Money is one of the first real-world tasks a learner has to handle in French — buying a coffee, paying for groceries, asking how much something costs. The grammar is straightforward, but the conventions (how prices are written, how they are said out loud, what symbol goes where, what the cashier is expecting you to say) differ from English in small ways that catch beginners off guard. This page walks through reading prices, the position of the € symbol on a price tag versus how the number is spoken, the formulas you need at a checkout, and the polite phrases that mark you as someone who has done this before.
The currency: l'euro and le centime
The euro is l'euro (masculine, plural euros). One hundredth of a euro is un centime (masculine, plural centimes), occasionally also called un cent in writing — but in speech almost everyone says centime or simply drops the unit altogether (more on that below).
Un café, c'est environ deux euros à Paris.
A coffee is around two euros in Paris.
Cette pièce de cinquante centimes est toute neuve.
This fifty-cent coin is brand new.
Note the agreement: un euro, deux euros, vingt euros. The plural -s is silent in speech, but it is written. The word cent keeps its -s when it ends a round number (deux cents euros) but loses it when another number follows (deux cent cinquante euros) — see the section on hundreds below, and the dedicated page on large numbers.
How prices are written
A French price tag uses a comma for the decimal separator, not a period:
- 12,50 € — twelve euros fifty
- 1,99 € — one euro ninety-nine
- 0,80 € — eighty cents
The € symbol traditionally goes after the number, separated by a non-breaking space: 12,50 €. You will also see €12,50 (English-influenced) on some receipts and online stores, especially international ones, but the textbook French convention is symbol-after.
Le menu du jour est à 14,50 € — entrée, plat, dessert.
The lunch special is €14.50 — starter, main, dessert.
J'ai vu une chemise à 39,99 € dans la vitrine.
I saw a shirt for €39.99 in the window.
How prices are spoken
This is the part learners get wrong most often. The written form 12,50 € is not read as douze virgule cinquante euros. Native speakers read prices in one of two ways:
Pattern 1 — full form with the unit twice (formal, used in writing, signage, and careful speech):
- 12,50 € → douze euros et cinquante centimes
Pattern 2 — short form, euros + bare cents number (by far the most common in everyday speech):
- 12,50 € → douze euros cinquante
- 3,80 € → trois euros quatre-vingts
- 0,75 € → soixante-quinze centimes (when there are no euros, you have to say centimes)
Ça fait douze euros cinquante, s'il vous plaît.
That comes to twelve fifty, please.
Le pain est à un euro vingt.
The bread is one twenty.
La carte postale coûte quatre-vingts centimes.
The postcard costs eighty cents.
The bare number after euros is understood as the cents portion. Trois euros cinquante is unambiguously 3,50 € — no one will think you mean three euros and fifty euros.
Reading prices with hundreds
Once you get into bigger sums, the cardinal-number rules kick in. The word cent takes an -s when it ends a round number (deux cents euros = €200) but loses it when followed by another number (deux cent cinquante euros = €250). The word mille never takes an -s.
Le loyer ici, c'est environ huit cents euros par mois.
The rent here is about eight hundred euros a month.
Il a payé deux cent cinquante euros pour les billets.
He paid two hundred fifty euros for the tickets.
Cet ordinateur coûte mille deux cents euros — c'est cher mais il dure.
This computer costs twelve hundred euros — it's expensive but it lasts.
Une voiture neuve, ça commence à quinze mille euros.
A new car starts at fifteen thousand euros.
For the full agreement rules on cent, mille, million, and milliard, see numbers/large-numbers.
Asking how much something costs
Three formulas cover almost every situation. They sit on a register cline from neutral-formal to very casual.
| French | English | Register |
|---|---|---|
| Ça coûte combien ? | How much does it cost? | neutral, everyday |
| C'est combien ? | How much is it? | casual, very common |
| Combien ça coûte ? | How much does that cost? | neutral |
| Combien est-ce que ça coûte ? | How much does it cost? | slightly more formal |
| Quel est le prix de... ? | What is the price of... ? | formal, written |
C'est combien, les fraises ?
How much are the strawberries?
Ça coûte combien, ce sac ?
How much does this bag cost?
Excusez-moi, quel est le prix de cette lampe ?
Excuse me, what is the price of this lamp? (formal)
Notice that C'est combien ? and Ça coûte combien ? are not interchangeable in the most formal contexts, but for ordinary shopping they are. The placement of combien at the end is universal in spoken French — fronting it (Combien c'est ?) sounds slightly stilted unless you add est-ce que.
The cashier's side: ça fait...
