Spanish numbers and prices,the Bolivian market way
To ask a price in Spanish, say ¿Cuánto cuesta? At a market stall in Bolivia you will often hear ¿A cuánto está?, the everyday market way to ask. The answer often comes as son plus the number, as in son quince, and ¿Cuánto es todo? asks for the total. The vendor you keep coming back to is your casera.
Every phrase comes from the lessons. Press play to hear it.
¿A cuánto está?How much is it? (at the market)
¿Cuánto cuesta?How much does it cost?
Son quince.It's fifteen.
Veinte.twenty
Son setenta.That's seventy.
Una bolsa, treinta y cinco.One bag, thirty-five.
Las bolsas cuestan poco en el mercado.The bags cost little at the market.
¿Tiene cambio, por favor?Do you have change, please?
Casera.The vendor you come back to.
Caserita.The same, warmer.
How it works
Hearing the number
quince
15. Easy to mix up with cinco, 5, and cincuenta, 50: listen to the first syllable.
doce
12. Close to dos, 2, diez, 10, and veinte, 20.
setenta
70. The tens from 40 to 90 end in -enta; without that ending you are hearing siete, 7.
cuarenta y cinco
45. From 31 upward, the tens and the units are joined by y.
son quince
A price is often said with son and the number.
Several things,and the total
For one thing the verb is cuesta; for several it becomes cuestan: ¿Cuánto cuestan las dos bolsas? To ask for everything at once, say ¿Cuánto es todo? Then está muy caro says it is expensive, and está muy barato that it is cheap.
The rule card of lesson 4
The ending copies the noun,not the nearest word
Find the noun the word describes, then copy its gender and its number onto the ending.
The noun's own ending is a hint, never the rule: el problema and el día are masculine, la mano and la foto are feminine.
When one masculine and one feminine thing share a description, the masculine plural wins.
Las llaves quedaron guardadas.llaves is feminine and plural, so the ending is -adas, even with the verb in between.
La cocina y el baño quedaron limpios.One feminine noun plus one masculine noun together take the masculine plural.
In Bolivia
What the lessons tell you about doing it here.
Mercado · Lesson 3
The market's own price question
At a market stall you will often hear ¿A cuánto está? It is the everyday market way to ask a price, a little warmer and more local than ¿Cuánto cuesta? The está hints that a market price can still move.
Mercado · Lesson 4
Casera:the vendor you come back to
At a Bolivian market, the vendor you keep coming back to is your casera, and caserita is warmer still. The word names a bond between a regular customer and a vendor, not just a seller, and it goes both ways: she calls you casero or casera too. Opening with it warms the whole exchange.
Short dialogues
The chat that closes each lesson: what you hear, and the reply the lesson teaches.
EDoña Elsa, market vendorLesson 3
Buenos días. ¿Cómo está?Good morning. How are you?
YouEstoy bien, gracias. ¿Y usted?
Bien, gracias.Fine, thank you.
You¿Cuánto cuesta la bolsa?
Son quince.It's fifteen.
YouQuiero dos, por favor.
Son treinta. Gracias.That's thirty. Thank you.
EDoña Elsa, market vendorLesson 4
Buenas tardes.Good afternoon.
YouBuenas tardes. ¿Cuánto cuestan las dos bolsas?
Son setenta.That's seventy.
YouEstá muy caro. Quiero una, por favor.
Una bolsa, treinta y cinco.One bag, thirty-five.
YouGracias, casera.
Gracias. Hasta mañana.Thank you. See you tomorrow.
Practise it in a free lesson
Lessons 3 and 4 of Mi español teach exactly this, with short exercises and these dialogues.
Lesson 3 · {min} to {max} min Free
Numbers and asking the price
Understand a number from zero to a hundred when you hear it, ask what something costs, and say how many you want.
