Timeline for What’s the difference between errands and shopping?
Current License: CC BY-SA 4.0
21 events
| when toggle format | what | by | license | comment | |
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| Mar 24, 2023 at 8:41 | comment | added | Bruno | @JanusBahsJacquet To be honest, it might be a matter of regional expressions, but “non, j’arrive pas, j’ai tant de courses à faire” isn't something that I would ever say or expect to hear in France. (Maybe you meant "je peux pas" at least, but even the rest of the sentence doesn't sound quite right). I think the most natural French expression for "errands" would be "j'ai des trucs à faire en ville", which is vague enough to include other tasks than pure shopping. | |
| Mar 23, 2023 at 17:27 | comment | added | Blackhawk | One nuance you might add to this answer is that while "errands" can include some necessary "shopping", it's possible to have non-errand shopping as a leisure activity, in which case the word "errand" would not fit. | |
| Mar 23, 2023 at 17:12 | comment | added | Janus Bahs Jacquet | @Bruno The fixed phrase faire des/les courses is – I think pretty unambiguously – related to shopping. But that’s specific to that particular construction; the noun course itself is less definite, and even when used in the plural with the same verb, it can take on a broader meaning if you use a different construction. For example, if someone asks you to do something and you say, “non, j’arrive pas, j’ai tant de courses à faire”, shopping may well be included, but it would likely also include other things. | |
| Mar 22, 2023 at 19:57 | comment | added | Solomon Slow | That's fair. Also, since I missed seeing where you said, "...you go somewhere," I will delete my previous comment. | |
| Mar 22, 2023 at 19:50 | comment | added | Henning Kockerbeck | @SolomonSlow I mentioned part of what you said later in my answer, "Typically, an errand involves that you go somewhere." Also, I'm not sure that I would consider vacuuming a carpet an "errand", regardless where you do it. This would be more of a "chore", probably. An "errand" to me has something to do with transportation, bringing a message to somebody, fetching something from somewhere, things like that. But that's a gut feeling and I'm not a native speaker, so I may be off in that regard. | |
| Mar 22, 2023 at 13:37 | comment | added | rtaft | I would say using the term errands may include shopping but not exclusively shopping, then you would just be shopping. | |
| Mar 22, 2023 at 13:20 | comment | added | Bruno | I'm not sure about the Wiktionary definition of "faire des course". To me (native French speaker), it implies a purchase, in a way "errands" doesn't. Both Larousse and Robert seems to support this (both definitions regarding that meaning mention "achats") | |
| Mar 21, 2023 at 22:10 | comment | added | Blackhawk | @RandyOrrison If someone asked you to do something during the weekend, but you were going to be busy shopping for weekly groceries and getting a hair cut, how would you describe this conflict? Personally, I would say "Ah, sorry, I'll be running errands - could we do it later in the afternoon?" I wouldn't say "I'll be shopping" because "errands" explains that this is a necessary thing where "shopping" is general enough that it might sound as though I'm blowing them off to hit the mall | |
| Mar 21, 2023 at 22:06 | comment | added | Blackhawk | @MichaelHarvey I'll echo the other comments about referring to shopping as errands, except I would probably just say "shopping" or possibly "grocery shopping" if that was all I intended to do and "errands" if I was shopping plus getting a hair cut, for example. Which is to say I consider "errands" to be a strict superset of "shopping". | |
| Mar 21, 2023 at 21:08 | comment | added | Darrel Hoffman | Another increasingly common recent distinction is that while errands as you say generally involve going somewhere, shopping no longer necessarily does, since you can do most shopping online nowadays. | |
| Mar 21, 2023 at 20:25 | comment | added | Chris H | @RandyOrrison has a good point - but a decent-sized shop might still be grouped into "errands" with other tasks. | |
| Mar 21, 2023 at 19:11 | comment | added | Randy Orrison | In my mind, a large weekly supermarket shopping trip to stock up would not be an errand, but going out to the supermarket to pick up milk and bread would be. I think errands are more ad-hoc, smaller tasks that involve travel. | |
| Mar 21, 2023 at 17:47 | comment | added | Ben Hocking | American English speaker here (possibly relevant due to what @ChrisH wrote), and I agree with others that supermarket shopping for myself is an errand. I'll buy Nuclear Hoagie's explanations that shopping need not be an errand in every case, but for me, personally, it is. | |
| Mar 21, 2023 at 15:47 | comment | added | Muzer | @MichaelHarvey also disagree; as a native British English speaker, I include supermarket shopping for myself in "errands". | |
| Mar 21, 2023 at 12:25 | comment | added | Chris H | @MichaelHarvey why? You can run errands for yourself. Many dictionaries include wording along the lines of "often for someone else" (my emphasis). Doing so on behalf of someone else even seems (Collins) predominantly American. So if I had to get some shopping, send a parcel, and pick up a book from the library, all in one trip, that would be running errands. | |
| Mar 21, 2023 at 10:38 | comment | added | Janus Bahs Jacquet | The trouble with using course is that faire les courses usually means to go shopping. That is presumably the reason the question was asked in the first place – des/les courses can mean either errands or shopping according to context. | |
| Mar 20, 2023 at 20:22 | comment | added | Michael Harvey | @NuclearHoagie - if I do my own or my family's shopping, that is not an errand, but if my mother asks me to go out and get her some gin and cigarettes, that is an errand. | |
| Mar 20, 2023 at 18:38 | comment | added | Nuclear Hoagie | Good answer. Also interesting to note that shopping may or may not be considered an errand depending on whether it is a "task" - doing the weekly grocery shopping is very likely an errand, but leisurely spending the afternoon at the mall probably is not. | |
| Mar 20, 2023 at 11:49 | history | edited | Henning Kockerbeck | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
Corrected spelling
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| Mar 20, 2023 at 11:08 | history | edited | Henning Kockerbeck | CC BY-SA 4.0 |
added 201 characters in body
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| Mar 20, 2023 at 11:01 | history | answered | Henning Kockerbeck | CC BY-SA 4.0 |