Walk ‘n’ Talk Essentials #02 – How to go shopping in English

Welcome to another episode of Walk ‘n’ Talk! This time we are going shopping, so you will learn many useful sentences for you to use next time you go. Enjoy this lesson by Scott Lowe, teacher from Fluency Academy!

‍The Dialogue:‍

A: Excuse me, how much is that t-shirt?
B: Which one?
A: The blue and red one.
B: That t-shirt is $49,99.
A: Hm, what about the yellow one?
B: That one is $34,99.
A: Oh great, I would like two of those.

‍Vocabulary Expansion:‍

How much
The most common way to ask about the price of something is using the question you saw here in the dialogue, starting with “how much”. The structure is the same for whatever object you ask about, it only changes a little when you are asking about two or more objects. Take a look at these examples:

How much is that t-shirt?
How much is this book?
How much are the pencils?
How much is the laptop?
How much are the flowers?

Which one
Here in the dialogue, the salesperson was looking at many t-shirts and didn’t know which one the other person was asking about, so they just asked “which one?”. You can use this question when you have a group of an object, and you don’t want to repeat the name of it but you need to know about one specifically. So let’s check out two conversation examples:

A: Can you get my coat?
B: Which one?
A: The red one.

A: I want to watch that movie.
B: Which one?
A: The one with Sandra Bullock.

The word “one” is often used to avoid repeating an object, but only when you want to focus on a defining characteristic of that object, so you can say:
Ok, the blue shirt is 49,99. What about the yellow one?

Instead of:
Ok, the blue shirt is 49,99. What about the yellow shirt?

Both sentences are correct, but the first one is the most common and natural. Here are some more examples:

Both the white chocolate and the dark chocolate are good, but the dark one is my favorite.
My car is the black one, can you see it?
These perfumes are nice but the sweet one is amazing.

The price
After asking “how much” something is, the reply will be a very simple and direct sentence. Have a look at these examples:4

That t-shirt is $49,99.
The laptop is $1999,99.
That blush is $9,99.

Another common possibility is to use the verb “cost” to say the price of something:

That t-shirt costs $49,99.
The laptop costs $1999,99.
That blush costs $9,99.

We hope this content was helpful and that you enjoyed the episode! Don’t forget that you can listen to it as many times as you want and that the more you practice, the more confident you will feel. See you next time!