Grocery Store Vocabulary: shop in English

Vanessa: Hi, I'm Vanessa from  

SpeakEnglishWithVanessa.com. Would you like  to go grocery shopping with me? Let's do it. 

Have you ever been grocery shopping? Of course you  have, but have you ever been grocery shopping in  

an American grocery store? Well, today I would  like to invite you to join me and my young son,  

Freddie, as we go into this grocery store and pick  up a couple things. I will explain along the way.  

Hopefully you will learn some useful vocabulary,  some expressions, and hopefully I will not be  

too embarrassed to be filming in public. And  you'll be able to use this in your daily life  

and learn something about American culture. And like always, I have created a free PDF  

worksheet that you can download with a link in  the description with all of today's phrases,  

expressions, ideas, and at the bottom  of the PDF worksheet, you can answer  

Vanessa's challenge question. So don't forget  to download that PDF and continue learning.  

Never forget what you've learned today.  All right, let's go into the grocery store. 

All right. First things first, we are going to  go through the parking lot and get a cart. I  

call this just a cart, but some people call it a  shopping cart. And here in the south where I live,  

people call it a buggy. Our first stop is the  free fruit snack for kids. This is Freddie's  

favorite thing to do in the grocery store,  so I sure hope they have something for him. 

Look at this, Freddie. Freddie: 

Yeah. Vanessa: 

You want a banana? Freddie: 

‘Nana. Vanessa: 

Yeah? Okay. Can you open it?  Maybe you need some help. Wow.  

Hold it down there. Yummy. Dan: 

All right. Vanessa: 

All right. Let's go get some  stuff from the produce section.  

Notice that I said the word produce  section. This just means where you  

can buy fruits and vegetables, but let's pay  attention to the pronunciation of that word  

produce. The emphasis is at the beginning,  produce. There's another word, which is a verb  

to produce something. I produce one YouTube video  every week. Here the emphasis is at the end,  

produce. I produce a video. This is different  than the produce section. We're in the produce  

section right now and let's see what's going to  happen next. Who knows. It could be anything. 

Should I get the single ones or should I get the  

bag? Dan: 

Get a bag. We can make the sparkling water. Vanessa: 

Well, let's see. There's 94 cents for  this. And there's 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6 in here  

for $5. It's a better deal, but  they're in a bag. We'll get this. 

Dan: What do you think? Should we get lemons? 

Vanessa: Yeah, let's get some lemons. 

When you're buying produce, you have two options.  You can buy loose produce like the broccoli that  

I bought, or you can buy bagged produce like the  lemons that I bought, or here like the potatoes.  

And really there are so many to choose  from. It's pretty unbelievable the type  

of options that we have these days. I  feel so lucky to have these options. 

As we go through the bulk section where you can  buy items in bulk, you'll see these bananas in  

a bag that are on sale. I want you to know  the difference between on sale and for sale.  

These bananas are on sale, that means there's  a discount. It's on sale, but really every item  

in the grocery store is for sale. For sale means  that you can buy it. There's no special discount.  

There's no special price. It's just for sale. Here we are at the deli counter. At the deli  

counter, you can order freshly sliced lunch meat.  You might say, "I'd like half a pound of Turkey,  

please." Or, "I'd like a pound of cheddar cheese,  please." We decided to not order anything today  

because there was only one person working early in  the morning and the wait was too long, but that's  

all right. Let's move on to the next thing. In the bakery you can get some freshly baked  

donuts, bread, or cakes. Because Freddie  is turning two soon, at the end of March,  

we've been talking about cakes a lot  recently. He's very excited about getting  

a birthday cake or cupcakes. Let's see. What cake would you like for your birthday? 

Freddie: This. 

Vanessa: This one? 

Freddie: Yeah. 

Vanessa: This one or this one? 

Freddie: This one. 

Vanessa: This one? 

Freddie: This one. 

Vanessa: This one. 

Freddie: Yeah. 

Vanessa: This one? Oh, the one with the cereal all over it?  

That looks exciting. You know  what would be really good? 

Freddie: Yeah. 

Vanessa: You get some hummus.  

You want some hummus? That's  bell pepper hummus. That's yummy. 

