Learn how to buy something at a Mexican traditional market
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| Mexican Traditional Market |
| The traditional Mexican market, called mercado, is a place where you can find almost everything. Mexican people like these markets, and they go there especially to buy groceries, like fruits, vegetables, dairy, meat, eggs and many others. |
| That’s because in these markets, the produce is local and fresh, and most of the time you can find better prices than in the supermarket. So if you would like to know more about traditions and traditional taste, the mercado is a place you must visit during your stay in Mexico. |
| Normally, when you are interested in buying something, first you should greet the seller. Then you can ask the questions we’ve learned in the previous lessons. |
| ¿Cuánto cuesta? or ¿Cuánto es? |
| After finding out the price, let’s say you want to buy a kilogram of traditional Mexican cheese, which is called queso panela. You will have to say: |
| Un kilo de queso panela, por favor. |
| Let’s break it down: |
| (slow) Un ki-lo de que-so pa-ne-la, por favor. |
| Once more: |
| Un kilo de queso panela, por favor. |
| The first two words, un kilo, mean “one kilo”. This is shortened from un kilogramo meaning “one kilogram.” |
| (slow) un ki-lo. |
| un kilo |
| Next we have de, which means “of” |
| After that, we have queso panela, or “panela cheese”, a famous Mexican cheese. |
| (slow) que-so pa-ne-la. |
| queso panela. |
| Last we have por favor, which you remember means “please”. |
| The whole sentence altogether is: |
| Un kilo de queso panela, por favor. |
| Let’s say that you’d like to buy two kilograms of avocadoes, to make a delicious guacamole. In this case, you can say: |
| Dos kilos de aguacate, por favor. |
| (slow) Dos ki-los de a-gua-ca-te, por fa-vor. |
| You already know the meaning of the word dos. |
| And kilos is the plural form of kilo. |
| Next we have de aguacate which is translated literally as “of avocado”. |
| (slow) De a-gua-ca-te. |
| De aguacate. |
| And of course, por favor, which you already know. |
| The whole phrase is: |
| Dos kilos de aguacate, por favor. |
| Some sellers import the merchandise from other countries, but you might want to make sure that what you’re buying is a Mexican product. All you have to ask is: |
| ¿Este producto es mexicano? This means “Is it a Mexican product?” |
| (slow) ¿Es-te pro-duc-to es me-xi-ca-no? |
| Este is the masculine form of "this." |
| (slow) Es-te. |
| Este. |
| Producto means “product”. |
| (slow) Pro-duc-to. |
| Producto. |
| Es means “is” |
| And at the end we have mexicano which |
| means “Mexican.” |
| (slow) Me-xi-ca-no. |
| Mexicano. |
| Let’s hear the whole question one more time: |
| ¿Este producto es mexicano? |
| The answer can be sí meaning “yes”, or no meaning “no”. |
| To close out today's lessons, we’d like you to practice what you have just learned. I’ll provide you with the English equivalent of the phrase and you’re responsible for shouting it out loud. You’ll have a few seconds before I give you the answer, so !buena suerte! which means “Good luck!” in Spanish. |
| “A kilogram of Panela cheese, please.” - Un kilo de queso panela, por favor. |
| “Two kilograms of avocado, please.” - Dos kilos de aguacate, por favor. |
| “Is it a Mexican product?” - ¿Este producto es mexicano? |
| Alright! That's going to do it for this lesson. Hasta luego. |
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