English Shopping Phrases You MUST Know! | Speak Fluently When Buying Clothes

- So I need your help today.

I'm gonna go shopping, teach you some vocabulary,

and you're gonna help me choose some new clothes.

First of all, vocabulary.

Everything here is called a top.

It doesn't matter if it's a T-shirt, a shirt,

a V-neck sweater,

everything here is a top,

so this is a top, and these are bottoms.

Yep, we use the plural, bottoms,

because for shorts, trousers, they're all plural,

except for skirts, obviously.

We don't actually call skirts bottoms,

but we do say, "What are you wearing on the bottom?"

We don't mean on your arse,

we mean on the bottom half of your body,

so just keep that in mind.

That is all the basics that you need.

Let's go to Oxford Street.

(upbeat music)

So places like ZARA, H&M, Primark,

these are all called fast fashion shops,

so yeah, they probably use child labor to make the clothes,

not really good, and it's really bad for the planet,

but today, I need to use their clothes in my examples,

so...

(upbeat music)

I love Uniqlo, I love Muji.

Everything I have from Muji, I love, I'm a big fan of Muji.

Same with Zara,

but have you noticed the prices in Zara are really weird?

It's either 10 pounds or 200 pounds.

Like who prices the stuff in Zara really?

Okay, this is too big.

And when something is too big or too small,

the size isn't right.

You use the verb fit.

If the size is correct, then it fits.

But for this guy, no.

So it doesn't fit.

It's the wrong size.

But for her, all her clothes are the right size.

So she could say,

"Yeah, these clothes fit me perfectly."

But you know when you are a kid

and your parents buy clothes that are too big for you

because they know you are going to get bigger

and one day it will be the right size.

We have a phrasal verb for that.

"Don't worry, you'll grow into it."

Sometimes I buy clothes to grow into,

or the opposite, shrink down into,

if I'm getting too chubby.

Okay, now we have the right fit

but we also need the look, the style.

If you want to tell your friend those clothes and you, no,

you can say this,

"Honestly, it doesn't look good on you."

We have a more common verb to mean look good on you.

Suit, pronunciation, suit, not sweet.

And yet it's the same word as suit, like a business suit.

But when you use it as a verb, it doesn't suit you.

We just mean it doesn't look good on you.

If it does look good on someone, you could say, yeah

that really suits you, but why doesn't it suit you?

Well, maybe it's not you.

Maybe it's the clothes.

Like

If the shirt, the pants, the whatever.

If it's very bright, very extravagant

in color or style or pattern, then we could say it's gaudy.

Now gaudy has a negative meaning you want to

say the style is bad, it looks bad

it's very bright, very extravagant, blah.

It's very gaudy.

So in my opinion, for example

this shirt is definitely too gaudy for me.

Nah,

yeah, it's a bit gaudy but it fits me.

Fit means the size is good.

Suit means the look is good for you

but there's a little difference with suit.

You need that object.

It suits you.

It doesn't suit you, it suits me.

But with fit, that's an option.

It fits.

You don't need that object, you can

it fits me, that's fine too.

But that's an option.

That is not an option.

You must have the object with suit.

Maybe the reason they don't suit you is

because this and this don't match.

They're too different.

Yes, of course you can say they don't match

but that's basic and you are not basic.

So how can we say that?

So simple.

You just use the verb go, that means match.

Yeah, this top and those jeans

they don't go, as a longer option.

You can say they don't really go well together.

And you can use this to talk

about people a couple if you want to say wait, her and him

they don't really go well together.

I mean that's a strange match.

Ugh.

When you want to say they're too different

like the contrast between this and this, it's too much.

Use this verb.

Yeah, they clash.

To clash means they don't look good together

because the style or the colors, they're too different.

There's too big of a contrast between the two things.

They clash.

Again, you can also use this

for two people with very different personalities.

Like, yeah, I don't get on with Becky.

We clash.

Maybe you argue a lot together.

So that is a very useful verb.

Okay, can we just go back to that top a second?

The one that was too big.

When I first saw that, I was like, that looks ridiculous.

I have to put that in the video.

But then after a few seconds I was like maybe I don't know.

And honestly, I left the store thinking

about it and thinking about it until I got it.

So we have an expression when you're not really sure

if the clothes will look good on you or not.

For example, you're shopping with your friends

and you see something and you're like

usually I would never buy this.

However, do you think this would suit me or no?

We'll use the expression

If you can pull off something you are saying

usually you wouldn't wear it.

You wouldn't buy it.

But that on you looks good.

So he thinks I can't pull this off.

She thinks, yeah, you totally pull it off.

So notice you can separate this or not.

You have the option like with all separable, phrasal verbs.

Don't put the pronoun on the outside.

Only the regular noun, that sweater

those jeans, that top, that kind of thing.

The pronoun it, them

only in the middle with separable phrasal verbs.

So this is a really good phrasal verb.

If you want to say, yeah

that and you definitely, it will look good.

You can pull it off, or you, wearing that?

No, you can't pull that off.

You're not that cool.

You could also say to make it work like, huh

that gaudy t-shirt and those jeans, she makes it work.

So for me, for this, I think I'm gonna keep it.

I don't think I'm gonna return it.

So which clothes do you think would suit me?

Let me know in the comments and you can practice this.

And many other lessons

in my ebook made a special lesson just on this topic.

We can practice on my website

papateachme.com or patreon.com/papateachme.

See you in the next lesson.

Bye.