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Ten of those, please.
Ten of Those, Please - Transaction Phrases
Build ESL Medium confidence with English for buying, choosing, and requesting things politely in shops, cafés, and other everyday situations.
1 .
Another situation where you reach the front of a queue in a busy shop ('What IS it with these Brits and their queueing?'). This time you pay using a credit or debit card, and the person on the till asks you 'Would you be wanting any cashback with that?'
Frankly you would just rather pay and leave, get out of the shop and get on with your life; but the cashier is waiting for an answer. What's going on, and what do you do or say?
Frankly you would just rather pay and leave, get out of the shop and get on with your life; but the cashier is waiting for an answer. What's going on, and what do you do or say?
They are offering to give you your money back, i.e. you can walk out of the shop with the goods and also without paying. You can't quite imagine why this is, but it sounds good, so you say 'yes please'.
They are telling you that as well as paying for what you are buying, you can also draw some money 'in cash' at the same time, and they will charge that to your card in one single transaction. This might save you time queueing again later at the bank for cash. You decide to take some, maybe £25 or so.
You understand the system (as in Answer 2) but you are worried that they may charge you extra money for doing the 'cashback', so you decide not to accept it, and say 'No thank you, not today.'
You think they want you to give some cash to the people behind you in the queue, so you ask them to explain slowly and in more detail.
2 .
You have had a repair job done, and are about to pay; you are expecting the charge to be around £50. The man tells you 'That'll be forty-five quid plus VAT.' What is your best response?
Offer him £50 in notes and see what happens.
Ask him: 'Would you be happy with fifty?'
Ask him what that really means in accurate figures.
Argue with him that he broke his promise.
£45 + VAT (@ 20%) = £54, so if you were to offer him £50 this would be equivalent to suggesting / requesting a discount of 8% ~ which is hardly unreasonable with a price in this range, for the sake of agreeing on a 'round number'.
If you just give him the £50 (Answer 1), he may count them and tell you this is not enough, or ask you if you don't understand the system ... or even accuse you of trying to cheat him.
Answer 3 is fair enough, but will hold him up and waste a bit more of his time.
Don't even think about starting on Answer 4!
If you just give him the £50 (Answer 1), he may count them and tell you this is not enough, or ask you if you don't understand the system ... or even accuse you of trying to cheat him.
Answer 3 is fair enough, but will hold him up and waste a bit more of his time.
Don't even think about starting on Answer 4!
3 .
You are at the railway station, buying a ticket for a day-trip to London. The member of staff checks that you want a return ticket (probably: 'Off-peak return?') and then says: 'Travelcard with that?'.
What is happening here?
What is happening here?
They think you may have a loyalty card for rail travel, or some form of identity document that will qualify you for a discount on your ticket (student card, retirement certificate etc.) ... so your trip may be cheaper than you thought.
They are asking whether or not you want a printed ticket.
They want you to join a loyalty scheme for frequent travellers on British railways.
They assume you will want to travel around within London, when you arrive there ~ so you may appreciate a separate part on your ticket for that, instead of queueing again later for an Underground ticket or Oyster card.
The Travelcard, added to your mainline rail ticket, allows you to go all around most of London for the rest of the day, without paying any extra or separately for doing so.
4 .
You have recently arrived in Britain and go into a shop to buy one important, but small and cheap item. At this stage you only have quite large British banknotes to pay for it. What do you say to the shopkeeper?
Change that, please.
Would you mind changing that please?
Would you be able to change that for me, please? I've nothing smaller, I'm afraid.
This is the best I can offer you.
The circumstances are probably fairly obvious, so Answer 2 would probably 'do'; but if you can manage Answer 3, that would be clearer.
Answer 1 is barely polite (despite the 'please') and, depending slightly on how you say it, Answer 4 isn't really quite right either.
Answer 1 is barely polite (despite the 'please') and, depending slightly on how you say it, Answer 4 isn't really quite right either.
5 .
You are ordering drinks in a pub. Which of these would be the most appropriate and accurate way to start?
Give me a pint of beer.
Good evening. Two pints of bitter, please, and a still mineral water.
Excuse me, I want two lagers here.
Would you mind getting me a couple of pints?
Answer 1 is too abrupt, and you haven't helped by saying which kind of beer you would like.
Answer 3 is probably the 'next-best' to No.2, but 'I want ... ' is still a bit rude, even after 'Excuse me'. Answer 4 is not really the right way to do what you need, efficiently.
Answer 3 is probably the 'next-best' to No.2, but 'I want ... ' is still a bit rude, even after 'Excuse me'. Answer 4 is not really the right way to do what you need, efficiently.
