HaloBahasa

Buying clothes and asking for another size

Sizes, colours and the one sentence that gets you a different one without a word of English.

a2Lesson 23 of 344 min

By the end of this lesson

  • Ask for a different size or colour
  • Try something on

Sizes

Ukuran apa? ‘What size?’
Ukuran L ada? ‘Do you have an L?’

Letter sizing is used and runs small by European standards. Numbered sizes exist for shoes and trousers.

Trying it on

Boleh coba? ‘Can I try it on?’
Kamar pasnya di mana? ‘Where’s the fitting room?’

Kamar pas is literally the “fitting room”, from pas meaning exact.

Saying how it fits

Pas. ‘It fits.’
Kebesaran. ‘Too big.’
Kekecilan. ‘Too small.’
Kepanjangan. ‘Too long.’

These use ke- … -an wrapped around an adjective to mean excessively. It is a productive pattern: take an adjective, wrap it, and you have “too much of it”. You will meet the full rule at B1, but these four are worth having now.

Asking for another

Ada yang lebih besar? ‘Is there a bigger one?’
Ada yang warna lain? ‘Do you have another colour?’
Ada yang bahan katun? ‘Do you have one in cotton?’

The ada yang pattern from A1 does all the work here, exactly as it did at the market.

Materials

katun ‘cotton’
linen ‘linen’
kulit ‘leather, skin’
sutra ‘silk’

Bahannya apa? ‘What’s it made of?’

Bargaining, or not

In a market, yes. In a shop with price tags, no. The harga pas rule from A1 applies unchanged.

What you’ll actually hear

What the book says: Apakah tersedia dalam ukuran yang lebih besar?
What you’ll hear: Ada yang lebih gede?

Gede is the casual form of besar, and it is everywhere in speech.

Words from this lesson

ukuransize
cobato try
pasfits, exact
kebesarantoo bigke- ... -an around besar. Same pattern for kekecilan.
bahanmaterial, fabric