Shopping and money in Esperanto: prices, paying, banks

To buy in Esperanto is aĉeti, to sell vendi, to pay pagi and to cost kosti. A shop is a vendejo or butiko, the price is the prezo and money is mono. A price after kosti takes the ending -n: Ĝi kostas dek du eŭrojn – "It costs twelve euros." Pronunciation guides split words into syllables, with the stressed syllable in capitals.

#Shops and markets

Shop names follow one pattern: what is sold + -vendejo, as in libr·o·vend·ej·o. The suffix -ej- means "place" and -ist- a person who does something, so vendisto is a seller and butikisto a shopkeeper. See word building, suffixes and jobs and work. Clothes, sizes and fitting-room phrases are on the clothes page, and quick shopping phrases for trips are on the travel page.

#Buying, selling and paying

Kara also means "dear, beloved", and ReVo labels its sense "expensive" archaic. ReVo also marks pagi la manĝon "pay the meal" as better avoided and suggests pripagi la manĝon; the plain form is pagi por la manĝo.

#How prices work in a sentence

A price is a measure, like a length or a weight, and a measure after a verb takes -n. The reference grammar PMEG explains the Fundamento sentence Kvar metroj da tiu ĉi ŝtofo kostas naŭ frankojn "four metres of this cloth cost nine francs": naŭ frankojn is a measuring complement that shows the cost, not an object. ReVo agrees and marks kosti as intransitive. Number words never change; the noun after them takes -j from du upwards, and -n for the price. See the accusative, numbers and the number converter.

PMEG warns against kostas dek eŭrojn po metro: po belongs before the sum that repeats. PMEG also suggests por for clear buying and selling and kontraŭ for other exchanges, but says the line is often blurred; ReVo uses both for sales.

#Banks and money

Prunti works in both directions, and ReVo gives both senses: Mi pruntis al li monon is "I lent him money", Mi pruntis monon de amiko "I borrowed money from a friend". For clarity use pruntedoni "lend" and pruntepreni "borrow"; ReVo lists both and calls the two-word spelling (prunte doni) more regular. The loan itself is a prunto.

#Currencies

A country's money is its valuto "currency"; a unit of money is a monunuo. Names are ordinary lower-case nouns: unu dolaro, dek dolaroj, dek dolarojn as a price. Subunits include cendo "cent", penco "penny" and kopeko "kopeck" (a hundredth of a ruble). The yen is spelled like eno "interior", so only the context tells them apart.

The spesmilo. Esperanto once had its own money. The spesmilo (₷) was proposed in 1907 by René de Saussure and used before World War I, mainly through the Ĉekbanko Esperantista, an Esperanto cheque bank. One spesmilo was 1,000 spesoj, worth 0.733 g of pure gold or roughly half a US dollar. English Wikipedia calls it obsolete. PMEG quotes Mia ringo valoras tri kaj duonon da spesmiloj – "My ring is worth three and a half spesmilos."

#A conversation at the market

#Common questions

#How do you say "How much does it cost?" in Esperanto?

Kiom kostas ĝi? (KI-om KOS-tas ĝi). To name the thing, put it after the verb: Kiom kostas la pomoj? – "How much are the apples?" The answer has -n: Ili kostas du eŭrojn.

#Does the price take -n after kosti?

Yes: Ĝi kostas dek eŭrojn. PMEG calls this -n a measuring complement, not an object, and ReVo marks kosti as intransitive. After esti or por the price has no -n: La prezo estas dek eŭroj, por dek eŭroj.

#What is the difference between butiko and vendejo?

Both mean "shop". ReVo defines butiko as a street-level shop selling retail, and vendejo as any place for selling and buying. A market with stalls is a bazaro; ReVo says merkato is never a place, only the market in the economic sense.

#What is the yen in Esperanto?

Eno, as in Ĝi kostas cent enojn – "It costs a hundred yen" (the word is in ReVo and Esperanto Wikipedia; ReVo's own example is ĉiu telero kostas 100 enojn). Jeno is a different word, meaning "the following".

#Is there an Esperanto currency?

Historically yes: the spesmilo, proposed in 1907 and used before World War I. English Wikipedia describes it as obsolete.

#Sources

• ReVo: vendi, vendejo, ĉiovendejo, butikumi, butiko, butikisto, retbutiko, bazaro, superbazaro, merkato, magazeno
• ReVo: apoteko, bakejo, librovendejo, aĉeti, aĉetsako, ĉaro, aĉetĉareto
• ReVo: pagi, kosti, valori, prezo, rabato, kvitanco, kaso, kasisto, kliento, kara
• ReVo: mono, monero, monujo, restmono, trinkmono, monunuo, kontante, kreditkarto, bankokarto, debetkarto, bankkonto, ŝparkonto, bankaŭtomato, monaŭtomato, banknoto
• ReVo: banko, bankejo, deponi, ŝpari, prunti, interezo, ŝuldi, salajro, valuto
• ReVo: eŭro, dolaro, pundo, eno (yen), eno (interior), rublo, zloto, franko, juano, cendo, penco, kopeko, speso, spesmilo
• PMEG: N-finaĵo por mezuro (kostas naŭ frankojn, valoras … spesmiloj)
• PMEG: por, per, po, kontraŭ
• Wikipedia: Spesmilo, Vikipedio: Spesmilo, Wikipédia: Spesmilo
• Vikipedio: Japana eno