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Hello English learners. Welcome back to EnglishPod. My name is Marco

And I’m Erica

and today we have an elementary lesson for you and we are at the supermarket.

That’s right. We’re at the grocery store and we’re going to learn some language you can use when you want to pay for your groceries.

So this lesson was requested by one of our users that wanted vocabulary and different phrases that are used in the supermarket when the person is about to pay for all the things they need.

That’s right and we also have some great language that the person who is actually selling the groceries can use.

All right, so let’s listen to our dialogue for the first time and see what happens.

A: Excuse me sir, this is the express check-out lane for people that have fifteen items or fewer. It looks like you have more than fifteen items there.

B: Oh, come on! I have sixteen items! Cut me some slack, will ya?

A: Fine! Please place your items on the belt and push your shopping cart through. Do you prefer paper or plastic?

B: Plastic. I also have a couple of coupons.

A: No problem, I’ll take those. Sir, these coupons expired yesterday.

B: Darn! Oh, well. I guess it’s just not my day. Thanks anyway.

A: Do you have a club card or will it be cash?

B: Yeah I got a club card. Here you go.

A: Will this be debit or credit?

B: Debit please. Also, could I get cash back? Fifty dollars would be great.

A: Yeah, sure. Your total is seventy-eight dollars and thirty-three cents. Here is your receipt. Have a nice day.

B: Thank you.

Well, we can see in the dialogue that the guy was able to buy his food and they were using some really interesting helpful language.

That’s right. And so why don’t we look at this language now in language take away.

Language take away

okay. We have six words for you today and the first one, the girl, the cashier says, this is the express checkout lane

all right, so checkout lane

the checkout lane

so the checkout lane is the place where you get in line to pay for all the goods you bought

right, so the checkout lane. Now why did she say express checkout lane?

So in grocery stores and supermarkets, sometimes you have a specific checkout lane that’s faster

okay

because people have less things

so express is the faster checkout lane.

right, the faster one

all right, so next, she tells the guy to put your items on the belt

okay, the belt.

The belt

a belt. Now we know belt as the thing you put around your waist

to keep your pants up

right. But in the supermarket, the belt is the moving table that you put your groceries on so the cashier starts to pass them through.

Okay, so the belt

Okay, the belt

put your groceries on the belt

and then the guy said that he had a couple of coupons

coupons

coupons

a coupon

okay, so what is a coupon?

A coupon is a piece of paper you can use to get a discount.

All right, so it has a discount on it

a discount for one thing. Like so maybe you buy some apples and you get 10% off one kind of Apple.

Very good coupons. Now, he presented these coupons and she said they were expired.

The coupons expired yesterday

expired

to expire.

All right, so to expire, that mean—

to be older than the date when you can use them.

right. So why don’t we listen to some other examples of how we can use expired so we can understand a little bit better.

Example 1

I’m sorry, sir. This credit card expired five years ago. You can’t use it anymore.

Example 2

My driver’s license expires in a month so I had to get a renewed.

Example 3

Don’t drink that. The milk is expired.

Okay, so we can see his coupons expired, so they were too old and he couldn’t use them anymore.

Exactly. And now, finally she asked him if he wants to pay with his club card or cash.

So, club card

club card

What’s a club card?

So in some supermarkets you can receive a special type of credit card

Okay

That you can only use for grocery shopping

and only in that store

right so that is a club card

all right, so a club card

okay, so he’s going to pay with a card but he also asked for some cash back

cash back

Could I get cash back?

cash back

Now, what’s he talking about? Can he get cash back. He’s paying with the card. What does he wanna do?

Well, what happens is sometimes suppose your groceries cost $20

okay

so instead of charging $20 to your credit card or your club card, you say okay put $70. So, then the cashier can give you $50 back so you can have cash in your pocket.

So instead of going to the ATM, you can get your money in one spot.

Exactly

All right

So, that’s cashback.

Interesting. Why don’t we hear this one more time in the dialogue. But let’s slow it down a little so we can understand better.

A: Excuse me sir, this is the express check-out lane for people that have fifteen items or fewer. It looks like you have more than fifteen items there.

B: Oh, come on! I have sixteen items! Cut me some slack, will ya?

A: Fine! Please place your items on the belt and push your shopping cart through. Do you prefer paper or plastic?

B: Plastic. I also have a couple of coupons.

A: No problem, I’ll take those. Sir, these coupons expired yesterday.

B: Darn! Oh, well. I guess it’s just not my day. Thanks anyway.

