買い物

1. Origins, structure, and basic meaning

• Structure: 買い物 is read as かいもの and is a noun for the activity of shopping for needed goods and, depending on context, for the purchases made.
• Basic usage: Shopping for dinner appears in 夕食の買い物をする, while going out shopping appears in 買い物に出かける.

2. Common pitfalls and similar expressions

• A purchase activity rather than one transaction
  • It often denotes the everyday activity of going to stores, choosing goods, and buying them rather than one formal transaction.
• Difference from 購入
  • Compared with the more formal term for purchasing a particular item, this word is natural for everyday shopping as an activity.