Vocabulary about shopping

Because we use the word shopping in a way that is not used in the English language some English learners tend to make the same mistake. The thing is, shopping alone in English is not the name of a place, but a verb, as in I was shopping the other day with my mom. In that way, to shop means to buy things in shops. That place where you can find a group of stores with a common area for parking is the shopping center. You can also commonly call it a mall.

At the shopping center, you can do the shopping or go shopping. You might be wondering what is the difference between the two. If I told you some people enjoy doing the shopping but most people love going shopping, would you risk taking a guess? The right answer is that while to do the shopping means to engage in a regular household activity and might involve buying food and household supplies, to go shopping means to go somewhere to buy something of any kind and therefore is a hobby or pastime for some people. It usually doe not involve food. If you want to go shopping specifically for food, you can make it clear but saying that youre grocery shopping.

If youre one of the people who love to go shopping, you certainly enjoy window shopping now and then. If you go window shopping, you just go to the mall for the sake of looking at products in store windows without buying them. Or maybe you mean to buy something, but first you need to shop around to make sure you got the best prices. When you finally know where you can get the best deal, you spend or waste your money on it. If say you spent money on something, that means you will probably make good use of it, but if you say you wasted money on something, you unnecessarily spent money on it. And if one day you spend a lot of money, either on superfluous or necessary things, you can say you splashed out. But if youre always splashing out, you might be a shopaholic. Thats how we call someone whos obsessed with shopping and might be out of control of their own expenses.

And here are a few more words and expressions you need to learn to excel at the art of shopping: 

retail therapy: the act of shopping in order to feel better

a receipt: paper proof of a purchase

a price tag: a tag which indicates the price of an item

a bargain: excellent value for an item or purchase

a fitting room: a place in a shop´where people try on clothes

get a refund: receive money back after returning an item

in cash / bar card: use cash or credit card to buy something

on sale: for sale at a reduced price

for sale: available to buy