Jan:Przepraszam, ile kosztuje ta czekolada? |
| Sprzedawczyni:4 złote. |
| Jan:A te orzechy? |
| Sprzedawczyni:20 złotych za kilogram. |
| Jan:Jak kupię 2kg to spuści pani cenę? |
| Sprzedawczyni:Dobrze, jak weźmie pan 3kg, to będzie 55 złotych. |
| Jan:Zgoda! |
| Alisha: Now let’s hear it with the English translation. |
| Jan:Przepraszam, ile kosztuje ta czekolada? |
| Betsey:Excuse me, how much does this chocolate cost? |
| Sprzedawczyni:4 złote. |
| Betsey:4 zloty. |
| Jan:A te orzechy? |
| Betsey:And these nuts? |
| Sprzedawczyni:20 złotych za kilogram. |
| Betsey:20 zloty for a kilogram. |
| Jan:Jak kupię 2kg to spuści pani cenę? |
| Betsey:If I buy 2 kilograms will you lower the price? |
| Sprzedawczyni:Dobrze, jak weźmie pan 3kg, to będzie 55 złotych. |
| Betsey:Ok, if you get 3 kilograms, it will be 55 zloty. |
| Jan:Zgoda! |
| Betsey Deal! |
| POST CONVERSATION BANTER |
| Betsey:Something very interesting happened in the dialogue - Jan persuaded the sales clerk to lower the price of the nuts he wanted to buy. |
| Joanna:Yes, in Polish we call it ‘targowanie się’ |
| Betsey:Which is “haggling” in English. |
| Joanna:If you happen to be at a market in Poland, and you hear lively discussions between a customer and the sales clerk, it’s likely they’re having a dispute about the price of the item, the customer is interested in. |
| Betsey:Is this really common in Poland? |
| Joanna:Pretty common, since Poles like haggling. We’re always hoping to get a good deal! |
| Betsey:Ok, and where can we try haggling? |
| Joanna:Of course supermarkets, department stores or brand shops are not the place to try. But if you go to the market, or small shops or stalls owned by foreigners, you can always try your luck. |
| Betsey:In the lesson notes, you can find more information about this and also some useful phrases for haggling. |
| Joanna:Be sure to check them out! And now it’s time to learn some new vocabulary. |
| VOCAB LIST |
| Betsey:Let's take a look at the vocabulary for this lesson. |
| :The first word we shall see is Joanna:przepraszać [natural native speed] |
| Betsey:to excuse; to apologize |
| Joanna:przepraszać [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Joanna:przepraszać [natural native speed] |
| :Next Joanna:czekolada [natural native speed] |
| Betsey:chocolate |
| Joanna:czekolada [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Joanna:czekolada [natural native speed] |
| :Next Joanna:orzech [natural native speed] |
| Betsey:nut |
| Joanna:orzech [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Joanna:orzech [natural native speed] |
| :Next Joanna:kilogram [natural native speed] |
| Betsey:kilogram |
| Joanna:kilogram [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Joanna:kilogram [natural native speed] |
| :Next Joanna:cena [natural native speed] |
| Betsey:price |
| Joanna:cena [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Joanna:cena [natural native speed] |
| :Next Joanna:kosztować [natural native speed] |
| Betsey:to cost |
| Joanna:kosztować [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Joanna:kosztować [natural native speed] |
| :Next Joanna:ile [natural native speed] |
| Betsey:how much, how many |
| Joanna:ile [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Joanna:ile [natural native speed] |
| :And last Joanna:kupić [natural native speed] |
| Betsey:to buy |
| Joanna:kupić [slowly - broken down by syllable] |
| Joanna:kupić [natural native speed] |
| KEY VOCABULARY AND PHRASES |
| Betsey:Let's have a closer look at the usuage for some of the words and phrases from this lesson. |
| Joanna:The first word is ‘kosztować’ |
| Betsey:Meaning “to cost”. |
| Joanna:Whenever you want to ask about the price of some item, just use this verb. |
| Betsey:It also has some other meaning, not connected to prices, right? |
| Joanna:Yes, and I know you all *love* this kind of word! |
| Betsey:(laughs) No, we don’t! |
| Joanna:But you still have to learn them! So, let me tell you about the verb ‘kosztować’ |
| Betsey:We’re all ears! |
| Joanna:the other meaning of this verb is - “to have a taste of something” - ‘kosztować’ |
| Betsey:Okay...so how can we use it? |
