Shopping & money

Lesson opening

This is the first part of the lesson. The rest, the exercises and the reviews are in the app.

Shopping and money: in the shop and at the till

You have already asked prices at the bakery and at the market (lessons “Food & drink” and “Asking & giving information”). Now let us gather everything a purchase takes: where to go, what money and change are called, how to try something on and ask for a size, how to pay and, if need be, take an item back. The key words of the lesson: prodavnica “shop”, dinar, kusur “change”, gotovina “cash”, kartica “card”, račun “receipt”.

Where to buy: kinds of shop

An ordinary shop is a prodavnica. A self-service grocery is a samoposluga or a market (a big one is a supermarket). Clothes you buy in a butik “small clothes shop, boutique”; bread at the pekara “bakery”, meat at the mesara “butcher’s”, newspapers and small things at the trafika or kiosk. For medicines you go to the apoteka “pharmacy” (English apothecary is the same word). You change money at a menjačnica “exchange office” and withdraw it at a banka “bank”. And fresh fruit and vegetables are still bought at the pijaca “market”.

Money: dinar, pare, kusur

The currency of Serbia is the dinar (on price tags din or RSD). In conversation, money in general is very often called pare, the plural of para. English change covers two things Serbian keeps apart: the money you get back is kusur; small change, coins, is sitno or sitniš. The receipt (the till receipt, officially a “fiscal” receipt) is račun; in a café the same word is the bill: Račun, molim (lesson “Food & drink”). You pay either in cash, gotovina (colloquially keš), or by card, kartica.

One everyday subtlety about change. A cashier who has no change to give will ask Imate li sitnije? “Do you have anything smaller?”, that is, a smaller note or the exact money in coins. And the phrase Nemam da vam vratim “I've got nothing to give you back” is a polite hint to dig in your pocket for sitno. So carry some coins, not only for the market but for any small purchase.

Cheat sheet

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Shopping and money: in the shop and at the till

Where to buy

Money

Currency: dinar (din, RSD); money, colloquially: pare. Change you get back: kusur; coins: sitno / sitniš; receipt: račun (in a café, the bill). Pay cash (gotovina, colloquially keš) or by card (kartica). Your own bag: ceger or platnena kesa.

After numbers dinar changes form: jedan dinar, dva dinara, pet dinara, sto dinara, hiljadu dinara; the last word decides: dvadeset jedan dinar. Sellers often drop the word: sto pedeset = 150 (dinars).

Ready-made phrases

Trying on and sizes

Try on: probati. Clothing size: veličina; shoe size: broj “number”. Fitting room: kabina.

Discounts and returns

Signs: popust “discount”, akcija “special offer” (na akciji “on offer”), sniženje “price reduction”, rasprodaja “sale”; dvadeset posto popusta “20% off” (posto, not Pošto?).

Faulty item: reklamacija (replacement or repair, else a refund); keep the račun (by law: 2 years; answer within 8 days). A size exchange is up to the shop. Želim da reklamiram ovaj proizvod. I’d like to return this faulty item. Evo računa. Here’s the receipt. Mogu li da zamenim ovo za veći broj? Can I exchange this for a bigger size?