Dan: Yummus, Freddie. 

Vanessa: Thank you. 

In the grocery store, you have the option to get  fresh fish or frozen fish, but watch out because  

usually the fresh fish has been previously  frozen. You can also get fresh cuts of meat,  

or you can get pre-packaged meat. If you want  to get a fresh cut of meat, you could say,  

"I'd like two pounds of ground beef, please."  This is a really polite and common statement  

that you can use. Now I'm going down  an aisle. Notice this pronunciation.  

Aisle. The S is silent. Go down an aisle.  Or you can say, "It's on aisle three." Great  

pronunciation. Freddie: 

Hey pretzels. Crackers. Vanessa: 

Crackers? Are you excited about crackers? Freddie: 

Crackers. Vanessa: 

All right, we got to get some pretzels.  

I want to get this kind. Freddie: 

Hold that. Vanessa: 

You want to hold it? Freddie: 

Yeah. Vanessa: 

Okay. Freddie: 

Pretzels. Vanessa: 

And I'm going to get this  one. That's our special snack. 

Freddie: Take it. Good job putting it in the cart. 

Vanessa: That's our special  

snack. We don't get many treats like chips  and stuff, but pretzels, we love pretzels. 

Dan: Always got to get pretzels. 

Vanessa: Yep. 

I'm walking past a case of frozen meat  and on the other side is an end cap.  

An end cap is a shelf on the end of an  aisle. The chips are on the end cap. 

We're going to get some poster board for Theo. Freddie: 

Me. Vanessa: 

And for Freddie. Okay. You  need some poster board too?  

Oh, let's go down here. Freddie: 

Poster board. Vanessa: 

We need some poster board. Ah, look at this. Dan: 

Is it the right kind? Vanessa: 

Yes. Next I'm going to be  

walking to the dairy section. The dairy section  includes milk products like milk, yogurt, cheese,  

and also for some reason eggs are included  in this. The dairy section is refrigerated.  

There are refrigerated items in this section.  Let's take a look at this pronunciation  

refrigerated. That final tea is going  to sound like a D in American English,  

because it's surrounded by vowels. This is very  common for American English. I'm going to say the  

word again and I want you to try to say it with  me. Refrigerated. I'm in the refrigerated section,  

getting some refrigerated items. I  hope that this helps. I know this  

word is tricky, but you can do it. All right. Let's go get yogurt.  

Where's the yogurt? Freddie: 

Yogurt. Vanessa: 

That way. Freddie: 

That way. Vanessa: 

That's right. It's that way. Freddie: 

That way. Vanessa: 

Do you think we need to buy any eggs? 

Freddie: Yeah. 

Dan: We don't need eggs, do we? 

Vanessa: We actually don't need to. We don't need to buy  

any eggs because our chickens make so many eggs.  We are looking for a plain whole milk yogurt.  

Vanilla. I don't want vanilla yogurt. Freddie: 

We need yogurt. Vanessa: 

Plain whole milk yogurt, but this is so expensive.  

Do we need yogurt that bad, Freddie? Freddie: 

Yogurt. Vanessa: 

Okay. We need yogurt that bad? Vanessa: 

Okay. Freddie: 

No, but I don't- Vanessa: 

Okay. Now it's time for a little splurge. A  

splurge is something you don't need. Maybe it's a  little too expensive, but you really want did. I'm  

going to get some sparkling water with a little  bit of fruit juice in it, it's so tasty. Let's  

talk a little bit about alcohol. In the state  where I live, North Carolina, you can buy wine and  

beer in the grocery store. This is a very simple  thing to do, but if you want to buy hard liquor,  

so this is considered rum or vodka, you need to go  to a special store called a liquor store. Here in  

the south where I live we call these an ABC store,  but you need to go to this specialized store if  

you want to buy something else, not just wine and  beer. But for now, I'm not going to get any of it. 

I need to get some more gardening  gloves, believe it or not. 

Dan: Oh, you actually think so? 

Vanessa: Yeah. Mine have holes in all the fingers.  

