Lesson 3. Bozorda: prices, weight, and big numbers

Why: to ask the price, understand an answer in thousands of som, and pay. There are two ways to ask the price: Necha pul? (literally “how much money?”) and Qancha turadi? (“how much does it cost?”). Non qancha turadi? — Besh ming soʻm. Big numbers are written as separate words, with no “and” (unlike English “a hundred and fifty”): number + yuz, number + ming, number + million (see the table). A thousand is ming or bir ming. In an Uzbek price a space separates the thousands: 25 000 soʻm. Qimmat — expensive, arzon — cheap; narx — price. Paying: naqd — in cash, karta bilan — by card. Karta is only a bank card, not a map. Qaytim — change, chegirma — a discount. Common mistakes: • NOT “besh ming soʻmlar” — after a number the word stays singular, unlike English. • NOT “besh va ming” — no “and” between the parts of a number.

Weight and volume are counted without -ta: uch kilo guruch, bir litr sut. Pieces take -ta or the word dona, but not both: toʻrtta tuxum = toʻrt dona tuxum. To ask: Menga bir kilo uzum bering — give me a kilo of grapes (Uzbek has no word for “of”). The ending -roq means “more”: shirin — shirinroq (sweeter), uzun — uzunroq (longer). It is the same for every word. In a store this is how you ask for something else: Shirinroq bormi? — do you have a sweeter one? Pishgan — ripe: the word never changes and goes before the noun. Recognition only: litr — liter, asal — honey, tortmoq — to weigh (the salesclerk says: Hozir tortaman). Common mistakes: • NOT “ikkita kilo sabzi” → ikki kilo sabzi. • NOT “toʻrtta dona tuxum” — either -ta or dona.