Stephen: Here we are in Camden Lock Market. It’s a great place to go shopping and we need to buy a birthday present for our Mum. What do you think we should get her, Ash?
Ashlie: Well our Mum loves nice clothes and costume jewellery. So - I’m sure we’ll find something here.
Stephen: It's huge here, Ash. I’ll tell you what, let’s split up, see what we can find and I’ll meet you back here in one hour.
Ashlie: OK, I’ll see you back here in an hour, then.
Stephen: Oh, Ash – can you lend me 50 quid?
Ashlie: 50 quid, eh?
Stephen: Don’t worry, you’ll get it back!
Ashlie: That should do it.
Stephen: Thank you.
Ashlie: OK, I’ll see you back here later.
Stephen: See you!
.....
Stephen: Wow, look at these! I’ve never seen one of these before. How much are these?
Shopkeeper: Five pound each.
.....
Ashlie: Excuse me. Do you have this in another colour?
.....
Stephen: Hiya – how’s it going?
Shopkeeper: Hi, very well. How are you?
Stephen: Good, thanks.
Stephen: I like these, how much are they?
Shopkeeper: Er, the leaf lights – they are £21.95.
Stephen: Hmm, I’m not sure she’ll like them. Can you help me? I’m looking for a birthday present for my mum. Any ideas?
Shopkeeper: What type of thing does she like?
Stephen: Well, she’s quite stylish – modern, I suppose.
Shopkeeper: Well, the yin yang’s really modern. What do you think of that?
Stephen: Hmm. What about that one over there?
Shopkeeper: Ah, the ball lights – lovely – it’s fifty pounds.
Stephen: Oh.
Shopkeeper: How about... forty, seeing as it’s your mother’s birthday?
Stephen: Twenty?
Shopkeeper: Twenty? That’s really cheap. How about I meet you halfway – twenty-five?
Stephen: Great, thanks mate. My Mum’s going to love this.
Shopkeeper: You’re welcome.
.....
Ashlie: Aah - I'm running out of time…
.....
Ashlie: Excuse me, how much is this?
Shopkeeper: Er, that’s fifty pounds.
.....
Stephen: So? How did you get on?
Ashlie: Pretty good, I guess. I bought this fantastic candle holder. It was a little bit expensive, but I think Mum will love it. In fact I almost bought one for myself!
Stephen: Yeah… great – and look what I found!
Ashlie: Well, that is just crazy – how did we end up buying the same candle holder in this huge market??!
Stephen: I’ll tell you what we’ll do. You take this one. You said you almost bought one for yourself - and you lent me fifty pounds, right?
Ashlie: Right.
Stephen: So you take this one, I’ll get lunch and we’ll call it quits! Come on – it’s time to get something to eat. Lunch is on me, remember. Come on!
Comments
Hello team! Could you help me with these two sentences?
The first one "How did you get on?" by Stephen
and the other one is this " How about I meet you halfway" by shopkeeper. What do they mean?
First, I know "get on" as an informal way to say (be friends) or something like this, but according to the sentence I could understand this like "how did it go"?
secondly, I understand the second as a 50% discount but is it an informal way to say this?
thank you so much for all your help. I really appreciate, you guys are the best I love this website
Hello Joel-0505
One of the meanings of 'get on' (see the second one) is 'to deal with a job or situation' and so Stephen is asking Ashlie how her shopping went, as you guessed.
Yes, you've understood the idea of 'meeting halfway'. The idea is that, in bargaining, the buyer lowers the price and the seller raises it. It's quite informal.
Thanks for telling us you find LearnEnglish useful! It's always good to hear that people appreciate our work.
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Hello, That should do it )what does it mean in this context
Hello fidaasiddig
In this and many contexts, 'that should do it' means 'that should do the job' -- in other words, 'that should be enough money for you' in this particular context.
It's great that you are focusing on colloquial expressions. They are very common and it's important to learn them!
All the best
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
Fifty pounds for a rather simple holder candle, looks like a robbery! They could place it on a nice present box at least, instead of throwing it into this cheap grocery bag! It doesn't seem as a birthday gift at all.
For Heaven's sake!
Hi everyone,
I am from Turkey and in my country generally there are the markets on the street, not building also seller always scream such as tomatooo, applee :))
Hello,
Jackie had her phone stolen on a train
Jackie has her phone stolen on a train
What is the difference in meaning between these two sentences?
Hello Marwa.Mohamed,
These are two different verb forms: the past simple (had) and the present perfect (has had). It's not possibe to provide long explanations of each form in the comments sections but we have a number of pages in our grammar sections which deal with these forms:
present perfect
past simple
You might also find these pages helpful:
talking about the present
talking about the past
If you have any specific questions about the material on those pages we'll be happy to answer, of course.
Peter
The LearnEnglish Team
Hi, how can I watch the videos? I can't find the link anywhere. Aren't they available anymore? Thanks
Hello josemaenglish,
Are you still unable to see the video? I've just checked and was able to watch it with no problem. If you're still unable to see it, I'd suggest trying a different browser or device. If that still doesn't work, please let us know what browser version you're using and we'll do our best to help you.
Best wishes,
Kirk
The LearnEnglish Team
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