When the total comes up, the cashier almost never says ça coûte. The standard phrase is ça fait + total:
Ça fait vingt-trois euros quatre-vingt-dix, s'il vous plaît.
That comes to twenty-three ninety, please.
Alors, ça nous fait trente-six euros au total.
So, that's thirty-six euros total.
You can also hear ça vous fait, ça sera, or simply the price stated bare: trente-six euros. Ça fait is the workhorse.
Paying — what to say at the till
A typical transaction in a French shop, café, or boulangerie has a small ritual. Learning it is faster than learning the verbs for every payment method.
Bonjour, un croissant et un pain au chocolat, s'il vous plaît.
Hello, one croissant and one pain au chocolat, please.
Ce sera tout ?
Will that be all? (asked by the cashier)
Oui, ce sera tout, merci.
Yes, that's all, thanks.
Vous payez comment ? — Par carte, s'il vous plaît.
How are you paying? — By card, please.
En espèces.
In cash. (alternative answer)
Vous avez la monnaie ?
Do you have change? (asked when you hand over a large bill)
Tipping and rounding
In France, service is included in restaurant bills (look for service compris on the receipt). Tipping is not obligatory, but leaving the loose change or rounding up is appreciated.
Gardez la monnaie.
Keep the change.
Voilà, c'est pour vous.
Here, this is for you. (handing over a tip)
Le service est compris, mais on laisse souvent un ou deux euros.
Service is included, but people often leave a euro or two.
Bills, coins, and idioms
Some everyday vocabulary that comes up around money:
| French | English |
|---|---|
| un billet (de 20 €) | a (20-euro) bill |
| une pièce (de 1 €) | a (1-euro) coin |
| la monnaie | change (coins, small bills) |
| l'argent (m.) | money (general) |
| les espèces (f. pl.) | cash |
| la carte (bancaire / bleue) | debit/credit card |
| un chèque | a check |
| une facture | a bill, an invoice |
| l'addition (f.) | the bill (at a restaurant) |
| le reçu / le ticket | the receipt |
Vous avez un billet plus petit ? Je n'ai pas de monnaie.
Do you have a smaller bill? I don't have change.
L'addition, s'il vous plaît !
The bill, please! (at a restaurant)
How French differs from English here
Three differences are worth fixing in your head from day one:
- Decimal comma. 12,50 € is twelve fifty, not twelve thousand five hundred.
- Symbol position. The symbol comes after the number in standard French typography: 12,50 €, not €12,50.
- Spoken short form. The default way to say a price aloud is [number] euros [number], where the second number is the cents — no centimes, no and. Three fifty is trois euros cinquante, not trois euros et cinquante centimes (which is correct but heavy).
English speakers also tend to translate the bill as la facture in a restaurant, but at a restaurant the word is l'addition. La facture is what you get from the electric company.
Common Mistakes
❌ Ça coûte douze virgule cinquante euros.
Incorrect — French prices are never read with 'virgule' in a real-world context. The decimal comma is silent in speech: just say douze euros cinquante.
✅ Ça coûte douze euros cinquante.
That costs twelve fifty.
❌ Avez-vous de la monnaie pour acheter ce livre ?
Incorrect — la monnaie means change, not money in general. You want de l'argent here.
✅ Avez-vous de l'argent pour acheter ce livre ?
Do you have money to buy this book?
❌ L'addition est de 1,500 euros.
Incorrect — to a French reader, 1,500 reads as one and a half. For one thousand five hundred, use a space or a period: 1 500 € or 1.500 €.
✅ L'addition est de 1 500 euros.
The bill comes to 1,500 euros.
❌ La facture, s'il vous plaît !
Incorrect at a restaurant — la facture is for utility bills and invoices. Restaurants give you l'addition.
✅ L'addition, s'il vous plaît !
The bill, please!
❌ Trois euros et cinquante centimes.
Grammatically correct but unnatural in everyday speech. Native speakers shorten to trois euros cinquante.
✅ Trois euros cinquante.
Three fifty.
Key takeaways
Reading a French price out loud is mostly a matter of two habits: dropping the virgule entirely and not repeating the unit. 12,50 € is douze euros cinquante, not anything more elaborate. The decimal comma and the symbol-after convention are written-form choices that go silent the moment the price is spoken. Add C'est combien ? for asking, Ça fait... for the cashier's response, and the small polite triad of s'il vous plaît / merci / gardez la monnaie, and you have everything you need to handle a transaction without sounding like a textbook.
Now practice French
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Start learning French→Related Topics
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