Meaning & use
shop
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Meanings
nouncountableBritish
A place, usually quite small, where people go to buy goods or services.
Grammar: Countable: a shop, three shops. British English uses shop more than American English, which often says store.
Patterns
- a shop that sells something
- go to the shop
There is a bakery shop on the corner that opens at six.
I need to pop into the shop for some milk.
Her family has run the shoe shop for three generations.
verbintransitive
To go to stores or visit websites to look at goods and buy them.
Grammar: No object; usually followed by for or at: shop for shoes, shop at the market.
Patterns
- shop for something
- shop at somewhere
- shop online
We shop for groceries every Saturday morning.
She likes to shop online because the prices are lower.
They spent the afternoon shopping for a wedding gift.
nouncountable
A place where things are made or repaired, or a room set aside for such work.
Grammar: Often part of a compound: workshop, repair shop, body shop.
Patterns
- a repair shop
- a machine shop
He took his bike to the repair shop to have the brakes fixed.
The school has a wood shop where students build small tables.
Dad spends weekends in the shop behind the garage.
Word forms
| plural | shops |
|---|---|
| third person singular | shops |
| past tense | shopped |
| past participle | shopped |
| -ing form | shopping |
Common combinations
- open a shop
- She saved for years to open a shop selling handmade candles.
- shop around
- It pays to shop around before you buy insurance.
- corner shop
- We buy bread at the corner shop on our street.
- shop assistant
- The shop assistant helped me find the right size.
- shop window
- A red coat in the shop window caught her eye.
- talk shop
- They promised not to talk shop during the holiday.
Synonyms and how they differ
- store
- Store is the usual American word and can also mean a large shop, while British speakers often use shop for a smaller one.
- boutique
- Boutique suggests a small stylish shop, usually selling fashion, while shop is a general word.
- outlet
- Outlet is a business word for any place selling a company's goods, often at reduced prices, and is less everyday than shop.
Word family
- shopper noun
- a person who shops
- shopping noun
- the activity of buying goods
- shopkeeper noun
- a person who owns or runs a shop
- workshop noun
- a room for making things, or a short training session
- shoplifter noun
- a person who steals goods from a shop
Commonly confused: shop or store?
shop vs store
In American English store is the usual word for a retail business, and shop is used mainly for a small specialty place or a workshop.
Practice
I'm going to the market to ___ for fresh vegetables.
Choose one answer.
After 'to', the base verb shop is needed. Shops and shopped are inflected forms and shopper is a noun, so none can follow 'to' in this sentence.
Make it your own
Write a sentence using “shop”, then check it and compare it with the examples above.