136 - 21 French Expressions for Grocery Shopping

In this episode, you'll learn the essential vocabulary for navigating supermarkets in French. 🛒✨

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Transcript

Hello everyone! Bonjour à tous! Welcome back to the French Made Easy podcast. This is episode number 136, numéro 136!

Today, we're talking about grocery shopping, or in French ‘faire les courses’. So just to let you know in advance, we’re not learning the actual food items, I have other episodes for that, and I will also have more episodes specifically focused on ingredients. But in this episode, you’ll learn some vocabulary that will help for navigating a supermarket in a French-speaking country. 🏪🍇🧀

Before we start, as always, if you're new to the podcast, please make sure you have your lesson's cheat sheet handy, so you can see the spelling of the words while you listen. And when you finish this episode, you can head over to the French Made Easy Exercise Library to download your lesson's exercises and practice what you've learned today. You'll find all the download links in the episode notes.

Alright, let’s get started! Here are some words and expressions for grocery shopping. I’ll start with a few words related to grocery shopping, and then I’ll move on to the names of the main aisles. Like the fruits and veg aisle, frozen food aisle etc. Repeat after me:

• faire les courses (grocery shopping) 🍏 - "Je fais généralement mes courses le samedi matin." (I usually do my grocery shopping on Saturday morning.)
• le caddie/le chariot (shopping cart/trolley) 🛒 - "Nous prenons un caddie à l'entrée." (We take a shopping cart at the entrance.)
• le panier (basket) 🧺 - "Un panier suffit pour aujourd'hui." (A basket is enough for today.)
• la caisse (checkout) - "Il y a trois caisses ouvertes." (There are three checkouts open.)
• faire la queue (to line up/queue up) 🚶‍♂️🚶‍♀️ - "Je dois faire la queue à la caisse." (I have to queue up at the checkout.)
• le ticket de caisse (receipt) 🧾 - "Est-ce que tu as gardé le ticket de caisse ?" (Did you keep the receipt?)
• le caissier/la caissière (cashier) 💁‍♀️💁‍♂️ - "Je donne ma carte de fidélité au caissier." (I give my loyalty card to the cashier.)
• la date de péremption (expiration date) - "Ce yaourt dépasse la date de péremption." (This yogurt is past the expiration date.)
• les sacs réutilisables (reusable bags) 🛍️ - "N’oublie pas de prendre les sacs réutilisables !" (Don't forget to take the reusable bags!)
• la liste de courses (shopping list) 📝 - "Regarde la liste de courses pour ne rien oublier." (Check the shopping list to not forget anything.) 
• le rayon poissonnerie (fish section) 🐟 - "Ils ont du saumon frais à la poissonnerie." (They have fresh salmon at the fish section.)
• le rayon produits laitiers (dairy section) 🧀🥛 - "Prends deux yaourts au rayon produits laitiers." (Take two yogurts in the dairy section.)
• le rayon surgelés (frozen foods section) ❄️ - "Les glaces sont au rayon surgelés." (Ice creams are in the frozen foods section.)
• le rayon bio (organic section) 🌿 - "Les légumes au rayon bio sont un peu plus chers." ( Vegetables in the organic section are a bit more expensive.)
• le rayon hygiène et beauté (hygiene and beauty section) 💄 - "Le shampooing se trouve au rayon hygiène." (Shampoo is found in the hygiene section.)

So let's pause for a second to talk about ‘se trouve’ from the sentence 'Le shampooing se trouve au rayon hygiène,' cause I’ve had a few questions about this before.

'Se trouver' is a reflexive verb that means ‘to be located’ or ‘to be found.’ It’s another way, instead of using the verb ‘être’ (to be), to say where something or someone is located. It's usually used more for things rather than for people. So, while I could say ‘le shampooing est au rayon hygiène’ (the shampoo is in the hygiene section), I feel like ‘se trouve au rayon hygiène’ sounds maybe just a little bit less casual. So, there you have it, it’s a useful verb to know.

And actually, let’s use that example for the rest of the sections of the supermarket so you can get used to that expression.

• le rayon fruits et légumes (fruits and vegetables aisle) 🍎🥦 - "Les pommes se trouvent au rayon fruits et légumes." (Apples are found in the fruits and vegetables aisle.)
• le rayon boulangerie (bakery section) 🍞🥐 - "Le pain se trouve au rayon boulangerie." (Bread is found in the bakery section.)
• le rayon boucherie (butcher section) 🥩 - "Le poulet se trouve au rayon boucherie." (Chicken is found in the butcher section.)
• le rayon épicerie (grocery aisle) 🥫 - "Le riz se trouve au rayon épicerie." (Rice is found in the grocery aisle.)
• le rayon boissons (beverages aisle) 🥤 - "Le jus d'orange se trouve au rayon boissons." (Orange juice is found in the beverages aisle.)
• le rayon entretien (cleaning supplies aisle) 🧹 - "Le savon se trouve au rayon entretien." (Soap is found in the cleaning supplies aisle.)

And there we have it! Now you have a few French words and expressions for your next grocery shopping trip. That’s the end of today’s episode. I hope you enjoyed it. Don’t forget to head over to the French Made Easy Exercise Library to download your exercises. All the links are in the episode notes. I’ll chat with you next week! À bientôt.