There’s a useful little phrase that you can use to ask how much something is in French: C'est combien...?

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C'est combien...?

The phrase “C’est combien?” is a useful way to ask how much something is. You can use it by itself to simply mean, “How much is it?”, but you can also put things after it. In this case, you can think of it as meaning, “How much is…?”

C’est combien? – How much is it?
C’est combien ça? – How much is that?
C’est combien le vin? – How much is the wine?
C’est combien une bouteille de vin? – How much is a bottle of wine?

Combien coûte...?

You can use “C’est combien…?” plus any noun to ask how much it costs, but there is also an alternative phrase, “Combien coûte…?”. Literally, the word “coûte” means “costs”

Combien coûte le vin? – How much does the wine cost?
Combien coûte une bouteille d’eau? – How much does a bottle of water cost?
Combien coûte un café? – How much does a coffee cost?
Combien ça coûte? – How much does that cost?

You can use “C’est combien…?” and “Combien coûte…?” pretty interchangeably, so just choose whichever one you prefer.

Quel est le prix?

So, we’ve seen that we can use “C’est combien…?” and “Combien coûte…?” to ask how much something is, but I just wanted to show you one more way.

Quel est le prix de…? – What is the price of…?

You can put the phrase, “Quel est le prix de…?” in front of any noun to ask what the price is. Just remember that the word “de” shortens to “d’” in front of a word that starts with a vowel or the letter H.

Quel est le prix? – What’s the price?
Quel est le prix d’une bouteille d’eau? – What’s the price of a bottle of water?
Quel est le prix d’un café? – What’s the price of a coffee?

You can use the three phrases we’ve just learnt with a noun.

C’est combien noun? – How much is noun?
Combien coûte noun? – How much does noun cost?
Quel est le prix de noun? – What is the price of noun?

However, if you want to say something like, “How much is it for three people?”, you can use the word “pour”.

C’est combien pour trois personnes? – How much is it for three people?
Combien ça coûte pour trois personnes? – How much does it cost for three people?
Quel est le prix pour trois personnes? – What is the price for three people?

...pour

You can put a verb on the end of “C’est combien pour…?” to ask how much it is to do something. Literally, it means, “How much is it for…?”

C’est combien pour aller à l’aéroport? – How much is it to go to the airport?
C’est combien pour louer cette voiture? – How much is it to hire that car?
C’est combien pour envoyer ce colis? – How much is it to send this parcel?

C'est combien pour + verb?

We now know various ways to ask how much something costs, but what about giving the price? There are a few ways.

ça coûte… – it costs…
ça fait… – that makes…
c’est… – it is…

You can put any price after these phrases.

ça coûte trente euros – it costs thirty euros
ça fait trente euros – that makes thirty euros
c’est trente euros – it’s thirty euros

You can replace the word “ça” in “ça coûte” with any noun.

le vin coûte cinq euros – the wine costs five euros
la robe coûte quinze euros – the dress costs fifteen euros
le livre coûte seulement trois euros – the book only costs three euros

Giving the price

Let's practise

Let’s practise using the different ways to ask how much things cost. Put down as many options as you can think of.

  1. How much is the wine?
  2. How much is this car?
  3. How much is a bottle of water?
  4. How much is the food?
  5. How much is it for four people?
  6. How much is it to go to Paris?
  7. How much is it to hire a car for two weeks?
  8. How much is a ticket?
  9. How much is a ticket for the bus?
  10. How much is it for two weeks?
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