Shopping in Russian: Clothes, Colors & Pharmacy

You will learn

• more about making purchases
• how to select what you want
• to ask for medicine in a pharmacy
• a few useful phrases to use in line and
  more about shops and markets in Russia

Before you begin

From now on the dialogues and notes will be only in the Cyrillic script. You will probably need to go more slowly at first, and do read over the first five Russian lessons if some of the letters seem unfamiliar. It is well worth the time!

Remember that Russian spelling does not always reflect pronunciation. This won’t be a problem if you listen carefully to the dialogues and particularly to Andrei’s advice.

The beginning of this theme is in the previous lesson 5.

Study guide

🔊 Dialogues: Clothes & Souvenirs

1. Tamara wants to buy a ‘matryoshka’ doll, but the price deters her.

они they

2. So can she see the scarves?

хорошо good, all right
тогда пройдите в кассу и заплатите then go to the cashier and pay

Practice what you have learned

Read the following statements about some shoppers’ purchases, then listen to your recording and find the one incorrect detail in each.

I. Nina doesn’t want to pay 1800 rubles for a blouse so she decides to buy a scarf for 70 rubles.

II. Victor thinks that 600 rubles is a reasonable price for a tie and asks to see the blue ones.

III. Yura thinks that he can afford 2000 rubles for a pair of trousers and asks the shop assistant to show him some black ones.

2. You are in Moscow buying a present for a woman friend. Good friend though she is, you can’t afford to spend too much. Listen to Andrei’s prompts.

A well-known music shop in Moscow

🔊 Dialogues: Buying Flowers & Standing in Line

3. Anna Sergeevna sees a woman selling flowers outside the subway.

из семи веточек роз with seven roses
так прошу вас something like ‘if you please’
счастливо! a friendly way of saying ‘goodbye’

4. Masha is looking for the end of a long line.

наверное probably, I suppose

5. Masha doesn’t want to lose her place.

Practice what you have learned

3. Volodya is looking for flowers to take to a friend. Prices are high so he has to shop around. How much do each vendor’s flowers cost?

I. цветы

II. розы

III. цветы

4. Walking down the Arbat, Volodya and Tanya pass a number of people loudly advertising their wares. Which adjectives refer (according to their sellers!) to each thing?

🔊 Dialogues: Buying Drinks & Pharmacy

6. Misha is looking for something to drink.

7. In the pharmacy.

ментоловое масло menthol oil
аспирин aspirin
пока нет not at the moment

Practice what you have learned

5. On your recording you will accompany Alla on a shopping expedition. It is not especially successful - very few of the items on her list are available. Can you find the ones which are?

6. Below are pictures of three people all feeling ill, but in different ways. Listen to the recording and see what the pharmacist is able to offer each of them.

You will need to know the word микстура ‘cough mixture’.

I.

II.

III.

A chemist’s on Arbat. In this street, popular with tourists, street traders often display their goods on the outside of shop windows.

To use

To understand

White label: Souvenirs (Shop)

Adjectives: agreement and endings

An adjective describes a person or a thing. In lesson 1 we mentioned that any word describing a noun has to ‘agree’ with it, that is, have the same number and gender. In the dictionary you will find an adjective written thus:

розовый, -ая, -oe pink

This tells you the endings for masculine, feminine and neuter nouns in the singular. So:

розовый платок a pink scarf
розовая юбка a pink skirt
розовое платье a pink dress

There will sometimes be differences in spelling or pronunciation, but the entry will show you that, for example:

синий, -яя, -ее dark blue

If the noun is in the plural, there is another ending to learn, but at least only one! Whatever the gender the adjective will end in -ые (sometimes spelled -ие):

розовые платки pink scarves
дорогие матрёшки expensive matryoshka dolls
синие платья dark blue dresses

You may have guessed that if a noun has different endings depending on its function in a sentence, so too will adjectives describing it.

You will have most use for the accusative case (the object of a verb). And best of all, normally only the feminine endings change! In the second dialogue you heard Tamara say that she would buy the pink scarf:

Я куплю розовый платок

Similarly, nothing would have changed if she had wanted a pink dress:

Я куплю розовое платье

But for the feminine noun:

Я куплю розовую юбку

Before you try the next exercise, we would repeat once again that endings are something you may aim to master in the long term but if you don’t remember them at present, it won’t matter!

7. In the following shop dialogues, the endings of the adjectives have been left out. Can you fill them in?

I. - У вас есть розов платки?
- Нет, но у нас есть чёрн, красн и зелён платки.
- Хорошо, я куплю зелён платок.

II. - А у вас есть чёрн юбки?
- Нет, но у нас есть коричнев, красн и розов юбки.
- Дайте, пожалуйста, красн юбку.

III. - У вас есть красн вино?
- Нет, но у нас есть бел вино.
- Хорошо, я куплю бел вино.

Read and understand

8. A group of tourists dropped into the ‘Beryozka’ shop in their hotel. Beside their names you will find written down what they were looking for. Read the advertisement below and then write down which of the tourists were completely satisfied, and which only partially.

9. On the left-hand side you will see signs from various shops in Moscow. On your right (or below on mobiles) is a list with items Tamara intends to buy. It would of course be much more efficient to have the items next to the name of the shop...

💡 Did you know?

A look back – how shopping worked in the late Soviet and early post-Soviet years:

One way of avoiding the time-consuming system described in the previous lesson was to shop at the market – if you could afford it. Markets have always been on the expensive side. People from collective farms, allowed to grow produce on a small plot of land, would bring it to the city to sell. They brought small amounts and so charged a lot.

At the time this course was written, government stores were often empty, which drove many people to the markets, and prices there had reached record levels.

None the less, even if you didn’t buy anything, markets were a colorful and interesting sight. The availability of fruit and vegetables depended largely on the season, though much of it came from Georgia and Azerbaijan, where the climate is milder. Meat was generally also on sale, and sometimes even handmade clothing.

As in markets the world over, you didn’t have to accept the first price quoted – you already knew enough Russian to haggle! You could also usually taste the fruit, salted cucumbers and so on before buying (indeed some tried this instead of buying!).

Besides the market traders, you would also find people selling produce – at similar prices – outside subway stations. And toward the end of the 1980s, restrictions on private trade eased noticeably: many new kiosks opened, selling handmade items, imported goods and things that were hard to find in the shops. Prices, however, were often sky-high and caused a good deal of resentment.

And how it looks today:

Today the picture is very different. Supermarkets and chains («Пятёрочка», «Магнит», «Перекрёсток» and others) are everywhere, shelves are full, and you almost never queue the way people once did. Groceries can be ordered to your door in minutes through delivery apps, and nearly everyone pays by card or phone – cash is now the exception rather than the rule.

Yet the markets (рынки) are still very much alive, and remain one of the most colorful places to shop. Prices there vary a lot: some things cost more than in the chains, but a farmer who has driven in with a full load – honey, for example – may sell it far cheaper just to clear the stock before heading home. As always, tasting before you buy and a bit of friendly haggling are part of the experience. Much of the produce is still seasonal, with plenty of fruit and vegetables coming from the warmer south.

You’ll also come across small stalls and kiosks near metro stations (у метро), selling flowers, drinks and snacks – convenient, though not always the cheapest option.

Your turn to speak

10. In these exercises you will be inquiring about and purchasing things in a pharmacy. You’ll need to use the following phrases:

у вас есть что-нибудь от насморка / от головной боли? / от головы (lit. from the head)
у вас нет анальгина?
я куплю...

FAQ