You want to ask a stallholder the price of mangoes. Which do you say?

*¿Cuál es el precio del mango?*

You want half a kilo of tomatoes. Which is it?

*Mitad kilo de tomates, por favor.*

*Un medio de los tomates, por favor.*

*Medio de kilo de tomate, por favor.*

What is the single most common foreign mistake in the whole market exchange?

Going straight to the question without greeting first

Asking for kilos instead of pounds

She hands over your fruit and says *le doy uno de yapa*. What is happening?

She has run out and is offering a substitute

She is asking you to come back tomorrow

Spanish for a Peruvian market

Short answer

At a Peruvian market you ask "¿A cómo está el kilo?" rather than "¿cuánto cuesta?", and you call the person serving you casera or casero. Prices are per kilo, you say how much you want in kilos or halves, and you are expected to greet before you ask anything.

CEFR A1 Reviewed by Jhoslyn Updated 2026-09-11

Draft copy. Every claim needs a native-speaker check before publishing — the byline is what makes this citable, so it has to be earned.

The one phrase that marks you as not-a-tourist

“¿A cómo está el kilo?” — how much is the kilo going for. Not “¿cuánto cuesta?”, which is correct Spanish and slightly wrong register: it asks about a fixed price in a place where the price is a daily quantity. A cómo está treats the price as today’s number, which is what it is.

For something not sold by weight: “¿A cómo la palta?” works fine, and so does simply “¿A cómo?” once you are already pointing at something.

Casera and casero

The stallholder is casera (a woman) or casero (a man). It has no good English translation — somewhere between “regular” and a friendly “boss”. You use it as a term of address:

“Casera, ¿a cómo está el mango?”
“Gracias, casero.”

They will use it back at you. It is warm and completely standard, and using it makes the whole exchange easier than it would otherwise be.

Saying how much you want

Weight comes in kilos and fractions, and the fractions have their own words:

un kilo — a kilo
medio kilo — half a kilo
un cuarto — a quarter kilo
dos kilos y medio — two and a half kilos

So: “Medio kilo de tomate, por favor.” Note the singular tomate. When you buy produce by weight, Peruvians very often use the singular as a mass noun — un kilo de palta, medio de limón — the same way English says “half a kilo of tomato”.

You can also drop the word kilo entirely once the unit is obvious: “Deme un cuarto”, “medio nomás”.

The order of the exchange

“Buenos días, casera.” — you greet first. Skipping this is the most common foreign mistake in the whole interaction.
“¿A cómo está la fresa?”
“Deme medio kilo.” — deme is the standard imperative here and is not brusque.
“¿Algo más?” — anything else. Answer “Eso es todo, gracias” or “nada más, gracias”.
“¿Cuánto es?” — how much altogether.

Words you will hear back

¿Cuánto le doy? — how much shall I give you
Está fresquito — it’s nice and fresh. The -ito is doing warmth, not size
Llévate / llévese — take it, go on
Le doy uno de yapa — I’ll throw one in free. La yapa is the small extra, and it is offered, not requested
No hay sencillo — I have no small change, which is a real and constant problem

Topics Food and markets Getting around Peruvian Spanish

At the stall

Eight on getting served at a Peruvian market — the price question, the word for the person serving you, and the greeting foreigners keep skipping.

1You want to ask a stallholder the price of mangoes. Which do you say?
Answer

*¿A cómo está el mango?* — *¿A cómo está?* treats the price as today's number, which at a market is what it is. *¿Cuánto cuesta?* is correct Spanish and slightly wrong register — it asks about a fixed price.
2The woman running the stall — what do you call her?
Answer

*casera* — *Casera* (or *casero* for a man) is the standard term of address at a Peruvian market — somewhere between “regular” and a friendly “boss”. She will use it back at you.
3You want half a kilo of tomatoes. Which is it?
Answer

*Medio kilo de tomate, por favor.* — *Medio kilo* takes no article and no *de* before *kilo*. Note the singular *tomate* — produce sold by weight is very often treated as a mass noun.
4What is the single most common foreign mistake in the whole market exchange?
Answer

Going straight to the question without greeting first — *Buenos días, casera* comes before anything else. Skipping it does not offend exactly, but it lands flat and makes the rest of the exchange harder than it needs to be.
5She hands over your fruit and says *le doy uno de yapa*. What is happening?
Answer

She is throwing in one free — *La yapa* is the small extra thrown in at the end. It is offered rather than requested, and asking for it outright is not how it works.
6You hand over a fifty-sol note and she says *no hay sencillo*. What is the problem?
Answer

She has no small change — *El sencillo* is small change, and the shortage of it is permanent. Break big notes in supermarkets and pharmacies, and keep coins for stalls and taxis.
7You want a quarter of a kilo of strawberries. Which do you say?
Answer

*Un cuarto de fresa.* — *Un cuarto* is the quarter kilo, and once the unit is obvious you can drop *kilo* altogether — *deme un cuarto*, *medio nomás*.
8She asks *¿algo más?* and you are finished. What do you say?
Answer

*Eso es todo, gracias.* — *Eso es todo, gracias* or *nada más, gracias* closes it warmly. *Adiós* sounds oddly final for leaving a fruit stall — *gracias, casera* does the job.