The point of gardening gloves is to keep your  hands safe, but if they have holes in all the  

fingers and this will save me a trip to Lowe's. Before we check out, there's one key that I  

haven't talked about yet and we need to talk  about it. Can you guess what it is? It's the  

word grocery, grocery store. That's where  I'm at and I'm buying groceries. There's two  

different pronunciations for this and it's just  a regional difference or a personal preference.  

You can say grocery with an S sound in the  middle, grocery. But for me, I say grocery with a  

sound in the middle. Grocery store. Both of  these options are correct and it just depends  

on what you feel the most comfortable saying.  So you could say, "I'm at the grocery store.  

Or, "I'm at the grocery store." "I'm buying  groceries." Or, "I'm buying groceries." Both  

of these are beautiful, very natural. And it's  the most common expression that you're going  

to hear in the US when we talk about a store  where you buy food. It's the grocery store. 

Now it's time to check out. We can use this  word as a noun or a verb. "Let's check out."  

Or, "Let's go to the checkout." You can also say  the checkout counter. "Let's go to the checkout  

counter. I need to buy the things that I put in  my cart." "Let's check out." "It's time to check  

out." At the checkout counter, watch out because  there are a lot of snacks and junk food waiting  

for you. The grocery store wants you to splurge  and buy these things. For me, I try to avoid them.  

It's always unhealthy, not really a good choice,  but this is here to make a last minute purchase.  

I want to know, in your country are the there a  lot of snacks and junk food options waiting at the  

checkout? I think this is common around the world,  but let me know in the comments if this happens in  

your country. Now I'm asking the kind checkout  lady if I have her permission to film while I'm  

checking out. I wanted to give you this experience  to see the final step at the grocery store. 

Well, I forgot all of my bags today,  so I can help to check out too. 

Speaker 5: Do you want paper or plastic? 

Vanessa: Let's do paper. 

Now all of the items are going down the conveyor  belt and the checkout lady is scanning them while  

I put them in my bag. I usually bring my  own bags, but this day I was so focused on  

filming, I totally forgot. So I chose to get paper  bags. I can compost the paper bags in my garden,  

but you might choose to get a plastic bag because  you can reuse them as a trash bag in your house.  

It's time to pay for all of these groceries. I'm  scanning my membership card so that I can get a  

few discounts. And she asked me if I want to use  cash or credit, or she might say, "Cash or card?"  

And you can choose which one. Checkout Lady: 

Okay. Thank you. Vanessa: 

Thank you. Checkout Lady: 

You have a great day. Vanessa: 

Thanks, you too. I appreciate your help. Checkout Lady: 

I hope it works. Vanessa: 

Yes. Freddie: 

Bye. Vanessa: 

Bye. Freddie: 

Bye. Vanessa: 

Now I go out through the automatic doors  like magic and load the groceries in the car.  

I load the groceries in the car and then  at home, I will unload the groceries. 

Well, thank you so much for joining me today at  the grocery store, I hope that you learned a lot.  

And don't forget to remember everything that  you've learned today. You can download the free  

PDF worksheet with the link in the description.  It is my gift to you. And don't forget to answer  

Vanessa's challenge question at the bottom of the  PDF. Well, thank you so much for learning English  

with me. I have a question to ask you now, how  often do you go grocery shopping? Let me know  

in the comments and I'll see you again next Friday  for a new lesson here on my YouTube channel. Bye. 

"I got my banana. That's all I want." Dan: 

What's he going to do when that banana's gone? Vanessa: 

I don't know. Dan: 

That's the worry right there. Vanessa: 

We got to go quickly. This is shopping  with a child. Fast, fast, fast.  

Uh-oh, disaster. I'm going to  have to go throw it away, Freddie.  

Now he's got banana hands  touching everything. Ooh, good. 

Dan: Banana fingers. 

Vanessa: Can I see your banana hands?

Freddie: No. No. Dan: 

My nickname in high school. Vanessa: 

Banana hands. Vanessa: 

The next step is to download the  free PDF worksheet for this lesson.  

With this free PDF, you will master today's lesson  

and never forget what you have learned.  You can be a confident English speaker.  

Don't forget to subscribe to my YouTube channel  for a free English lesson every Friday. Bye.