| Joanna:There’s a high likelihood of hearing it if you visit your Polish friend’s grandma - she could say ‘skosztuj proszę’. It’s on old-fashioned way of telling someone to try some kind of food. Nowadays, only grandparents use the word in this kind of context. |
| Betsey:Okay, what’s the next word? |
| Joanna:‘czekolada’ |
| Betsey:“chocolate” |
| Joanna:In Polish, ‘czekolada’ is something we buy in bar form, which is ‘tabliczki’, so the full name is - ‘tabliczka czekolady’ |
| Betsey:“chocolate bar” |
| Joanna:Here again, English and Polish differ a lot, because in English a chocolate bar can be, for example, Milka or Hershey’s but also a Snickers. In Polish, these are two completely different things. |
| Betsey:So I assume that there are two different words for them, then? |
| Joanna:Yes, ‘czekolada’ or ‘tabliczka czekolady’ is something like Milka or Hershey’s, but products like Snickers or Mounds will be ‘baton’ |
| Betsey:Now I’m getting hungry because of all this talk about chocolate! |
| Joanna:Ok, but stay strong, because we have the grammar next! |
| Betsey:I’ll do my best! |
Lesson focus |
| Betsey:In this lesson, you’ll learn how to ask about prices. |
| Joanna:This is very essential vocabulary for everyday life. |
| Betsey:Definitely. So, how do we ask the price of something in Polish? |
| Joanna:It’s very simple, you just have to say ‘Ile kosztuje..’, and the name of the product you’re asking about. |
| Betsey:For example, in our dialogue Jan said - “How much does this chocolate cost?” |
| Joanna:In Polish, it sounds like this - ‘Ile kosztuje ta czekolada?’ |
| Betsey:Let’s break down this question. |
| Joanna:‘ile’ means... |
| Betsey:...“how much” or “how many”... |
| Joanna:...then comes ‘kosztuje’, the third-person singular form of the verb ‘kosztować’, which we introduced in the vocabulary section of this lesson. |
| Betsey:Listeners, do you remember what it means? …...... yes, that’s right! “To cost”. |
| Joanna:And lastly, the product, ‘ta czekolada’ |
| Betsey:“this chocolate” |
| Joanna:So everyone repeat after me - ‘Ile kosztuje ta czekolada?’ |
| Betsey:…[pause]........... “How much does this chocolate cost?” |
| Joanna:There are two things to remember here - first of all, using the demonstrative pronoun, like ‘ta’ in our sentence is optional. You could always say, ‘ile kosztuje czekolada?’ But that makes the question very general. If you want to know the price of one specific kind of chocolate, it’s better to use the demonstrative pronoun. |
| Betsey:Okay, and I guess the other piece of information will be about “how much/how many”... |
| Joanna:Good guess! So, in Polish, we don’t distinguish countable and uncountable nouns this way. |
| Betsey:This means that for all nouns, you can use just one question word. |
| Joanna:And it’s always the same - ‘ile’ |
| Betsey:In the lesson notes, you’ll find more examples of the question, and also a table with most of the basic products you can find in a store. |
| Joanna:Now that we’ve learned how to ask the price of something, we must learn how to answer. |
| Betsey:When Jan asked about the price of the chocolate, the sales clerk answered... |
| Joanna:…‘4 złote’ |
| Betsey:“four zloty”. |
| Joanna:I must admit, answering is very straightforward, but this is what you will usually hear - just the price. |
| Betsey:‘zloty’ is the name of the Polish currency. |
| Joanna:In the dialogue, we had one more kind of answer. |
| Betsey:When Jan asked the clerk about nuts, he heard... |
| Joanna:‘20 złotych za kilogram’ |
| Betsey:which means “20 zloty per kilogram” |
| Joanna:This answer is composed of the number, in this case, “twenty”, then the name of the currency, ‘złotych’. And at the end comes ‘za kilogram’ which means “per kilogram”. |
| Betsey:I noticed that the form of the currency name changed - why is that? |
| Joanna:Well, it changes depending on the number we put it after. In the lesson notes, there’s a brief explanation of this, so be sure to check it out. |
| Betsey:I think asking for prices and answering is very easy in Polish. In the next lesson we’re going to learn phrases to use at restaurants and cafes, so let’s hope it’ll be as easy as this lesson. |
| Joanna:It will, it will, believe me! |
| Betsey:That just about does it for this lesson. Thanks for listening, everyone! We’ll see you next time. |
| Joanna:Do widzenia. |
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