6 .
You are at a street market, buying 'loose' fruit to take with you on a picnic (bananas, apples, plums, oranges or similar): you ask for a pound [weight] of these fruit. The stallholder says, 'Half a doz. all right for you?'
What does he mean?
What does he mean?
'Are these fruit the kind you want?'
'You'll get six pieces of fruit; is that what you were expecting?'
The fruit are not quite ripe enough to eat yet, and may need a few days until they taste their best.
The fruit will cost you £6.
'Half a doz.' is a common short version for 'half a dozen' ( = 12 / 2 , = 6 )!
7 .
You are shopping at the market and decide to buy some plums. You cannot reach the plums yourself, since they are too far back on the display; the stallholder will need to serve you.
What do you say?
What do you say?
A pound of these, thank you.
Half a kilo of those, thank you.
A pound of those, please.
Half a kilo of those, please.
You would ask in 'imperial units' (pounds [weight]) rather than metric; one pound = 454g, so it's within 10% of half a kilo.
You would say 'those' (not 'these') because the plums are nearer to the stallholder than they are to you; and you would say 'please' at this stage, and then 'thank you' later, once you have been given the fruit.
You would say 'those' (not 'these') because the plums are nearer to the stallholder than they are to you; and you would say 'please' at this stage, and then 'thank you' later, once you have been given the fruit.
8 .
At quite short notice, you manage to find a ticket for a theatre show that you were really hoping to watch while you are in Britain: this could be a 'classic musical' perhaps, or a Shakespeare play, or almost anything in between. You pay very cheaply for this (maybe £10) and when you receive the ticket, you see the phrase BALCONY:RESTRICTED VIEW printed on it.
What does this mean?
What does this mean?
You will be sitting upstairs in the theatre, and not able to watch the whole stage very easily ~ because, looking from where you will be sitting, there is a pillar (or something) blocking you off from seeing part of the stage.
'Romeo and Juliet' is only being performed on certain nights this week.
You will not be able to see the on-stage balcony from the seat where you will be sitting.
The ticket was cheap because you will be able to hear the performance, but not see all of it.
Answer 1 is right, though there is some truth in Answer 4.
Answers 2 & 3 may be tempting, but probably aren't true!
Answers 2 & 3 may be tempting, but probably aren't true!
9 .
You go into a supermarket to buy a few small items. When you go to the checkout to pay, the member of staff asks you 'Do you have a loyalty card, at all?'.
What does this mean?
What does this mean?
You are expected to pay by credit card in this shop, just like all their regular customers.
They are suggesting that if you shop there regularly, you ought to have a special card to collect 'points' for a discount at some time in the future.
You can have a free birthday card, if you like, which you can send to somebody else.
They are worried that you might never go into this shop again, so they want you to fill in a small survey to confirm that you were happy with their service.
A 'loyalty card' is designed to make sure that customers use a shop regularly, so that both they and the shop can benefit (in terms of money) from a regular 'relationship'. Many of the main shops in Britain have schemes of this kind.
If you happen to be in Britain for more than a few days, it might be worth your while to have such a card; but for a short stay, it makes no real sense.
If you happen to be in Britain for more than a few days, it might be worth your while to have such a card; but for a short stay, it makes no real sense.
10 .
You are trying-on an item of clothing in a shop ~ a woollen outdoor cap, perhaps. The shop has caps on the shelf in the right size but the wrong colours, and the right colours but the wrong size. What do you say to the assistant?
Haven't you got my size in the brown and green?
Why haven't you got my size in the brown and green?
Can't you find me the right one that I'm looking for?
I was looking for a size X in brown and green, if you have any.
Of course, you are, effectively, asking a question ('Have you got a Size X in this colour, please?') ... but most of these first three Answers are rather rude, since they cast the enquiry in the negative ('haven't' ... ).
A simple statement, as in Answer 4, is less of a direct challenge to the shopkeeper, but it clarifies what the problem is. There is the suggestion that you have tried to solve the problem for yourself, but that it would be a nice surprise if they (with their greater knowledge) could find what you wanted ... and everyone would be happy.
A simple statement, as in Answer 4, is less of a direct challenge to the shopkeeper, but it clarifies what the problem is. There is the suggestion that you have tried to solve the problem for yourself, but that it would be a nice surprise if they (with their greater knowledge) could find what you wanted ... and everyone would be happy.
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Sadly, Answer 1 was completely wrong!
If you go with Answer 4, you may find out how the system works ... but some of the people behind you in the queue may grow impatient at having to wait.