Podcast 96 - B1 Shopping for clothes

Asking about clothes in a shop

And today I'm going to talk about shopping and in particular clothes shopping. So this is a B1 session, and I'll be talking about what we do and say when we go to a clothes shop. The vocabulary that we need to buy clothes and make decisions about clothes we want to buy.

B1 language for clothes shopping

So when we are in the street, the High Street perhaps we might call it, which is the main shopping street in a UK town or city. Well, then we will look through the windows of the shops - and they are called shop windows. And we look at clothes in the window. We say,

'Oh, look at those shoes in the window. Aren't they lovely?'

Then we go into the shop and we ask the shop assistant or maybe the shop assistant will come up to us and say,

'Can I help you, sir?'

or,

Can I help you, madam?'

So notice first of all, that in the UK or in the US, the shop assistant will call you sir or madam and you as a customer - you don't call them anything because we don't have those words in English. We don't have the nice señor or señora in Spanish or Monsieur, Madame in French, we just don't have them. So you don't call them anything, but the person who is serving you will call you 'sir' or 'madam'. And so you, say, 'Yes I would'.

'Actually, I want to try on those trousers. I saw a nice pair of trousers in the window.'

So that's another thing about clothes that if they are trousers or jeans, because they have two legs, we say a pair of which means two. So you cannot say a trouser or a jean. You have to say a pair of trousers, a pair of jeans, just like you say a pair of socks or a pair of shoes.

So the next thing they will ask you, the shop assistant will ask you, is about the size and we use the word to fit in English. So the size means how big or how small an article of clothing is. It's important that the article of clothing fits you. That means it's the right size. And so what you'll need to do is to try it on. And that's a phrasal verb, isn't it. To try something on. So you can,

try the trousers on,

or, of course,

you can try on the trousers.

So, when they give you the trousers that you are interested in, and they find some trousers which are your size, well then you will want to put them on and so you will ask where the changing rooms are or the fitting rooms.

'Can you tell me where the fitting room is, please?'

'Yes, madam. It's just over there.'

Now, you go into the fitting room. It's important to make sure that the article of clothing fits you. It mustn't be too loose. Not too loose means it's too big. So it will be like sort of falling down on your body. It won't stay on your body very well, or it will look a little ridiculous because it's just too big or loose. And the opposite of that is tight or tight-fitting. Most people perhaps might not want the clothes to be tight because they're very uncomfortable. But of course these days, a lot of people, maybe younger people, prefer to have tight-fitting jeans which are very close to your leg and they are tight-fitting. So you put on the trousers and you look at yourself in the mirror and you think to yourself,

'Do they go well with my eyes?

So that means: do the jeans or the trousers match my eyes? Are they the right colour? It's important of course, isn't it, that colours well go, with your eyes, with your hair, and with other clothing that you are wearing. We say for example that brown and green go well together. But red, pink and green do not go well together. They look a little bit strange. They don't look good.

And so you look at yourself in the mirror and you ask yourself,

'Do they look good on me? Do they suit me? Do the trousers suit [better: go with] the other clothes that I'm wearing?'

So that means that they look good. It's just another way of saying it looks good.

Talking about the sizes

Well the sizes in the UK and the US are different from each other and different from the sizes in the EU. So for example, the sizes of jackets or blouses, dresses or skirts may just have a single size that we say, in the EU, maybe a 42. But in the UK that would be a 14 or a large and you'll see an L on the article of clothing. A 40 in the EU is a 12 in the UK or a medium and a 38 in the EU is a 10 in the UK or a small. A 52, for example, in Europe is a 24 in the UK, and that would be an XXL, which is extra extra large.

With trousers or jeans. We often talk about the waist measurement. Your waist is the part of your body which is at the top of the trousers. And for example, a 38 in Europe would be a 30 in the UK, and it's less because we're talking about inches and not centimetres. Often with trousers or jeans, you'll see a measurement, which will be: first the waist size and then trouser length. That is how long the trousers are. So, for example, you'll have a 30-32. So that is a 30 inch waist and a 32 inch trouser length.

Now shoe sizes. Well, we use that word 'size' for shoes as well. And they are different in Europe and the UK and the US. So, for example, a 40 in Europe is a six in the UK, and an eight and a half in the US. So we always say eight and a half, six and a half, not 8.5. A 43 in Europe is an eight and a half in the UK and in the US it's an 11.

Conversation in a clothes shop

B1 clothes shopping dialogue

Okay, so now a little conversation that might take place when you go into a shop to buy some clothes.

Shop assistant: Hello, madam. How can I help you?

Customer: Yes, please. I'm looking for a blouse.

Shop assistant: Follow me, madam. We have some lovely blouses here. What is your size?

Customer: I'm a medium. Size 12.

Shop assistant: I see. And what colour would you like?

Customer: Well, that green one looks very nice!

Shop assistant: Here you are, madam.

Customer: Thank you. Can I try it on?

Shop assistant: Yes, of course! The fitting rooms are over there.

The customer goes to the fitting room and then comes back a little later. The salesman says,

Shop assistant: Oh, it suits you very well! It goes very well with your eyes.

Customer: Thank you, but I think it's a bit too small. Do you have a larger one?

Shop assistant: Yes, of course. Try this one. This is a large. Size 14.

The customer goes to the fitting rooms again and comes back a little bit later.

Customer: Yes, it fits me very well. I'm very pleased with it. How much is it?

Shop assistant: That will be 15 pounds ninety-nine, madam.

Customer: Thank you. I'll take it. Do you accept a credit card?

Jokes about clothes shopping

I'm going to finish with just a few one-liners. These are little jokes. Why is it that we always say that women enjoy clothes shopping much more than men? Is that true? Well, here are a few jokes which might suggest that!

A man and a woman (they are husband and wife). They're out shopping, and the wife looks through the window of a shoe shop, and she says,

'I'm just popping into that shop to look at some shoes.'

Now to pop in means to go into a shop for a short time.

'What are you going to do while you're waiting, dear?'

'I think I'll go on holiday to Italy. And I'll meet you back here!'

Okay, and I have another one here. So this is a woman who is telling her friends about her shopping that morning and she says,

'I went to buy a dress, and I saw this beautiful handbag. So I bought a pair of shoes.'

And the final one is a man walking along the high street, and he meets Mr and Mrs Jones, who are two friends of his. And he says,

'Oh, it's nice to see you holding hands.'

And the husband says,

'Oh, we always hold hands when we go shopping. If I let go, she'll go and buy something!'

That's all from me for today.

Until next time.

Goodbye!