Learn French: Les peignes en bois et en plastique coûtent plus cher que je ne pensais. - The wooden and plastic combs cost more than I thought.

Word

Les peignes en bois et en plastique coûtent plus cher que je ne pensais.

Meaning

The wooden and plastic combs cost more than I thought.

Part of speech

sentence

Pronunciation

Course

French

Lesson

Repeating prepositions (à, de, en)

Breakdown of Les peignes en bois et en plastique coûtent plus cher que je ne pensais.

Questions & Answers about Les peignes en bois et en plastique coûtent plus cher que je ne pensais.

Why do we have to say en bois et en plastique instead of just en bois et plastique?

In French, the prepositions à, de, and en must be repeated before every single noun in a list. Because you are saying the combs are made of wood and plastic, you are required to repeat en before both bois and plastique.

Since Les peignes is plural, why isn't it plus chers?

Here, cher is acting as an adverb modifying the verb coûtent (cost), essentially meaning 'expensively'. When adjectives are used as adverbs, they become invariable, meaning they never change to match gender or number.

Why is there a ne in que je ne pensais? Does it make the sentence negative?

No, the sentence is not negative! This is called the ne explétif. It is a formal, untranslatable ne used in certain structures, including after comparatives of inequality like plus... que or moins... que. It emphasizes the contrast between the actual cost and what you originally expected, but you can safely drop it in everyday spoken French.

Do I pronounce the 's' at the end of plus in this sentence?

No, the 's' is silent here. When plus is used in a comparative before a word starting with a consonant (like cher), the 's' is not pronounced.