Trade words
Glossary
The words the Saharsa building material trade actually uses, with the plain meaning and the English or technical word beside each one.
- 36 words explained
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A mistri asks for barah number sariya, a thekedar says the lenter goes on Tuesday, and the bill comes back saying TMT bar and RCC slab. Same steel, same slab, two vocabularies, and a first time house builder is standing between them. The table below puts the two side by side so you can read a quotation and talk to your own mason without translating twice.
Everything in it is the language of this belt: Saharsa, Supaul and Madhepura, where a sheet is chadra, a foundation is niv and curing is tarai. Where a word carries a size or a grade with it, the size and the grade are in the entry, because that is what the counter needs back from you when you ring.
The list
Every word, with what it means at the counter
Thirty six words of the Saharsa building material trade, the plain meaning, and the English or technical equivalent.
Scroll the table sideways to see every column
| Word | What it means here | English or technical word |
|---|---|---|
| Sariya | The ribbed rod tied into a slab, column or footing before the concrete goes on. | TMT bar, IS 1786 |
| Patti | Flat steel strip, the everyday material of grill, gate and shutter frames. | MS flat |
| Tina Chadra | The corrugated galvanised roofing sheet on most sheds and godowns here. | GC sheet |
| Colour Chadra | Profiled roofing sheet with a colour coating baked on over the galvanising. | Colour coated roofing sheet |
| Angle | The L shaped section every grill and gate frame starts from. | MS or GI angle |
| Channel | U shaped rolled section, used for beams, frames and shed columns. | MS channel, ISMC series |
| Joist / Girder | Rolled I section carrying a span. Once it is the main beam of the span, the trade calls it girder. | ISJB or ISMB joist |
| I-Beam | The deeper rolled I section, used where the span or the load is bigger. | ISMB beam |
| Purlin | The horizontal member the roofing sheet is screwed down to. | C or Z purlin |
| Girt | The same section turned on its side, carrying wall cladding instead of roof. | C or Z girt |
| MS | Plain black steel with no coating on it, the default for painted and indoor work. | Mild steel |
| GI | The same steel with a zinc coat on it, for anything standing out in the weather. | Galvanised iron |
| HR Sheet | Sheet rolled hot: thicker, with a darker scale finish, used where strength counts. | Hot rolled sheet |
| CR Sheet | Sheet rolled cold: thinner and smoother, for shutters, panels and finished work. | Cold rolled sheet |
| GP Sheet | Cold rolled sheet that has been galvanised and left flat. | Galvanised plain sheet |
| TMT | The heat and quench treatment that gives reinforcement bar a hard rim and a softer core. | Thermo mechanically treated |
| Fe 500 | Reinforcement grade with a minimum yield of 500 N per sq mm under IS 1786. | Fe 500 grade |
| Fe 550D | The 550 grade with the D ductility requirement, asked for on project and seismic work. | Fe 550D grade |
| MTC | The mill's own test certificate for a consignment, with the heat number and the test results on it. | Mill test certificate |
| ISI Mark | The BIS standard mark, compulsory on reinforcement bar of 8 mm and above. | BIS Standard Mark |
| OPC | Cement with nothing blended into it, quicker to pick up strength. | Ordinary Portland cement, IS 269 |
| PPC | Cement blended with fly ash, slower to set and easier to work in a big pour. | Portland pozzolana cement, IS 1489 |
| F2R Cement | ACC's F2R Superfast line, sold under a product name of its own. | A branded ACC cement SKU |
| Quintal | The hundred kilogram unit the mandi still quotes steel in. | 100 kg |
| Sariya Bundle | The tied bundle sariya arrives in. How many rods it holds moves with the diameter. | TMT bundle |
| Gauge | The old numbering for sheet thickness. A higher gauge number means a thinner sheet. | Sheet thickness number |
| Binding Wire (Tar) | The soft annealed wire that ties one bar to the next before the pour. | MS binding wire |
| Cover Block | The small spacer that holds the cage off the shuttering so concrete gets behind the steel. | Concrete or PVC cover block |
| Shuttering | The timber or steel formwork the concrete is poured into and held by until it sets. | Formwork |
| Dhalai | The pour itself: the day the concrete goes on the slab. | Concreting, casting |
| Tarai (Curing) | Keeping fresh concrete wet for days after the pour so it gains its strength. | Curing |
| Niv (Foundation) | The trench and the footing everything above the ground is built off. | Foundation |
| Lenter (Slab) | The cast concrete slab over a floor, and the stage of the house named after it. | RCC slab |
| Bori (Cement Bag) | The cement bag as the counter sells it, one bori at a time. | Cement bag |
| Crimp Sheet | Roofing sheet curved to a radius, for arched roofs and shaped canopies. | Crimped or curved roofing sheet |
| Shutter Patti | The rolled profile strip a rolling shutter curtain is built from. | Shutter profile |
Thirteen of these words are links. Tap one and you get the trade around it: how it is sold, what sizes come, and what to say on the call.
Why some are links
Which words carry more than a line
Thirteen of the thirty six are words with a trade behind them rather than a translation. Sariya is sold per piece and by weight both; a bundle holds a different rod count at every diameter; a quintal is the unit the mandi still quotes in while the invoice reads in tonnes; tarai decides whether a slab reaches its strength. Each of those takes a screen, not a line, so each has one.
The rest are English and technical words, and every one of them is already explained where it does its work: MS against GI on the sections that come in both, HR, CR and GP on the sheet rack, Fe 500 and Fe 550D on the sariya, OPC and PPC on the cement. The line in the table is enough to read a quotation with; the rack it belongs to has the sizes.
Questions
Words and meanings, the common questions
Mistri ke shabd aur bill ke shabd alag kyun hote hain?
Because the site speaks the bazaar's language and the invoice speaks the mill's. A mistri learned the word from the man who taught him and a bill is written to a standard, so one job carries two names for one thing. The table above lines the two up so a quotation and a mason's list can be read side by side.
Kaun se shabd sirf isi ilake me bole jate hain?
Niv, lenter, dhalai, tarai, chadra, patti and bori are the ones a buyer from outside the Kosi belt will stumble on, because every one of them is a stage or a shape rather than a product name. Sariya travels further, most of north India says it. Say any of them at this counter and you will be understood.
Quintal aur tonne ka hisab kaise lagta hai?
A quintal is 100 kg and a metric tonne is ten quintals. The mandi still speaks in quintals and most bills read in tonnes or in kilograms, so when you compare two quotes, bring both to the same unit before you compare the number.
Order dete waqt local naam bolun ya English naam?
Whichever you know. Say patti or say flat, say chadra or say sheet, both land at the same rack. What the counter needs beside the word is the size, the thickness or grade, and how much.
Contact
Say it in whichever language it comes to you
Patti or flat, chadra or sheet, the counter understands both. Give the size and the quantity with it and stock comes back on the same call.
Shop hours: All 7 days, 9:30 AM to 6:00 PM