Doing your grocery shopping in Chinese is a great and practical way to put your skills to use. First of all, you can make your grocery list in Chinese. Check that post for some vocabulary charts on vegetables, fruit, meat, seafood, everyday items, and clothing. Once you have your list ready, it’s time to go to your local market. Shopping here rather than the big chain stores has a few benefits. For one, you’re giving your money directly to the farmers. It’s also quite a bit cheaper to do your shopping here. Finally, you get to practice your Chinese much more, as you interact with each vendor individually and pay as you go along through the market. In addition to your list, you’ll need to be armed with a bit more Chinese to do your shopping. We’ll learn about buying groceries in Chinese in this post, starting with some units of measurement.

Chinese Units of Measurement

Buy your produce or seafood by the jin.

When it comes to buying food in the local market, you’ll need to understand the measurements that are used. Perhaps the most important one is the jin (斤 – jīn). One jin is equal to 500 grams, and it’s the most common measurement used when quoting prices for fruit, veggies, seafood, or meat. For example, when you ask how much the bananas are, you’ll get a price that’s per jin. If you don’t quite need 500 grams of something, you can always ask for half a jin (半斤- bàn jīn). For certain things, you’ll probably just want to tell them how many grams (克 – kè) you want if it’s less than that. For example, you might want to buy one hundred grams (一百克 – yī bǎi kè) of strawberries as buying too many would probably result in some of them going bad.

Useful Phrases

Get ready with some useful phrases.

Now that you’ve got your measurements down, it’s time to pick up some useful phrases for buying groceries in Chinese.

• How do I buy the…? (…怎么买? – …zěn me mǎi)

• How much is/are the…? (…多少钱? – … duō shǎo qián)

• Can it be cheaper? (可以便宜一点吗? – kě yǐ pián yi yī diǎn ma)

• Can I try it? (我可以试一下吗? – wǒ kě yǐ shì yī xià ma)

• How is the flavor? (味道怎么样? – wèi dào zěn me yàng)

While it’s not that common to bargain for your groceries, sometimes you can ask for a little discount if you’re buying in bulk or if you think the produce isn’t that great. For example, if some fruit looks like it’s going to go bad tomorrow, it doesn’t hurt to ask them to knock a little off the price.

Sample Conversation

Chinese markets are very colorful.

Generally, your conversations in the market will be short, sweet, and to the point. This is great if you’re still a beginner, as you really don’t have to say a whole lot! Let’s take a look at a sample conversation between a buyer and a seller in the local market to see how you use the units of measurement we learned as well as the useful phrases. Try to read and understand the conversation in Chinese before opening the English translation below.

你好

nǐ hǎo

你好，你在找什么？

nǐ hǎo, nǐ zài zhǎo shén me?

我想买点水果

wǒ xiǎng mǎi diǎn shuǐ guǒ

什么水果？我们有香蕉，苹果，草莓，什么的

shén me shuǐ guǒ? wǒ men yǒu xiāng jiāo, píng guǒ, cǎo méi, shén me de

香蕉怎么买？

xiāng jiāo zěn me mǎ

香蕉四块一斤

xiāng jiāo sì kuài yī jīn

好的，我买一斤吧。草莓的味道怎么样？

hǎo de, wǒ mǎi yī jīn ba. cǎo méi de wèi dào zěn me yàng?

很甜的，很好吃

hěn tián de, hěn hào chī

我可以试一下吗？

wǒ kě yǐ shì yī xià ma

可以，不甜不给钱！

kě yǐ, bù tián bù gěi qián

很好吃，多少钱一斤？

hěn hào chī, duō shǎo qián yī jīn?

一斤十五块

yī jīn shí wǔ kuài

我要半斤

wǒ yào bàn jīn

好的，一共十二块

hǎo de, yī gòng shí èr kuài

好,给你二十块

hǎo, gěi nǐ èr shí kuài

找你八块

zhǎo nǐ bā kuài

谢谢

xiè xiè

不用谢

bù yòng xiè

After studying these posts, you should be ready to get out there and do your grocery shopping in Chinese. If you’re wondering about buying clothes in Chinese, we’ve already covered that in a few posts – Part One and Part Two.