C'est combien ? Prices and the bill

C'est combien ? Asking the price

There are three common questions, and they do slightly different jobs.

Coûter means to cost. You can also hang the item on the end of the first question:

• C'est combien, le pain ? - How much is the bread?
• Combien ça coûte ? - How much does it cost?

The answer usually comes back with ça fait, and at the end of a meal you ask for the bill instead:

• Ça fait cinq euros. - That's five euros.
• L'addition, s'il vous plaît. - The bill, please.

Prices in euros

Euro is a masculine noun and takes an s in the plural: un euro, deux euros. The s is silent, but the number links into the vowel, and that link makes a price sound French.

The highlighted letter is the one you carry over into euros. Neuf euros is the odd one: most people keep the f (/nœ.fø.ʁo/), and some say it with a v, as in neuf ans (nine years). Nobody will misunderstand either.

Euros and centimes

French writes the euro sign after the number and uses a comma, not a point, for the cents: 3,50 €, not €3.50. Say the euros, then the cents number, and leave out the word for cents:

• 3,50 € - trois euros cinquante
• 1,20 € - un euro vingt
• 0,50 € - cinquante centimes

A hundredth of a euro is un centime. In everyday speech you only say the word when there are no whole euros in the price.

A café exchange, start to finish

Here is the whole thing at a café counter. Read it aloud twice and you have a script that works.

Et avec ça ? is literally "and with that?", meaning anything else? In a bakery you will often hear the slightly more formal Et avec ceci ?, which asks the same thing. The answer that ends it is C'est tout, merci.