A: Do you have a club card or will it be cash?

B: Yeah I got a club card. Here you go.

A: Will this be debit or credit?

B: Debit please. Also, could I get cash back? Fifty dollars would be great.

A: Yeah, sure. Your total is seventy-eight dollars and thirty-three cents. Here is your receipt. Have a nice day.

B: Thank you.

All right, so now that we’ve listened to the dialogue for the second time, it’s time for us to take a look at some phrases in fluency builder.

Fluency builder

Okay, we have 3 phrases for you now. Well, the guy was not having a very good day, was he?

So, he couldn’t go in the express checkout lane, and he says cut me some slack.

Cut me some slack

to cut someone some slack

all right, now this is an interesting and very informal phrase. So before we explain it, why don’t we listen to a couple of other examples.

Example 1

Cut me some slack. I’m only 2 minutes late.

Example 2

My wife just had a baby and I’m so tired. Cut me some slack. I’ll send you the report tomorrow.

Example 3

Emily had a really bad week. I think you should cut her some slack.

Okay, I think I can understand it means, relax the rules a little bit

right so don’t be so strict on

yeah, don’t be so hard

now, I know this phrase actually comes from mountain climbing.

because of the rope

yeah, so it’s just, it’s like saying, the slack is loose rope, so it’s just saying give me a little bit more freedom

give me more freedom, interesting.

yeah

to cut somebody some slack

well, now the cashier asked him a question. She says do you prefer paper or plastic?

do you prefer paper or plastic

paper or plastic

now, this is the common cliché phrase that any grocery store cashier will use, right?

Yeah, so paper or plastic what?

bags, paper or plastic bags

all right. So you’ll hear this all the time, in every grocery store. Do you want paper or plastic?

Right, so you can choose plastic bags or paper bags.

Okay, remember this one because when you get it right, you’ll sound really native like

very good. And our last phrase, since he wasn’t really having a good day, he said, it’s just not my day.

It’s just not my day.

It’s not my day.

Okay, so when it’s not your day—

it means the day has been hard. You’ve not really lucky.

Yeah, it’s not a good day for you.

Not a good

all right, so let’s listen to the dialogue for the last time and then we’ll come back and talk a little bit about grocery stores in America.

A: Excuse me sir, this is the express check-out lane for people that have fifteen items or fewer. It looks like you have more than fifteen items there.

B: Oh, come on! I have sixteen items! Cut me some slack, will ya?

A: Fine! Please place your items on the belt and push your shopping cart through. Do you prefer paper or plastic?

B: Plastic. I also have a couple of coupons.

A: No problem, I’ll take those. Sir, these coupons expired yesterday.

B: Darn! Oh, well. I guess it’s just not my day. Thanks anyway.

A: Do you have a club card or will it be cash?

B: Yeah I got a club card. Here you go.

A: Will this be debit or credit?

B: Debit please. Also, could I get cash back? Fifty dollars would be great.

A: Yeah, sure. Your total is seventy-eight dollars and thirty-three cents. Here is your receipt. Have a nice day.

B: Thank you.

Well, one interesting thing I know about grocery stores in America is that the people who are the cashiers are very often students.

Right, it’s a very popular summer job or part-time job for like college students.

Yeah, or even in my hometown, it was the most common job for high school students. After school if you went to the grocery store between 4 o’clock and 9 o’clock at night, every single cashier would be a high school student.

And the interesting thing is that the cashiers are usually women, right?

Yeah, always the high school girls who are the cashiers.

And so the high school boys would be working in the back, maybe in the warehouse carrying boxes or stocking the shelves

so putting the cans on the shelves, right?

Exactly, it’s a very popular part-time job for students in the United States, but also coupons are very popular in America.

Yeah. What is it about coupons?

Well, usually for example, in the Sunday newspaper, you will receive a lot of coupons

okay

you go to the grocery store and you have all these coupons for like cookies or a promotion on some type of soda or drink. So it’s very popular. People go grocery shopping and then present all these coupons and actually you can end up saving good amount of money

I know, the coupons are usually like save 2 cents or save 25 cents but I guess if you put all of those together, you can save money.

It’s interesting because people actually will buy that product just because they have a coupon.

Coupons and high school checkout girls. Well, guys, thanks for listening to this show. Now remember if you have any questions about the language we were talking about in this show, please visit our website at EnglishPod.com.

Right. Leave all your questions and comments there and also if you have any other suggestions or any doubts, please let us know and well, we’ll see you guys there.

So, thanks for listening and until next time goodbye.