# v ovoci a zelenině



## djwebb1969

I've got this weird sentence in my textbook:

v ovoci a zelenině kupuju banán etc, with instructions to turn banán into the correct form of the plural

Literally it means "in a fruit and a vegetable they sell bananas".

Does "ovoce a zelenina" mean "a fruit and veg SHOP", with the word shop understood? Thanks.


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## hypoch

Yes, that's correct. Actually, "Ovoce a zelenina" is what it says on the shops. Come to think of it, I should say "used to" as I haven't seen a propper specialized greengrocer's in the recent years (maybe only tiny ones). When I was a child we would simply  call it "zelenina" in my family ("běž do zeleniny a kup brambory"). Perhaps back then (under communism) "Ovoce a zelenina" was the official name of the company - no competition meant no need to invent original catchy names.


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## djwebb1969

Thanks. That makes sense now!


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## djwebb1969

On another page in the book there is:
*pečivo
maso a uzeniny
nápoje

**Can these all be shops too? (meaning "bakery, meat and fish shop, drinks shop"?)*


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## Moravian

These are titles that could be written on shop signs (or in a supermarket above each aisle). You can understand it as "the goods that you can buy in here". A shop selling _pečivo_ is called _pekařství,_ a shop selling _maso_ is called _řeznictví_ or _masna_.


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## Enquiring Mind

... and sorry to nitpick, but just in the interests of accuracy (well, this *is* a language forum!), uzeniny are literally "smoked" foods, usually cold meats, cured meats, processed meats, "pork butcher" products like sausages, salami, ham, frankfurters, etc., but that could also include smoked fish.


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## djwebb1969

Ah, yes - smoked foods.As for whether they refer to the shop as well as the good in the shop, my book has: kde nakupujeme všechno? v potravinách. Here potraviny - just means "foodstuffs", but it seems to refer in the locative to the shop itself?


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## Moravian

Yes, _potraviny_ refers also to the shop. I mean, there are several words for shops with general "foodstuffs" as you say. _Supermarket _or _hypermarket _is self-explanatory. _Samoobsluha _means self-service and means any grocery shop where you take a cart at the entrance. Colloquial term is _sámoška. _Then there is _večerka _which means a smaller grocery shop (in Prague typically run by Vietnamese shopkeepers ), the word comes from _večer_ = _evening _and shows that these shops are typically opened till the late evening and at weekends. _Smíšené zboží _("mixed goods") is a small shop in towns or villages with all sorts of stuff, mainly food. You can also hear the word _jednota_ which means _unity_ and is a brand of COOP chain of grocery shops, very common in smaller towns. If someone says _Byl jsem v jednotě. _then he means that he was in a supermarket. And to make it even harder, there is also the word _konzum_ again meaning a smaller grocery shop.


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