Learn French: Est-ce que cet hôtel est cher ?

The word hôtel is masculine, so you might expect to use ce (meaning "this" or "that"). However, because hôtel starts with a silent 'h', it acts like a vowel sound. In French, we change ce to cet before masculine words starting with a vowel or silent 'h' to avoid two vowel sounds clashing.

Do I pronounce the 't' in cet hôtel?

Yes, you do! Because hôtel starts with a silent 'h', you link the 't' from cet directly to the 'o' sound. It sounds like "seh-toh-tel". This smooth connection (called a liaison) is the exact reason we use cet here instead of ce.

Why does this sentence use Est-ce at the beginning, but then cet and est again later?

It looks repetitive, but they are doing different jobs! Est-ce que is a fixed question block you put at the start of a sentence to ask a yes/no question (it literally means "is it that"). The rest of the sentence, cet hôtel est cher, is the actual statement you are asking about: "this hotel is expensive".

Does the word for expensive (cher) change if I'm talking about something else?