Prices and choices in French

Level A1

Prices and choices in French

You are choosing familiar objects in a shop. Ask the price, build the number with the chart, then say which object you will take. The same short exchange works for a book, a chair or a table.

Start from familiar words

Le livre is the book, la chaise the chair and la table the table: remember the French noun’s gender with its article. Je prends du pain means “I’ll have some bread”; here we reuse je prends (“I’ll take”) to choose an object. Soixante is 60, dix 10, vingt 20 and onze 11.

Three objects and three number anchors

Listen to livre (book, masculine), chaise (chair, feminine) and table (table, feminine), then 70, 80 and 90. You will combine the number anchors in the price chart below.

Two choices in a shop

A first points to a book; B gives its price, 71 euros, and A chooses it. A then points to a chair, hears 81 euros and chooses that too. Listen for coûte (“costs”) and prends (“take”).

Ask and answer a price

Combien ça coûte ? means “How much does this cost?”: combien asks the amount, ça points to the thing, and coûte means “costs”. The recorded example uses the equally natural order Ça coûte combien ?; it is an alternative, not a reading of the printed pattern. No English do or does is needed. Answer Ça coûte + number + euros; the slot prix means “price” and euro is the currency €.

Combien ça coûte ? → Ça coûte prix euros.

Build prices from 70 to 99

These are the forms commonly used in France: 70–79 combine 60 with 10–19; 71 uses et (“and”), soixante et onze, while 72 is soixante-douze. 80 is quatre-vingts (four twenties); 81–89 add 1–9 without et, as in quatre-vingt-un. 90–99 add 10–19 to 80, so 91 is quatre-vingt-onze, again without et. In this spelling, quatre-vingts has an s at 80 but loses it before another number: quatre-vingt-un, quatre-vingt-dix-neuf. Return to the spoken prices above for 71, 81 and 99; the chart itself has no audio. Use the chart as support, then try another price in the same range.

NumberFrenchComposition
70soixante-dix60 + 10
71soixante et onze60 + 11
72soixante-douze60 + 12
79soixante-dix-neuf60 + 19
80quatre-vingts4 × 20
81quatre-vingt-un80 + 1
89quatre-vingt-neuf80 + 9
90quatre-vingt-dix80 + 10
91quatre-vingt-onze80 + 11
99quatre-vingt-dix-neuf80 + 19

Choose: ce or cette + noun

Je prends ce livre means “I’ll take this book”; ce goes with masculine livre, and cette with feminine chaise or table. In these examples the choice follows the French noun’s gender, not the buyer’s gender: table is feminine in French. Ce/cette replaces le/la here; do not add both. The slot objet means “object”.

Je prends ce / cette objet.

Recognize cet and ces

For recognition only: cet is the masculine singular form before a vowel or a silent h, as in cet ordinateur (“this computer”). Ces is plural for both genders: ces livres means “these books”. The examples mean “I’ll take this computer” and “I’ll take these books”; you do not need to produce these forms yet.

Your turn: a table for €99

A table has the label 99 €. Before reading the examples, ask its price, answer “It costs ninety-nine euros”, then choose it with “I’ll take this table”. Use the chart and the feminine form cette; all the words have appeared above. Check the three examples in that order and listen to them.

Keep the exchange short

Point and ask Combien ça coûte ? or Ça coûte combien ?; answer Ça coûte + number + euros, then choose with Je prends ce livre or Je prends cette table. Build 71 as 60 + 11, 81 as 80 + 1 and 99 as 80 + 19. A supported price and one clear choice are enough for now.

Practise this lesson

Next lessons